The US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris may have captured the attention of American citizens, particularly after President Joe Biden’s lacklustre performance in his previous debate with Trump. However, for many outside the US, the debate seemed more like a staged spectacle with a predictable outcome. Regardless of whether the Democrats or Republicans win the election, US foreign policy will continue to be driven by the entrenched interests of the military-industrial complex, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the powerful energy, oil, and tech conglomerates that dominate the country’s oligarchic system.
Nations around the globe will still face the same military bases, interventions, assassinations, coup attempts, and economic meddling from the US, as they have in the past. The party in power makes little difference. This year’s debate highlighted how indistinguishable the two parties have become on key issues.
As several US political commentators have noted, the debate felt like two right-wing demagogues facing off, with one merely offering a marginally more progressive stance on gender and reproductive rights. Both candidates voiced strong support for the oil industry, despite the clear and present threat of climate change. Both also endorsed a powerful military, which continues to intervene in other nations.
Most disturbingly, both candidates competed to showcase their unwavering support for Israel, with each striving to prove their loyalty. While Trump loudly proclaimed he was Israel’s best ally, Harris leaned on a debunked claim of mass rapes on October 7th, even as the world condemns the well-documented abuses in Israeli prisons. This is a disgraceful moment for a nation that calls itself the world’s greatest democracy. Though Trump’s behaviour is often racist, abrasive, and unfit for office, Harris’s calculated political manoeuvres, smiling from afar at Palestinians while backing the continuation of a genocide, reveal her as a cunning and duplicitous figure.
Faced with these choices, many around the world are left wondering: who is worse, the blundering fool or the scheming deceiver?
