Dude’s entire appeal boiled down to Islamophobia. Now that the economy is stalling out and they’re caught between cheap Russian gas and angry US diplomats on the world stage, the only card he has left to play is “Let’s see how pissed off I can make 15% of my native population and all of my neighbors”.
For anyone who isn’t a die-hard Hinduvista, this fails to deliver much appeal.
I’m not totally surprised. There was so much artificial strength projection, and a more desperate air to the late stage of the campaign that looked to me like a campaign that was seeing different info than what they were saying.
Hopefully, a lack of a super majority might limit the damage he’ll cause.
Also, I don’t want the US to meddle in foreign countries’ affairs, but I’d like our leaders to refrain from flattering and supporting nationalists and authoritarians.
It should probably be expected that any country with the means will interfere in other countries elections. What bothered me most in 2016 was not so much what Russia did, but that we didn’t seem to have much of a response to it. And yes can we please support democracy and not authoritarians. I feel like the whole cold war was about capitalism vs communism when it should have been about democracy vs authoritarianism.
It is traditional for democracies to call the winners to congratulate them unless the country believes the election was not valid. I would expect Biden to call Modi just like he would call Sheinbaum, Mexico’s President-elect.
I think a polite congratulation and a continued offer to cooperate is fine. I was just disappointed that Biden through Modi a state dinner. That’s kind of crazy.
I believe he did it because everyone in Washington worries about the big recently industrialized countries embracing China more than the US, but I don’t think that’s ultimately a good use of our influence in the long-term.
States dinners are less about the Head of Government/State and more about deepening ties between countries. I would expect a state dinner whether or not Modi was Prime Minister because of how important India has become in world politics.
This is the effect of having an authoritarian in charge. The propaganda that gets produced is done to convey a sense of power of the person/party, its popularity, and the scale of the internal and external “enemy threat.”
I think a lot of people have their fingers crossed on this one.
People here in rural areas are very smart, they understood how modi is weakening our democracy. Only god knows when educated elite class will get brain.
Add comment