A U.S. election of global consequence
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-us-election-of-global-consequence/2016/09/21/57fd191c-8035-11e6-8327-f141a7beb626_story.html?utm_term=.7841e36279c7
By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer September 21
"Like it or not, the decision we make in this November’s election will be a choice on behalf of the entire world. How we vote will determine whether the forces of democracy, openness and religious tolerance remain strong, or whether our country throws in its lot with tribalism, prejudice and authoritarianism.
This sounds like melodrama. It isn’t. And while it may ring familiar — citizens of other countries always tell us how important our electoral verdicts are to them — Donald Trump requires us to make a judgment more monumental than any we have faced in our lifetimes.
This is the underlying import of President Obama’s speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, which may prove to be one of the most important of his presidency. He spoke of a “growing contest between authoritarianism and liberalism,” and he was not referring to the L-word we fight about here at home, but to the philosophy of free expression, entrepreneurialism and participatory decision-making that has long been our country’s hallmark. It’s the philosophy that most Americans, conservatives included, honor.
Obama cast the matter this way: “We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration. Or we can retreat into a world sharply divided, and ultimately in conflict, along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion.”
This is not just about us anymore, the future of the free world is at stake. We cannot let Trump become the most powerful man in the world.
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