Americans chose their new President on Tuesday. When this article went to print, the voting process was not yet over. Regardless of whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton has been elected, the American leadership is in crisis and has been for a long time and especially in a very crucial time when our world faces so many challenges from terrorism, violence, poverty, injustice, wars in the Middle East, a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the rise of China and Russia. Neither Presidential candidate is very different from each other in terms of qualification to take the leadership. Most Americans are averse both to Hillary Clinton and to Donald Trump as candidates to lead America. This is why the U.S. witnessed one of the most toxic campaigns in its history, unfortunately during this crucial time.The outcome of this election will have the most significant consequences of any election cycle in recent American history. With 70 percent of the American electorate disenchanted with the direction the country is moving, Americans are frustrated by their economic marginalization, by liberal trade deals and economic polices, by traditional political elites, by the role of American leadership around the world, and by liberal politics. For the American voters fear of immigration, terrorism, Obama‘s failed foreign policy, especially with the rise of Russian and Iranian influence in the Middle East, China’s growing power in Southeast Asia, economic disempowerment, and political disentrancement—all have accelerated under President Obama.
Americans cannot afford to have another four years of Obama’s policies. America has witnessed the erosion of its status in the larger society and clearly in the international arena. Trump compares to Hillary as the lesser of the two worst to lead America. The U.S. elections have been closely followed, not simply because of what the candidates will do after the elections, but what kind of country the U.S is going to be in the aftermath of these elections. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee called Donald Trump “a car wreck” but said Hillary Clinton would be worse because she is “a drunk driver.“ Trump may be a car wreck, but at least his car is pointed in the right direction. Hillary is a drunk driver going the wrong way on the freeway. Hillary’s win would mean the continuation of Obama’s failed policy. Hillary is the one of the most corrupt political actors having a trail of scandals behind her.
However, Hillary is a symptom, not the cause of a greater moral, spiritual, and constitutional corruption that infects American politics. Whether she wins or loses, the problem is that such a corrupt individual was accepted by millions of Americans. Americans need to work for moral and spiritual revival, a restoration of clarity, and a reformation of its system of government. Americans should go back to their roots, to reinstate the values of the founders, and to recover the rights and liberties that have fallen victim to various forms of corruption. America is a very special nation, but the low caliber of leadership on both sides portends rough times ahead.
Since both parties nominated the only candidate that might have beaten the other rather than ones with more moral integrity, serious thinkers must look at the issue behind the surface issue of two severely flawed candidates. Populism seems to be the issue behind the issue. Both parties tapped into the upsurge of the political ideology of anti-elitism, anti-mainstream politics, and anti-established institutions. Two times in American history, the 1880s and 1890s and the 1920s and 1930s, pluralism gained ground in Presidential elections. Now in countries around the world from Hungary to Sweden and Greece to France and the Philippines, both left and right populism has given the people a voice.
As the final Electoral College votes in the American elections settle, the American public will need to remember Abraham Lincoln’s call for grace after the Civil War had pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. His second Inaugural address ended with the plea,“ With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” His earlier famous speech in which he repeated the admonition that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” played out in a bloody war, but his call for love for all offered the solution then and now to America’s current quagmire from its Presidential election.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
