America, America

America holds a special place in my heart, as well as the hearts of most other people I know. I'm not sure if most Americans are sufficiently aware of the special place their country has in this globalized world. What I do know is that all of us, worldwide, are anxiously observing what's happening in that country right now...

Today I only have a very short post for you, dear readers, just to remind any Americans in my small audience of the importance of the upcoming elections. To convey just how much your vote or non-vote matters in just two days time, I include two videos both of which illustrate how worried the rest of the world is about the direction America's heading in. One reporter describes it well when he compares the run-up to the 3 November elections to a car-crash situation; you don't really want to watch, but you have to because it's so outlandish and crazy and insane... Like one of the other international reporters remarks, I'm not sure if Americans truly comprehend how special their geographical and geopolitical position makes them. Yet another remarks that "we will never truly understand them, and they will never understand us"; I agree with that sentiment if only with regards to America's special place on the global political spectrum: what's widely regarded as "left-wing" in America is "right-wing" or "center-right" in most of the rest of the world, certainly here in western Europe. I go mad when American conservatives call Biden a socialist or when Trump supporters fear he'll usher in a socialist-style government; in my country Biden would have a seat in our right-wing conservative party...

America's vote is important to all of us in the developed world, because what happens in America usually happens here as well, with a delay of 5 to 10 years. We've even copied typical American holiday festivities like Valentine's Day, Halloween and Black Friday; none of these were a thing when I was growing up. And neither was McDonald's or New York Pizza who are now conquering Europe and much of the rest of the world; cultural monotony is very real under capitalism and under the rule of the world's most developed capitalist economy. Funny thing is that this is the kind of dreary monotony westerners usually associate with communism and socialism... And they're wrong of course...

The first video is by my favorite German YouTube channel, Three Arrows, and is aptly titled "COUP WATCH 2020"; it's freightening and surreal to witness how democracy itself is under real threat in one of the oldest democracies in the world. Oh, and please spare me the comments about America not being a democracy but a Republic... The second video shows several international correspondents who give their opinion on America and Americans, as compared to their own country, and what they think makes America so special; please enjoy both these videos, and I hope that all my American brothers and sisters will try to vote in two days time...

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, keep safe, keep healthy!