The observant readers of this blog will have noticed that CASTNET COMMENTARY has been quieted for awhile with the last new column published on March 26. The reason for this is that the columnist has made a five-week pilgrimage of sorts back to his homeland the Netherlands. While the trip was made for family reasons it was useful to step away from the scene of the crime and take some distance from it, both in physical distance and time. Now that we are back home, the inevitable question was not long in coming: “What do the people in Europe think of what’s happening in the USA?”
In Europe, no more than here at home, there is no uniform
answer to this question. The people we spoke with are no different from the
people here at home in that they represent a wide scale of opinion and with almost
no exception they are aware that political malaise is not a uniquely American
phenomenon, nor is Europe spared of the anti-democratic tendencies surfacing in
the USA. But, for all the diversity of opinion, there are still two major streams
of thought that we encountered just about everywhere:
1. We
may not like Donald Trump and disagree with his personal and political conduct
in general, but he did us a tremendous favor by opening our eyes to the
responsibility we have here in Europe to organize and fund our own defense and
not merely rely on American participation in and leadership of NATO to protect
our freedom and democracy.
2. We are
flabbergasted beyond belief that America cannot do better than present the
People with a choice between two geriatric candidates for the Presidency.
With the war in Ukraine on everybody’s mind and the war
scenes in Ukraine and Gaza endlessly displayed on TV, there seems to be little
room for doubt that Europe will keep NATO together, regardless of American
participation. The addition of Sweden and Finland to the NATO membership has
strengthened the European profile of the alliance and created an unbroken
frontline of defense against Putinism from the Arctic Sea to the Black Sea.
After two bruising world wars, which were largely fought on European soil, the West-European
nations decided that the age of everyone for himself and against the other,
which had been the rule for centuries of inter-European strive, had come and
gone and they chose for economic cooperation and mutual defense, in which they
were supported by America, the force that had won both wars for them. When,
during his presidency, Trump started to question the European preparedness to keep
NATO viable and funded and openly suggested that NATO might have outlived its
purpose, the political leaders in Europe had to decide if they, by themselves,
would keep the alliance, with or without the USA, intact and the answer was a
resounding yes. That determination was only reinforced when in 2022 Putin moved
against Ukraine.
Europe will accept the outcome of the November elections
in the USA, whatever it will be. It has no choice; it has no say in the matter
and there is no reason to believe that it will in any way interfere in the
election process. There is no doubt that Europe can militarily stand on its own
two feet if it keeps NATO intact. So, in a way, Europe can be relaxed about the
outcome of the November election. Most people in each of the NATO countries,
even Hungary and Slovakia, will prefer to see America rid itself of Trump and
his acolytes, but if that does not happen in November, they will take the long-term
view that ultimately reason and normalcy will return to the Republican side of
America as the generation of Biden and Trump passes on.
America itself cannot be so relaxed. The November
election is not merely a choice between two people, or between the Republican
or Democratic Party; it has become a referendum on the way we want to be
governed, in an authoritarian way by a privileged, mostly white Christian,
minority or truly democratically by the will of the People, all the People.
Time did not stay still while we were away in Europe and the “hush money” trial
displayed for us in gory detail what a sordid behavior triggered this trial and
what unsavory entourage surrounds the Republican candidate for the Presidency.
The lawyers for Donald J. Trump had little difficulty outlining what a bad character
Michael Cohen has been through the years, but in the process, exposed the fact
that for the longest time he was the “consigliere”, the “fixer” and the major
confidant for DJT. He was DJT’s best friend until he turned against him. One
cannot help but ask: “Is this philandering buffoon really the man we want to
lead us for the next four years?”
The sycophancy of almost all Republican politicians is
sickening. One after another they are kissing the ring of the least deserving
presidential candidate in American history, with even Nikki Haley finally
genuflecting in submission. The question is: “Will the American voting public,
will the Republican voters, drink the Kool-Aid when it is offered to them in
November?” That’s all that matters, because, at this crucial juncture we cannot
at all be sure that ultimately the judicial branch will protect the
constitutional democracy. The fact that three and a half years after being
forced out of the White House, only one out of four criminal trials against Trump
has progressed and that it is unlikely that any of the other three will come to
trial before the November election, casts a shade of suspicion on the impartiality
and efficiency of the judicial process. And the Supreme Court, with three Trump
appointed justices and two justices whose spouses have openly supported Trump
through all the upheaval of the January 6 storming of the Capitol, cannot be
relied upon to affirm that nobody, not even a former President of the USA, is
above the law and that our Constitution stands for a fully democratic form of
government.
From a distance America doesn’t look too bad, but if we
zoom in, we see a lot of ugly infection festering.
