The US has helped spread democratic values across many parts of the world. However, in recent times, as politics within the US has become more and more contentious, many of the key pillars of democracy within the country itself have started to be scrutinized.

We are finding out that the US constitution did not envision a representative democracy as we understand it today. In other words, it does not allow for a system in which each citizen’s vote counts equally. Nor does it guarantee every citizen the right to vote. It also does not allow for direct election of the president by all citizens. Read More…

In the early hours of Friday, October 2, US President Trump tweeted that he and Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The very next day Donald Trump was moved to the Walter Reed Medical Center just outside of Washington DC. Statements coming out of the White House about Trump’s health, including from the president’s personal physician, continue to be confusing at best. Read more …

The United States continues to move with trepidation towards national elections on November 3, while the country continues to bounce from one crisis to the next. Over 200,000 Americans are dead from Covid-19 and over 6.5 million have been infected. Tens of millions are unemployed and several universities had to move to online teaching only within a week of reopening as Covid cases spiked.

Messages from the Trump administration about the pandemic are confusing at best. He continues to contradict his own science experts on a daily basis. Read more…

Both parties’ political conventions have now concluded. The Democratic Party convention was followed by the Republican convention last week.

It turned out to be a very Trump-family focused four days. All members of his family including his children spoke, as did Melania. Needless to say, all of them recounted how good the president has been for the country.

There was hardly any mention of the pandemic the country is suffering through or the economic collapse that has followed. Vice president Mike Pence set a new standard in ‘smoke and mirrors’ politics. He talked about the 8-10 million jobs that had been gained in the last four months, failing to mention that more than 20 million jobs had disappeared immediately before this weak recovery. Read more …

In the wake of recent protests in the US, Donald Trump has declared himself to be the ‘law and order’ president.

This term comes with many layers of meaning for Americans. Richard Nixon had declared himself to be the same when he ran for office in 1968 — a time of much turmoil in America. There were wide-scale protests against the Vietnam War, and three prominent leaders — John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy — had all been assassinated. There had been major race riots in several large cities in the aftermath of the King assassination in April 1968 and most white Americans had fled urban areas in fear. The country was in turmoil and Nixon promised to smack down any protests. Read more …

Five months into the coronavirus pandemic, the US continues to be one of the worst affected countries. With five percent of the world’s population, it has 25 percent of all coronavirus deaths. There is still a battle raging in the country as to whether this is a real threat, or not. Or whether face masks really help or not. And even whether the reported numbers of infections and fatalities mean anything.

One would think dead bodies piling up, and ICU wards filled beyond capacity wouldn’t be a matter of debate. Yet this is where America stands today. Over four million confirmed infections, deaths closing in on 150,000, and no end in sight. Read more…

Donald Trump decided to relaunch his presidential campaign in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 19th, 2020. June 19, also known as Juneteenth, celebrates the end of slavery in America, about 150 years ago.

A few decades later, formerly enslaved blacks had managed to build a thriving community in a place called Greenwood on the outskirts of Tulsa. Here they had reached a level of prosperity that caused this place to be called the Black Wall Street. Sadly, this island of black prosperity was turned into ashes when white mobs attacked and killed 300 Blacks and burned down over 1,000 homes in the year 1921. Read more…

Over the last two weeks many US cities have seen large protests that were sparked by the killing of an unarmed black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis. These protests have continued to grow, under the now familiar banner of ‘Black Lives Matter’.

This is not just about the killing of one man by police, but about the increasing realization that anti-black hatred has brutally subjugated the black population of America for centuries. For those not paying attention, it is a simple matter: America had slavery for a long time and it was abolished 150 years ago, problem solved. Hardly so! Read more…