Report from America -‘Déjà Vu’

The Presidential election will take place in the United States next year. In all likelihood, the same candidates will be chosen as there were last time - Donald Trump and Joe Biden. If such a thing happens, it is difficult to say who would win this time. They are trying to promote themselves shamelessly but at the same time, the two candidates are bitter enemies. You would think that the emphasis would be on the important issues that would have a major impact on the people of the country.

The economy is the biggest issue on the American people's radar regarding the country's future. After that, they worry about the health care system and immigration control. But the media is not focused on those big issues, unfortunately. It would be appropriate for them to pay attention to these questions, analyze them, and develop recommendations based on their research. But they don't seem to care, because they're making a big deal out of other things altogether.

Maybe the media is right about Donald Trump, because everyone knows that it is Donald Trump himself and everything he does that always attracts the public's attention - we saw that even when he was in office as President. It is the things he said or joked about that exploded on the media almost every day. Despite that, he also did things that his fans really liked, no doubt. Lowering taxes has been a Republican objective, and Trump has succeeded in doing so. Trump has also had a major impact on the nation's highest court. He appointed three Supreme Court justices – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – the most in nearly 40 years. You would think that the illegal things, the undemocratic things he did could whitewash him. But Trump's image is as strong now as it was before the ongoing lawsuits and even before the 2021 Rebellion. His followers remain very loyal to Trump, and they believe everything he says – including that he has not lost the presidential election in 2020. Trump is a political exception, no doubt!

As for Biden, he has been doing pretty well as President so far, with a few exceptions. He signed three landmark Bills to spend $2 trillion over the next ten years on his Party's (Democrats) key priorities, such as massive infrastructure renewal, clean energy research, environmental protection, semiconductor research and development and STEM investment (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). He started rebuilding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was very important when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Biden has repaired most of the damage Trump has done to the United States' international reputation, although much more remains to be done. Biden is also working hard to rebuild public confidence in the United States' democratic system. So, President Biden has done a lot of positive things at home and internationally.

Biden became an object of derision when he messed up the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, there were great similarities between that operation and what happened in the early seventies in Saigon.

Pattern of slander!

But the emphasis is not on the above-mentioned important things they did or on the things they promise to the American people in the future. Instead, the candidates and the media are focusing public attention on their smear campaigns against each other. Usually, one criticism, whether true or not, can hurt a candidate so much that he or she often loses the race as a result. For example, in 2016, Hilary Clinton was heavily criticized for the private email server she used for government business emails. Or maybe you remember the controversy over Barack Obama's birth certificate in 2012!

This round, the biggest concern of the American public about Joe Biden, including Democrats, is his age! It would be better to emphasize what he has done as president so far, and what he intends to do if he is elected for a second term. His age is a red herring. Although Donald Trump is only three years younger than Joe Biden, there is not much talk about his age at all. By the way, Trump, as the President of America, would be able to do a lot of damage to democracy in America and around the globe, no matter what age he is!

It's time for the American public to focus on the real issues, and ignore the hype being spread in the media. The future of democracy itself depends on that, and they cannot afford to have Donald Trump as president again, regardless of the age of the candidates. Trump would start out as president, perhaps, but he would finish his term as a dictator, no doubt. Americans cannot afford to be complacent now, when such an important decision about their system of government is in their own hands!