Much is at stake for both America and the world in the US presidential election on November 3. Although a Joe Biden victory would not be a panacea, it would allow the United States to renew abandoned commitments, approach its Western allies as true partners and friends, and rediscover a more rational foreign policy.
MADRID – When Donald Trump became the US Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2016, many predicted that he would tone down his inflammatory rhetoric during the election campaign against Hillary Clinton in order to attract moderate voters. After Trump was elected without having shown an iota of the hoped-for restraint, many said that the presidency and congressional Republicans would make him adopt a more dignified tone.
Today, we know how naive those predictions were. Trump did not temper himself once in office. If anything, he became even more reckless and incendiary. The biggest worry now is not Trump’s unchanged style, but the fact that the Republican Party and the US government have molded themselves to his likeness. Few Republicans dare to question him and, within the administration, Trump has surrounded himself with a camarilla of yes-men, dismissing or sidelining the few who opposed his more preposterous ideas. With the presidential election just around the corner, it’s worth recalling the many ways Trump and the GOP have completely abdicated any sense of US responsibility toward the rest of the world.
For starters, Trump has consistently resorted to nationalism, reflected in crude slogans like “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” He has reviled every attempt at global cooperation in the name of an anachronistic conception of national sovereignty. In the face of the current pandemic, Trump has embraced so-called vaccine nationalism and is refusing to participate in COVAX, an initiative supported by the World Health Organization that seeks to guarantee equitable distribution of any COVID-19 vaccine.
MADRID – When Donald Trump became the US Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2016, many predicted that he would tone down his inflammatory rhetoric during the election campaign against Hillary Clinton in order to attract moderate voters. After Trump was elected without having shown an iota of the hoped-for restraint, many said that the presidency and congressional Republicans would make him adopt a more dignified tone.
Today, we know how naive those predictions were. Trump did not temper himself once in office. If anything, he became even more reckless and incendiary. The biggest worry now is not Trump’s unchanged style, but the fact that the Republican Party and the US government have molded themselves to his likeness. Few Republicans dare to question him and, within the administration, Trump has surrounded himself with a camarilla of yes-men, dismissing or sidelining the few who opposed his more preposterous ideas. With the presidential election just around the corner, it’s worth recalling the many ways Trump and the GOP have completely abdicated any sense of US responsibility toward the rest of the world.
For starters, Trump has consistently resorted to nationalism, reflected in crude slogans like “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” He has reviled every attempt at global cooperation in the name of an anachronistic conception of national sovereignty. In the face of the current pandemic, Trump has embraced so-called vaccine nationalism and is refusing to participate in COVAX, an initiative supported by the World Health Organization that seeks to guarantee equitable distribution of any COVID-19 vaccine.