This blog has been silent for (almost) the past two years ... Oops!
But I don't feel like keeping it quiet anymore.
Back in Germany, today was "Super (Election) Sunday". Three states of Germany elected their regional (= state) parliaments. Here in the United States, there currently is a caucus or preliminary election in every state every week or so trying to determine a suitable candidate for presidency with the big election coming up in November.
We are allowed to vote in Germany on the federal level only (as "Germans living abroad"), but not lower than that. We will most likely never be allowed to vote in the US because it would require U.S. citizenship. So we are only observing.
Interesting observations: Back in Germany, the Green Party (Die Grünen) won the elections in Baden-Württemberg, a traditionally conservative state where the CDU has been the strongest party since WW2. Here in the U.S., Bernie Sanders is challenging Hillary Clinton more than anticipated - and Donald Trump is (still) highly popular.
Donald Trump as presidental candidate is still a thing. Nobody would have anticipated that one year ago. From John Oliver to SNL, not to mention several Late Night Show hosts - everyone has their own take in ridiculing this supposedly unlikely presidential candidate. Questionable hair (hamster? grass mat?), a tie matching his regular face color, an outspoken, but continously self-contradicting personality (see the John Oliver segment) - and currently leading GOP polls. (Whether he will actually be nominated is another question.)
He is "not from the political establishment" and "speaks out what we think" - those seem to be the two leading causes to vote for Trump. Channeling fears of migration issues and the promise to build a wall at the Mexican border ...
... sounds rather familiar compared to a newly risen star on the German party horizon: AfD (Alternative für Deutschland = Alternative for Germany). They started their campaign a couple of years back fighting against the common currency Euro, but no one took them seriously. The European refugee crisis has helped them gain popularity. As determined by today's election results. Two digit percentages in all three states. They even made it to be the second strongest party in our previous home state of Saxony-Anhalt with a whopping 20-25% of votes (based upon recent predictions, final results still pending). And I am rendered speechless.
Similar to Donald Trump, the AfD channels fears.
In the current situation of Germany, they particularly channel fears of "Überfremdung" or "over-alienation" of the (Christian) German nation by (Muslim) Arab refugees taking away their goods, their jobs, their girls.
Stupid if you ask me. Or everyone else with any sense in their body and minds (= most people I know). But I am fairly educated, lived most of my life in a re-united Germany and have extensively traveled and - in the past years - experienced living abroad, meeting people from different countries. At least the first three things are true for most of my friends back in Germany. But most of them had to leave Saxony-Anhalt after their studies because there were no jobs available. I feel confident that among those who stayed, none voted AfD.
But that is also part of the special demographics in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Saxony-Anhalt has always had a very low percentage of foreign nationals living in its boundaries. Nevertheless (or because of that?), it has always had a relatively high percentage of political right-wing motivated offenses. "Being afraid of the unknown" taken to the extreme. And many educated people followed job offers from elsewhere, leaving the less educated, maybe jobless people behind.
Combine that with a sense of "not being understood or feeling represented" by the regular parties. And unlike the US, there are more than two, namely five major parties covering the whole political spektrum: Die Linke (Left Party), Die Grünen (Green Party), SPD (Social Democratic Party), FDP (Liberal Party) and CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic/Social Union) besides countless others.
The rise of the AfD started with demonstrations in multiple German cities against "the islamization of the western civilization". The refugee crisis divides Germany, showing both its pretty and its ugly face: More volunteers and donations than could be handled on one side, demonstrations and attacks on refugees asylums on the other. The more refugees came, the louder voices got. Criticism against Chancellor Merkel rose: "We can't take all refugees!" vs. her (truly Christian if you ask me) determination to grant asylum to every refugee as stated by the law. And this decision does not agree with the more conservative wing of the CDU and her (Bavarian) sister party CSU - while Merkel steers towards the middle, the most conservative former CDU voters switch further right welcoming the ideas of the AfD.
I am not naive and I don't believe every single one of those one million refugees Germany took in in 2015 came with good intentions. There are enough cases proving otherwise.
But there is no reason to fear them, either. Germany is a dying nation, we need new, young workers. But it's a long way from arriving at a refugee group home here in Germany to finally being allowed to work. Paperwork has to be filed, background stories and origin to be checked. Frustration is building among the refugees who feel stuck. I understand (having been through a lighter version of this when coming to the USA).
But I do not understand how so many people can fall for right-wing populism. You don't have to have a degree in History to figure out similarities between Germany in the early 1930's and today. You don't have to follow every single move or word or tweet of those populists to see how they are contradicting themselves or actively opposing human rights. The AfD feels attacked by mainstream media and is calling them "Lügenpresse" (= "mendacious press"), but does not condemn attacks on mainstream media which have reportedly happened during their demonstrations and ralleys. I hate double standards.
And I wonder: Does this statement make this blog post a hate speech?
Maybe it just shows that I have more in common with those voters than I thought: I feel helpless. But not because I don't feel represented by the political establishment. I feel condemned to observe.
Oh, one last word, dear USA: Bernie Sanders is far away from being a socialist - based on European standards.
