I Apologize to the World (Particularly Europe) for the Coming American Election

It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way, but America wasn’t supposed to lose its head and run off with either Prince Charming, or the frog. We have somehow contrived to offer a choice between a nice guy, well past his best days, and a convicted felon who, in his past presidency, told 30+ thousand certified and verified lies. The latter, already found liable to the tune of $80 million, is on tape as bragging that, when you’re a celebrity, you can grab any woman by the pussy.

This is the best we can offer, in a nation of 340 million

The latter, who I am too embarrassed to name, is more likely to be elected after last night’s disastrous ‘debate.’ Highlights included Biden accusing Trump of having the “morals of an alley cat,” while Trump seized on Biden’s verbal missteps, such as saying his administration “finally beat Medicare.”

Cringeworthy stuff.

In the background, silent and menacing as the ghost of death, is a Congress too locked up to legislate, a Supreme Court fighting a losing battle for its moral integrity and a citizenry more ideologically divided than any time since the American Civil War.

I won’t apologize for them, they came to this deadly junction by a nation more devoted to sports outcomes than political purity, and more interested in grocery prices than the fate of NATO.

It’s Europe, the Middle East, China, Indonesia and the struggling countries of Africa and South America that are holding their breath

We are such an island people, we Americans, sheltered by our massive oceans from the turmoil beyond our shores. Families in Gaza and Ukraine are torn to shreds, women and children killed, while schools and hospitals are demolished. Famine, and the disease that attends it, explodes in areas of the world we can’t find on a map, much less describe.

Pax America, the current enforcer of peace across the world, is seriously disabled by its distance, both physical and intellectual. Hamstrung by the size of our military, its outsized bureaucracy and lack of a strategic mission, we wobble when clarity is required of us. If you walk the streets of Palestine or Ukraine, the American election looms large. As European countries lean seriously in the direction of right-wing government pluralities, the survival of NATO hangs in the balance, dependent upon American support.

Having just celebrated the 75yh Anniversary of Allied Victory in Europe, a distracted and divided America hovers in the background. We should do better, we need to do better and are expected to hold steady.

Steady is not in the cards on the American continent.

I apologize to all the dead and wounded, sick and displaced, homeless and without hope

It was our turn at bat and we struck out as a nation. It matters not who wins, the free world is the loser.