Trumped up! American elections

I am a woman. I am not an American but have watched the American elections closely. I am a woman. I am a feminist. I stand for abortion, gay rights. I stand for empowerment. I stand for breaking the glass ceiling. Yet...

As I watch the rhetoric of a woman who has worked hard for 21 years to get to the top versus a misogynist, womaniser, buffoon, tax evader. I find myself staring at some disquieting questions floating around. What is America today? Obama had a dream. Luther King’s dream and became the first black President. We were all ecstatic. What is the legacy he leaves behind? The dream which was perhaps a bubble, illusion, aspirational, dreams unfulfilled. What is the fine print. What emerges when you connect the dots.

Wars, ISIS, economic shambles, A failed Obmacare which the poor cannot afford... Just citing some!

The author of a book Hillbilly Elegy speaks of Ohio, the lost jobs, opportunities, poverty. Obama created a dream of white collared Americans but what about the rest. They fell by the wayside. There is a rampant problem of drugs in the border states, loss of jobs to immigrants. Inclusion yes, certainly, but are there enough jobs to include? No one wants wars, ISIS threats looms large on the horizon. I have watched the debates and I daresay Hillary has been ambivalent , not definitive to say the least on most of these issues.

There were closed door meetings in Wall street. Expensive! Addressed by Hillary wherein the bigwigs contributed undisclosed sums to the Foundation, which has funded the elections. What was the agenda? Noone is telling. One does know that tax sops were introduced to favour the elites. Obviously everyone jumped onto the bandwagon to make the best of this opportunity. Shouldn’t all accounts come up for scrutiny – Why only one? Who are the other contributors to the Foundation? there have been whispers. There cannot be smoke without fires. Why no answers? Why no transparency? Questionable financial ethics!

There have been talk of walls and Russia and China and the likes. I am sure all exaggerations to catch the fancy of the public imagination. In the long run they are metaphors for a bucket list. Much like “the dream” America goes to polls with wounded pride, poverty, loss of jobs, questionable state support. Young people fighting someone else’s war and the constant fear not of Big Brother but the ISIS bother. They are nervous scared, of a rerun of the eight years. Doom or gloom.

The vote is perchance anti-incumbent. I am a fierce ideologue, have fought for glass ceilings. I am pro women’s rights, Durga, Kali. I support abortion and gay rights. Yet I am a mom , have kids, can understand the angst of a bleak future with poverty and wars in the horizon. Idealism perchance cannot thrive in a questionable vacuum. I become a realist!

Out of desperation one grabs whatever one gets – clutch straws. Straws of a madman. Straws nevertheless...