In 2 more days, there will be the first presidential debate, and 45 more days before election determining the next president of U.S.A.. As a Chinese American I would like to share my view on the coming election as it will affect everyone profoundly one way or another. For many Chinese it looks to be a play of the theatre of absurd, cynical entertainment value to be sure, but irrelevant to their lives. With the large immigration of Chinese to U.S., and the large Chinese student population here, the political view has been gradually changing. It use to be Chinese Americans tended toward Republican Party, self centered toward financial security, conservative family value oriented, and absorbing societal biases against blacks as threat against law and order. with the first waves of immigrants in 60’s being anti-communists from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Yet the second and third generations now are more liberal and tend toward Democratic Party as shown on the electoral success of Obama. It can’t be understated the emergence of China as a world power on the sense of self confidence of Chinese Americans.
The appeal of Trump to the “Basket of Deplorable” is self evident, but he also appeals to the victims of globalization, disaffected, and those that fear any changes of status quo in a fast changing world. Even I, who is a beneficiary of immigration, when laughing at his comment of Wall on Mexico border, sometimes feel the need for immigration reform or need to close the border at some point. I am a New Yorker, I do know a con when I see it, yet even when I know the game of 3 cards Monte is rigged, I still sometimes has the urge to play it, and Donald trump is the quintessential con man, and many people will fall for it. He reminds me of the character in Stephen King’s novel, “The Dead Zone”, as played by Martin Sheen in the movie, he may trigger a nuclear holocaust. I know some will think I am paranoid, overhype, and biased, but anyone with serious thinking knows that Trump is a fraud, and Germany did elect Hitler to power.
As for Hillary Clinton, I know all about Whitewater, email, and all the pseudo scandals swirl around her. I do think many are due to her gender, many women think she should have divorced Bill. Many think she leveraged her husband’s presidency to get rich and are envious. I wonder all those Hillary haters are aware of her biography, her history, not the republican narrative. In the final analysis this election will shed light of we Americans as a people, whether we are decent, self aware, responsible people or a final nail on democracy as a fiction.
alanking says
It’s amazing there are still smart people believing in the goodness of Killary. Just go to show the far and pervasive deep reaches of Western MSM.
By now it should be clear to everyone (nah I guess not) that no matter who the President is, the Deep State shall prevail. Anyone familiar with non MSM already know much about Killary, who supported the invasion of Iraq, with the consequence of the creation of ISIS, the bombing of Libya, laughing her evil laughs with “we came, we saw, he died”, as well as the continual support of terrorists in Syria just to over throw Assad – if you still have doubts about this, I cannot help you. It will be up to you to educate yourself, such as getting rid of your dependence on Western MSM as your main news source of information, including and especially NPR.
Of course there are those who think Trump will do better, after all, he did say he “admire Putin”, “like to get along with him”, “why are we wasting money on NATO, defence of Japan” etc etc and seemed to provide “hope” that he will be “more insolationist” instead of “expansionist” so that he can concentrate on “making America Great again”. IMO, that too is mistaken. Fact is the position of POTUS is only ONE person, he will have to appoint dozens or even 100s of people for various positions that actually carry out duties and policies, and how will he pick/select such people? no doubt from the current pool of “experts”. Practically all of such experts belong to the pool (or almost all anyway) of “exceptionalists”, hell bent on continuing America’s Hegemony, bossing over every other country on earth. It’s our way or the highway.
So NO, Trump would have made little difference. The Deep State will prevail. The only hope for the world would be for the stronger ones (e.g. Russia and China) to prepare themselves for WWIII in order not to submit to the Empire of Lies, Chaos, Misery and Refugees Manufacturing. That is the only solution to the world’s future. Hoping for “change you can believe in” has proven to be a mirage in any US election.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…..
pug_ster says
At this point the hucksters from the Democratic and Republican party are dinosaurs. We should be focusing on 3rd party candidates who can bring real change and not these clowns. It doesn’t matter if these 3rd party candidates won’t win, but it will bring momentum towards the next election.
N.M.Cheung says
I have no illusions about Hillary. She will be more pragmatic in managing the slow decline of American empire, and she will try to limit the income inequality as there is also a pushback against it in China. Without a question she will be better for the African Americans and immigrants and poor people in general. Of course there is some from the left who feel that pushing the contradictions for a blowup earlier might be better for the rest of the world. The problem is as a Chinese proverb says, “Poisonous insect with 8 feet, though dying will still bite.”. And the dying centipede here is with most terrifying nuclear weapons in the world. Do we need a chaos president of U.S. destroying the world in the process? U.S. maybe a paper tiger but with fangs capable of destroying earth.
N.M.Cheung says
Correction, I mean so say 100 feet, not 8 feet, as both sound identical in Chinese.
pug_ster says
The ‘Debate’ is a joke. More like a taunting match between the 2 clowns.
pug_ster says
Western propaganda’s depiction of the 3rd party candidates is just deplorable. Google Gary Johnson and things they care about is Aleppo and forgetting your favorite foreign leader. As for Jill Stein, they care about ‘destruction of property’ when she spray painted on a bulldozer in a protest rally. Western propaganda don’t care about their policies and only care about gaffes or incidents that they have.
Black Pheonix says
The problem of Clinton v. Trump is not just Clinton v. Trump, it’s 2 dominant political parties vs. themselves.
It’s the flaw of party politics in a Democracy.
1 major selling point of Democracy is “individualism”, Individual human rights, the value of individuality over the collective.
The major problem of party politics, is the emphasis of Group identity. Freedom of Association turns into Guilty by Association.
When Clinton and Trump attack each other, they are not actually attacking each other, they are mainly attacking each other’s group stereotypes. I.E. Democrats and liberals being pro-Abortion, anti-gun, pro-taxes and spending, Republicans being racist, violent, ignorant, White male chauvinists.
This is Party politics at its worst, because it actually doesn’t talk about specifics. Candidates are not judged by their capabilities, but by snapshots of stereotypes from the group they associate with.
I agree with Trump, or rather, Trump agrees with many Americans, that the system is broken, but Trump (a Republican) is not one to fix it.
Supplanting 1 party with another doesn’t fix the party politics, it carries it to another level, another dynasty.
If 1 is to cure Democracy, Democracy must remove all trace of parties. Parties pervert Democracy by turning Parties into new religions.
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More fundamentally, party politics show how Western Democracies have deluded their people into a religion of “individuality” that is really just another form of collective thinking.
If Westerners truly value “individualism”, then why are they so hung up on parties and party politics?
Or are they really just same old sheep being spray painted different party colors every election cycle or so??