Africans have no habit of endorsing an American candidate for president, but they should, for the outcomes of American presidential elections are of great impact to our way of life.
Africans should, by experience and geopolitical foresight support Republican candidates, here is why:
Before I start, it is important to remind that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and when he succeeded in abolishing slavery, Democrats who were retentionists of slavery rebelled and founded the Ku Klux Klan.
Many think of the Democratic political party as an organization of civilized, ‘woke’, pro-choice, pro-LGBT, pro-Black Lives Matter, pro-environment, pro-human rights, pro-democracy people and indeed this is largely true.
In contrast, people think of the Republican political party as dogmatic conservatives, nationalists, homophobic, misogynistic, at times racist people, this however, is totally untrue. But American media – mostly prone to democrats has misled both Americans and the world at large in building these perceptions.
Fundamentally:
The Republican Party believes mainly in ‘less state’: Less government interventionism, in order to foster private enterprise.
The Democratic Party believes mainly in ‘more state’ to level the playing field and promote social welfare.
In each of these parties there is a spectrum of beliefs, from ‘Occupy Wall Street’ on the extreme left to the ‘Tea Party’ on the extreme right. The best politics is probably a mix of both schools of thoughts…
Internationally, the philosophy of ‘less state’ enables republicans to only engage global politics in as far as American interests are directly concerned, namely in pursuit of oil, trade and national security. ‘Less State in America’, is thus translated in ‘Less America in the world’; an honest, straightforward policy.
On the other hand, the philosophy of ‘More State’ emboldens democrats to lay claim upon global politics and self-arrogate the duty to shape the world: ‘More State’ in America, translating in ‘More America’ in the world.
What Democrats fail to see is that their priorities which are peculiar to their context, are more pressing in the United States than they are anywhere else in the world. Africans for instance, have priorities of fundamental importance such as security, stability, employment, and the fight against poverty.
There is usually no problem when priorities align, and indeed those American priorities are shared by Africans too. The problems arises when priorities compete or diverge. In such a situation national priorities, rather than American priorities should take primacy.
Republicans by virtue of ‘Less State’ do not have the pretense to know what’s best for distant nations, democrats claim to know, and they are wrong!
It would be a good thing, if Democrats had enough time and enough information to positively and sustainably affect the world’s affairs. They never have either. Their arrogance deceives them to think that they can affect change in any distant nation in the four years while they are in office, with information quickly collected from self-serving NGOs. This is not only misguided, it is detrimental to the shape of the world.
Democrats’ foreign policy is also contradictory and racist in nature: While they want ‘More State’ in America, they weaken African states and prop up the civil society and opposition. In their mind African leaders are all tyrants, and those who oppose them are brave and civil society funded by USAID is enlightened.
But there is nothing braver than having the destiny of a people in your hands. Oppositions criticize incumbent administrations, it doesn’t mean they can do better, and in many countries it has been seen that they do worse. The civil society does not have the people’s mandate, nor does it take responsibility. While it may be helpful in certain areas of development, it is not its place to shape the politics of a country. If this is true in America and in Europe, why should it not be true in Africa, South America and Asia?
As a result, Civil Society, local or international, and their Democratic sponsors, are rightly considered intruders into Africans’ way of life, only tolerated under American duress. This approach is not effective, nor is it sustainable.
I am writing this to breakdown our issue as Africans with America. Unhappily, American Democrats are sanctimonious and partisan: two attributes of an entity from which one may not expect Soul-searching. If America is losing its first position in the world, it is because Democrats act on their foreign policy based on misinformation and shortsightedness.
With every Democrat presidency, tragedy befalls the African continent. Africa has just lived four flourishing years during the presidency of the Republican Donald Trump. African years could have been even better, hadn’t it been for eight years earlier of Barack Obama, who presided over the destruction of Libya as a country and the Sahel as a region.
The Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda took place under Bill Clinton and although the man later recognized his mistakes, apologized and became a close friend of Rwandans, this goes to show how American and African priorities are always discrepant.
Barack Obama wanted to bring democracy to Libya, while all Libyans needed was stability and prosperity. During the genocide against the Tutsi, RTLM, an extremist radio was calling the Hutu public on every hill to go and kill their Tutsi neighbors, at times reading out names of Tutsi families and revealing their hideouts on air. Americans were implored by the Rwandan Patriotic Front to use their technology to jam RTLM’s airwaves. Democrats then advised that such action would violate ‘freedom of media’. Rwandans wanted survival during the genocide, Democrats offered them freedom of Media.
Africans aren’t grateful for any Trump’s generosity, we are thankful for his lack of interest in our affairs, in fact we do not even mind his occasional contempt towards us, which is only his to bear. All Africans ever wanted was to be left alone to shape their own destiny, while democrats keep pushing their agenda upon Africans.
Africa is not a monolith and overseas exchanges, even interventions are to be expected. American support, if offered in collaboration with African states is appreciated too. Also, it is quite alright to wish to rule the world, especially if you are America. However, one has to have the time and the knowledge to do so. When one has none, the wise thing to do is to learn and intervene with appropriate humility. Democrats come about every four to eight years, disrupt our societies then disappear, leaving us to clean their mess. As soon as we start to get our countries back on track, they come back and claim to know it all. That’s where they fundamentally differ with the Chinese.
Trump is necessary to the world. He has spared us the daily lectures from democracy experts and compelled Americans to focus on themselves first, and leave us alone.
Western media which suffers the same imperialistic hubris has spent the last four years convincing us that Donald Trump was an accident of nature, who does not reflect the true beliefs of their societies; that he will not finish his first term, and even if he did, he would be defeated in a landslide victory by a democrat in the next elections. The main thing that these close elections have shown is that Donald Trump was no accident, but a true reflection of at least half of the American adult population.
Unlike what analysts wanted us to believe, Trump is not the product of deep-state hinterland, his victories in Texas and Florida demonstrate that even costal intellectuals espouse his policies. Trump is the consequence, not the cause of America’s belief or disbelief and that, regardless of the final outcome of these elections, should, I hope, serve as a good lesson to Democrats, to understand that administering a city isn’t the bed of roses they claim it to be and that we are all but learners and seekers of the truth in this world; them included – if that wasn’t clear.
The founding racism, inherent to the Democratic party which is untenable in the modern era, has overtime morphed into a civilising mission – “a manifest destiny” to “save savages against themselves” – that’s us.
What is at stake for us Africans isn’t about the personality of an American president, [although after an excellent second campaign I have grown fond of Trump on a human level]. That is only relevant to his close family, friends, and at most, for the American people. As far as Africans are concerned, what we need is ‘Less America’, and only Donald Trump can(not) deliver that.
It is for all these reasons that Gateteviews blog endorses the Republican candidate, Mr. Donald J. Trump.