American political system

Sadje's View, You Asked

Fandango provocatively asks this week;

If you’re American, do you concur with my assessment that our country is rapidly going to hell in a handbasket? Or do you believe that everything is hunky-dory and America’s light is shining as brightly as ever?

If you’re not an American, based upon what you’ve read, seen, and heard, do you feel that America has, indeed, faltered? Or do you think that America will weather this storm?

Since I am NOT an American, I don’t know much about the politics in this country. When we moved to America in 2015, Obama was the president. The elections were near and we saw how the GOP selected Trump for their candidate. We never thought that he would be elected the next president. But it was to be so!

I give this context because of the difference I saw and felt between America under the two presidents. In Obama’s time, people were more tolerant, there weren’t any racial slurs cast on us as Muslims and brown people and the atmosphere was way more peaceful. When Trump took power, things went downhill. Open racism was common. People would say nasty things in passing and the entitlement of some white people grew by leaps and bounds.

What happened during the last couple of years of Trump’s rule and after the elections was unbelievable. It reminded me of any third-world country which sees power struggle at the hands of despots. More like what has been going on in my country since we became an independent country.

What Trump did was to unleash all the racism, hatred, and intolerance which some people already had inside their minds but now it became okay to be openly racist. This smells like beginning of the end of the tolerances and acceptability that was a hallmark of American society.

The recent acquittal of a white man for the murder of three people openly was another example of why sensible people feel that justice in America is totally blind and lopsided.

Too many issues have cropped up in recent years and many people are losing hope.

How can you fix this?

#Keepitalive

#FPQ

Published by Sadje

I am writing to express my opinion, share my experiences and to maybe provide some insight. My blog is addressing women at 50 ( but men are welcome to read my posts) ,their issues and the questions that come up at this stage in life. I don’t aim to teach, but to learn together.

Published

54 thoughts on “American political system”

  1. Agree with most of this, Sadje. We seem to be going the wrong direction, though yesterday’s verdict of guilty for the 3 white men who killed a black man for mo reason is encouraging, especially because this took place in the South and the jury was mostly white. Gives me a bit of optimism!

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  2. Yes, the feelings, prejudices etc etc were already there. Laying dormant waiting for the moment. Waiting for the permission to raise their ugly heads.
    We want to deny that and perhaps think we can persuade and prevail upon those that hold that intolerance.
    Trying to persuade just makes those dig in deeper. 😦

    On this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for those who are fighting back every day. Often at risk to themselves.

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  4. I’m hoping that the people who shout the loudest don’t define the future. They are the minority, though unfortunately a very large minority! I think they are screaming now because they know their time is almost over. At least that is what I tell myself to take comfort… I’m sorry you saw some of the worst of it while here.

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  6. I strongly disagree with your idea of THE America PEOPLE. You begin by speaking of our politics but quickly switch to the attitudes of The People.
    The racism you speak of came from the MEDIA, not the people.
    Are you saying, here in America, your neighbors, friends, and people you met suddenly changed toward you because you are Muslim, my bet is they did not.
    A person does not change as you describe according to who the President is.
    You have a perfect right to say in your opinion, Obama was the better person, but realizing at the same time, living in America, freedom of choice has always been what America is all about. Trump was elected properly, and the Media changed not the people.

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      1. Yes, our opinion matters and that is exactly what the liberals want to silence. Why?
        The people in America value Freedom, freedom to speak our voice.
        If you want to complain about something ask them why? Why does only the voice of THEIR OPINION needs to be heard? Everyone’s voice should be heard, why do they censor, what are they afraid of?

        The American people are truly the greatest, it is the few that are filled with hate, for reasons only they know why, but it is those the media love to make their hateful headlines and the weak ones listen and fall for it.

        The media hate elections and covet selections when it comes to politics these days. In that sense, America will indeed fall into the pit with the rest of the world.

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  7. I think that I see both.
    This may be a bit hard to understand, but I will try.
    To see the difference between the population under both presidents is indeed drastic. The hatred, bigotry, and cruelty was nearly promoted for 4 years and it came to the surface. It’s gone to hell.
    However, on the flip side, America is a big place full of a lot of different people with different beliefs. I don’t just mean in a religious sense either. This country is a big giant beast and hard to turn. But once it does, it turns rather abruptly and it can’t take everyone with it so the ship mostly rights itself.
    What I have seen is a country who lynched children for making eye contact with people of another race. I have seen a country who put people in camps because they looked like people we were fighting a war with. I have seen a country where people were casting stones because 9 people wanted a high school education.
    I have seen a country that overwhelmingly embraced a minority president.
    A country that has had a woman and a Bernie Sanders have a great shot at becoming president.
    The ship started righting itself before November 2020. That’s why his fake acceptance speech took place in a lawn and garden center.
    Is this country perfect? Not even close. Is it even the best place to live all of the time? No. There’s an ugly underbelly here just like any where else. The difference is that we have more types of people here, so we see it spaced out better and we see it clear up slower because of it.
    When you have a loud few who hate everyone “other”, they have a lot of people to turn on here. I’m other places, only one or two of those groups exist so even though it could be worse it doesn’t seem as wide-spread.

