The moment of Trump?

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I am not following the US election news.

It seems Facebook knows this. I have seen very few news items about the trends, and even posts by people I am connected to have vanished from my timeline.

I am sure there are plenty of people following it and talking about it. But the contrast that is most consequential to me is that with my former self. I would have obsessively followed it, and can still remember where I was in every election night since 1988. Every time, I thought it mattered. But this time, it is different.

Of course, it matters a lot to the world. There are two major wars underway right now. The next US President would have significant impact on what happens next. These wars can spill out to become global conflicts, or in the least, the world may settle more rigidly into two different camps - and the choice the American voters make today is significant from that standpoint. My liberal friends may be quite disappointed if Trump wins. 

My indifference, however, comes from the realisation that there is no real choice being made today. The two sides are one and the same. One may favour Putin and the other Ukraine, but they are both going to promote big money, big tech, Netanyahu and the US as the hegemon. Both would preach democracy but practice something quite different outside the US borders. Of course, Trump has no morality but all parties, when in power, have long demonstrated their penchant for realpolitik. Trump may look ominous to the global elite, but I am not one of them.

Of course, my stance may scandalise my liberal friends, and no doubt they would claim that there is no space of indifference anymore. Not taking a side is taking a side by default - siding with Trump! But I disagree: The Biden administration, of which Harris was a part, let both Ukraine and Gaza happen. If Trump's vanity brings about a broader war, they carry as much blame for causing it. They had four years to fix US democracy and they did nothing other than pandering dominant interests. So I don't see a binary, and see a continuum instead.

Those who frame this as one between democracy and dictatorship - and therefore blame those who are indifferent - are hiding something. There is another side, particularly when looked at from outside the US. I am not a US citizen, and I don't have to consider the US President as my leader (and buy into the nonsense of 'the leader of the free-world'). I belong to the rest of the world, and while the US Presidents can indeed shower us with missiles, I don't have to hail them while alive.

Last time, it was Covid which could have gone out of hand. This time, it is the prospect of a global war. In the middle of all this, we are all tuned in for the game of musical chair in the White House. I don't mind the entertainment, but let's not kid ourselves with the Obama-esque hope anymore. 


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