The Whole World Is Watching
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Glendale, California
“The Whole World Is Watching”
Anti-Vietnam War demonstrators chanted this phrase, as relevant now as in 1968, while being beaten and arrested by police outside the Chicago Democratic National Convention.
It works well as a rallying cry for our upcoming election.
Set aside the endemic corruption part of any governmental system.
Set aside the frighteningly powerful influence of corporate lobbyists.
What’s left?
Even with these and other many flaws, the US remains the world’s best experiment in democracy existing today.
Our democracy proved that, given the many flaws in the Hilary Clinton campaign, and the truly remarkable salesmanship and marketing skills of Donald Trump, the American public, or at least the electoral college, elected him president in 2016.
OK.
Many were ecstatic to bring in a businessman, a DC outsider, a new American man to clean up the swamp.
Many were shocked.
Nearly four years have passed, and any even minimally-educated person sees Trump’s true colors as:
A myopic, narcissistic, impulsive, non-cooperative, bullying, short-sighted, ego-maniacal, greedy, corrupt, unstable, exploitative, dangerous, simplistic, poorly-educated, isolationistic, autocratic, divisive, mean-spirited, racist, orange-skinned, obese, thrice-married, adulterous, nepotistic, inept, unqualified, lying, cheating, stealing, naive, tax-evading, self-promoting, opaque, phony, and unfeeling 74-year-old man.*
Unfortunately, the democratic party failed to proffer an Obama-like person of charisma and class.
However, it managed to select Joe Biden, a man of empathy and character, a hard-working public servant with nearly 50-years of experience. He is more than qualified to tackle the myriad—and some truly existentially-threatening—challenges facing our country.
The whole world is watching.
They are waiting to see if the American experiment can still work.
Only ten days to go until the world will see if our democratic system can vote out a near-evil salesman who reality-TVed his way into the presidency and, in his malignant place, vote in a truly qualified leader.
*I attribute this sentence to my finally reaching the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, entitled Penelope.
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