    This does not mean that we don’t stop fighting for change, justice and the right ways. It just means that when we do, we should be fighting for everyone and not one or two groups over others. Everyone has the right to be safe and happy. Every group has been marginalized, we should fight for them all and not just the ones the opposition has the loudest voices against, that also allows their loud cries that they are the victims (usually of not being allowed to victimize) to echo as well.

    People don’t really realize the history of this country. We have made huge strides, but in the last 100 years. Before that we didn’t. There will be set-backs, but we work to right the ship.

    The truth is, the people that dig in the deepest on these hateful things do it because they will only ever have a small window to wave their hate flags so they jump up and down and wave them for all their worth. Then, one day, they pronounce it was never them, they know nothing, and fade away. I think we are slowly going back to that point.

    I also don’t say this very lightly. When Hilary was running against him, I was arguing with everyone I know. They were telling me it wasn’t possible for him to win. I was adamant that was what was coming. I saw history repeating itself. His rhetoric worked before, not too long ago, and not in America. Another bloviated little man screaming hatred at the top of his lungs and blaming everyone “other” for that country’s problems. It worked for him despite everyone saying it never would. History repeated itself.
    History repeated itself again. I’m the other example, the world stood up against it and there was a bunker and a suicide. In this case, there was a free election (those couldn’t be taken away no matter how much it would have been easier to maintain power that way), and the country said “no more”. They gave it a chance thinking it might be different than the other, but it wasn’t. Not really. Only the truly hateful tried to give him the power to stay, the rest, even those that supported him at one time or another couldn’t see it happen again. But the ugly was on full display. Before they said it was too ugly, everyone saw how bad it could get. There are still those that believe it’s their time to shine. Lights like that burn out and no one replaces them. The power to them
    Is slowly being cut.

    Just always remember this time in history. Learn from it. Just because it shines doesn’t mean it’s gold. And even diamonds need extreme heat and pressure to exist.

    The good in this country will come back. We have to hold it when it does. The whole “that can’t happen here” ALWAYS happens. History teaches us that. This is going into the history books, slowly, but it’s going. Once it does, it’s the responsibility of the rest of us to make sure it doesn’t languish there doomed to be repeated.

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  9. 🙂 I am not an American either.

    What is quite clear is that the mainstream media has numerous perspectives on American politics (It all depends on which sources you get them from).

    Almost every country on the face of the Earth has political issues; not just America.

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  10. A powerful question and post, Sadje. I completely agree. We all have to take actions to mitigate systematic oppression in all of it’s forms, and be in action in whatever contexts we find ourselves. Making sure to contribute at every level of society. Though the change will not be swift, I do hold as possible a space for this country that things can improve. What is clear is that it will take everyone being in action, and I fear that many people feel like they can’t make a difference, which is simply not true. We can all make a difference each day.

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  11. And 50% of them share Trump’s values, even now. That’s what their election said. It doesn’t really matter who is president, until that 50% drops much lower (ideally to o) then are stuffed.
    And, as foreigners, that proportion makes it undersatadable that we don’t trust America.

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        1. I think as long as a thing is not brought out in the open, people are hesitant to do it. When others start doing it openly, people get rid of the hesitation and shame as they all are doing it.

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        2. Yes, if people felt that their ugly thoughts would be frowned upon by most others, they were uncomfortable talking about them openly, much less acting out. But with Trump opening up that closed door and saying it’s okay to say and do those things, and by doing them himself as an example, he opened up the flood gates.

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  14. I follow American news – I do it because news from my own country makes me panic and I’d rather laugh at the stupidity in some other country in which I have no stake than freak out about the path my own is taking. I laugh at things that happen in USA, and it takes my mind of the fires that are burning closer home.

    I know which country you are from, and I really hope we (as in, our countries) can bury all differences and past enmities and be friends. A world without borders perhaps? I don’t see it happening, though.

    But at least we have a blog world that’s without borders, hopefully.

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    1. That’s my approach too. I stay away from local news because it off so depressing. I hope we can have open borders and friendship among our respective countries. And you’re so right that Blogging world is border free. Thanks Lakshmi

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  17. Sorry hit wrong key. Sadie what I was trying to say is the racism you’ve seen in America the last 8-9 years is a organized racism being used in hopes to divide Americans. This divide has been going on long before Trump. Just after Obumer started his second term a Black citizen in Ferguson was killed by police which turned into rioting,looting and fires. This anger would be well kept fed all through Obumer’s second term with politicians feeding the pot talking about slavery past and present cop killings calling out Black America to go out and take there anger out on downtown streets rioting looting a burning down businesses with Hillary Clinton and Obumer making statements on TV how they can’t blame Black Americans if they would happen to got out and start kill police officers in which happened. With all that happening they would start rumors of Just how much racist Trump was hoping to turn Black America against Trump to get there votes. Didn’t work Trump won. After 3 years of Trump in office and another election coming up and the same Democraps scared of another Trump win they would start the same hateful racist game after police would do\ George Floyd

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    1. I’m not very cognizant with American politics. But all that happened in the past is documented history, including slave trading, mistreatment of people of color. What Trump did was to make it okay to express the racist views openly.

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