Can America Be Trusted Again?

Remember last year's Democratic Vista lecture series when the American ambassador to Germany, Professor Amy Gutmann, was in Freiburg and gave the keynote lecture?

  

US Ambassador to Germany, Prof. Amy Gutmann, at the rostrum

In the end, three students from Freiburg's UWC Robert Bosch College discussed with the ambassador on stage.

The Director of the Carl-Schurz-Haus Friederike Schulte presented this year's lecture series called Mutprobe Demokratie.

Is it so? Has democracy become a dare, a test of courage? Are people like Viktor Orban the rulers of the future? Presidential candidate Donald Trump recently admired Orban during an election rally and introduced him to the audience as the leader of Turkey. Should I shake my head?

Fabulous Friederike introduces the speaker.

This year's CHS lecture series started with the keynote by David Frum titled Can America be trusted again?

Note the co-sponsors of the event.

David gave a fascinating lecture, but in the end, he didn't answer the salient question.

I felt sorry for the speaker, but who would dare to answer "Yes? "Anyway, the answer cannot be given before the results of the next presidential elections are known, and even then.

Will the new president be able to govern with a solid majority in the House of Representatives, which presently is so bitterly divided?

No wonder even Americans become frustrated with democracy when they have to wait four weeks until the majority party is able to elect the speaker of the house.

Following a massive turnout at the polls in the 2020 presidential elections, most Americans rejected authoritarianism and isolationism. But how will the voter react in 2024 with wars ranging in Ukraine and the Middle East and in the face of ever-increasing government spending on "foreign aid?" Wouldn't it be better to withdraw from international engagements while at home the many problems to be solved require billions of dollars? The voters' mood  may be turning toward  "to hell with America's leadership that  always has been a spending one." Can the world trust the US beyond the 2024 elections?

Doesn't the oldest democracy in the world yearn for a strong leader? Will Trump be the guy? Will he do everything to make America great again by cutting relations with the outside world? Too many questions, and there are no answers.

Frum made the audience aware that President Biden only partly rolled back the decisions Trump had taken concerning global agreements on trade and climate.

From 1950 to 1953, Red Baron lived through the Korean War as a pupil. For me, the United States was the defender of democracy worldwide. The end of the war saw Korea split into one democratic south and one communist dictatorship north.

When the US took over the rotten French heritage in Vietnam in 1955, defending the so-called Western values, things no longer looked so bright. In 1975, Americans had to clear the field hastily.

Similar to Afghanistan, where Operation "Enduring Freedom "started in October 2001 and ended abruptly in August 2021. This time, other NATO countries suffered human and financial losses, too. All military forces and humanitarian organizations rushed out of the region without having achieved Afghanistan's "westernization." The States have definitely lost their power to keep up the fight for democracy in the world.

So, the two US aircraft carriers off the Israeli coast will be, at most, a  gesture that will neither intimidate Hamas nor decide the war in the Middle East. Enough of my personal dark thoughts.

In the end, David Frum sat down with the students from the UWC Robert Bosch College, who asked their well-behaved questions. So, we learned, among other things, about David's reflections on global security, the economy, and his plans for writing books.

At the following reception, I saw familiar faces and met several friends over a glass of wine.

*