US elections: The threat and the promise
At stake in the upcoming US presidential elections is not just who will occupy the White House, but also America’s future role in the world. Rarely have Americans been faced with such a stark choice.
The results from Iowa and New Hampshire suggest that no one can prevent former president Donald Trump from again being the Republican Party presidential candidate. Repudiated by voters in 2020, Trump sees the 2024 elections as the path to rewriting his personal history and taking revenge on his “enemies.”
His assertion of absolute immunity and unconstrained presidential power is a direct assault on the US Constitution and the rules-based international order. The vindictive, incompetent Republican majority in the House of Representatives signals chaos and paralysis ahead.
Is Trump’s re-emergence a reason for Europe to write off America? In the last two US presidential elections, a clear majority of Americans voted Democratic. Though our electoral process amplifies extremist voices, the former president and the party he commandeered are increasingly out of step with mainstream Americans. We have seen a significant increase in citizen activism over the past two years, galvanized by the threat to women’s rights. In state after state, voters have handed stinging losses to Republican extremists.
Recent polls also indicate voters’ growing concern with democracy and their loss of rights. In the months ahead in various courthouses and statehouses, juries, officials and, above all, the US electorate will revisit the traumatic events of January 6, 2021 when Trump tried to pervert the will of the American people.
The homeland of democracy has a role to play and a clear choice to make
Where Trump aims to divide and intimidate, President Joe Biden has built a solid post-Covid economic recovery by expanding opportunities for workers and mobilizing the huge resources needed to modernize our infrastructure and meet the challenge of climate change. His commitment to America’s alliances is unshakable. Now he is asking voters to step forward in the 2024 elections to defend the Constitution, their basic rights and human dignity and America’s prosperity and prestige.
To protect American democracy, voters must turn out at the polls in record numbers. Tens of thousands of American citizens whose home is Greece should request their ballots now. The US Embassy in Athens has emailed voting instructions to registered citizens. Or visit the Vote From Abroad.org website to find out how.
Facing the US electorate are two candidates with very different values and characters. The homeland of democracy has a role to play and a clear choice to make.
Brady Kiesling is chair of the Greece Country Committee of Democrats Abroad, the overseas arm of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the US Foreign Service.
