You are here

Republican debate

Sep 21,2015 - Last updated at Sep 21,2015

We all should be glued to our TV sets when American elections gather steam and reach potboiling degree.

Whoever the American voters decide to seat in a national position is their own prerogative. Yet, very few of them realise how this American majority choice impacts the rest of the world.

Until I watched the second round of debates among the 15 leading Republican candidates, I was thoroughly convinced that voting was for people’s images and not for their real persona.

How can one tell the difference between the physical reality of a candidate and the virtual, carefully concocted, reality?

Open debates humanise both candidates and their campaigns.

A long promotion effort had been exerted by CNN, which was the conduit of the debate. The CNN staff and expert associates managed to promote it better than Don King did for boxing.

Don King’s famous promotion slogan “the rumble in the jungle” can be in reality used for this debate.

In the second round of the leading 11, they all shot at Donald Trump from the hip and the mouth. He looked like a wounded lion. He faltered with Bush, Rubio and the new iron lady on the bloc, Carly Florina.

Of course, even this debacle does not mean that Trump will lose his lead or that he will soon witness a meltdown in his popular support. It might even serve him well to look vulnerably human.

But one should not expect him to stop either ad hominem sloganeering or his strong verbal attack on his rivals.

Let us imagine that despite his failure to get a gambling licence in Florida, despite his four-time declaration of bankruptcy at the expense of shareholders, his two divorces and three marriages, he still wins the elections in November 2016.

What would the world look like two or three years into his administration?

More walls would be built separating the United States and Mexico. We could expect him to put American boots on the ground in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He would probably send 3 million predominantly Latin American illegal immigrants back home.

He will engage in an economic war with China. He may threaten North Korea and the world may end up with a chaotic international economic order.

Everybody’s life in this world of 7.4 billion people would feel the impact of the end results of Trump’s pronounced policies.

Can the world afford another economic shock?

Can the US endure truly of confrontations with China, Russia, Latin America and Iran?

Of course, the next presidential election in the US is critical to the world. If Jeb Bush succeeds, would he revisit his brother’s and father’s war legacies in our region?

The soft-spoken Ben Carson, an African American known to be a great neurosurgeon and author, may be the best and most underrated candidate.

A woman and an African American came out of the debate winning.

Unfortunately, their chances of winning are small. They may accept other key national positions, but only if a Republican wins the 2016 presidential race.

 

 

The writer, a former Royal Court chief and deputy prime minister, is a member of Senate. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

up
39 users have voted.


Newsletter

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.

PDF