I sat and watched what amounted to three hours (last night) of US election chatter on Germany's ARD (public TV, Channel One). If you add up all the time over the past 100 days via ARD and ZDF (Channel Two)....there's probably thirty hours of news, public forum, etc....concentrated on this election. Most of this going to a pro-Biden point? Well...yeah. But from the landscape, you kinda notice five observations:
1. US curiosity brewing for the 2021 German national election? No.
Not to insult anyone but you could drive around Ohio and find that fewer than 5-percent of people can identify Merkel as the Chancellor, with probably 1-percent suggesting Kohl is still the Chancellor.
The need to identify on US politics? It's always a curious thing. There's probably more Germans who can name at least one or two US Supreme Court judges, but can't name a single member of the German Constitutional Court.
2. This chatter of socialism being an 'evil' in the US? The first show from last night had various interviews where Americans identified socialism as a bad thing. This got the journalist hyped-up, and was brought up in the talk-forum.
The problem here....ARD never covered any part of the Democratic debates from 2019. Yeah, there was a two-minute clip here and there, but the bulk of 20-plus hours? Never really discussed within the German environment.
So in the midst of this, with 24 different candidates....a number of 'visions' were put out there, with 'free gifts'. Free college got mentioned an awful lot....along with dismissing all college loan debt. Massive shifts in public money to large urban areas which are dismally failing the local population was discussed. All of these 'gifts'.....were instantly attached to a 'socialist' agenda, with a cost-factor openly discussed.
These anti-socialist Americans weren't willing to buy into the agendas mentioned. ARD kinda skipped that fact.
Add to this....Latinos and Cuban-Americans aren't exactly that thrilled when socialism gets uttered and promised to be the future of American politics. They look at Venezuela and Cuba as absolute failures.
Joe Biden in the past six months...has marginally discussed the free-gift deals. When he has....the question in response, where does the cost come from?
I don't blame ARD for not covering the 2019 debates, but it leaves a lot of Germans without the prospective of socialist agenda laid out.
3. This odd factor that every single time that socialism gets brought up in the US....it's the Swedish, Finnish, or Danish model that is emphasized....NOT the German-model of socialism.
This is a rather comical discussion. You go to a thousand college students, and it's virtually 99.9-percent to be the Swedes, Finns, or Danes that the socialist model is discussed. No one discusses the German vision.
Why? You can open this up and forty different reasons fall upon the floor. You could mention East Germany (DDR) and their working model of socialism....which was a pretty crappy and dismal model. Even East Germans will grumble about the pluses and minuses. They appreciated the idea of everyone having a job....but then they laughed over their local grocery and the minimal amount of items on the shelves.
You could talk about German Hartz IV (the welfare program) and how the bulk of Germans on the program think it's highly unfair.
Looking for Germans who get hyped-up over the Swedish or Finnish socialism-model? Out of a thousand working-class Germans....there might five to ten who've been up there and might cite an example or two. The rest haven't been up there, or don't really feel that hyped-up over cancelling out capitalism.
4. This election (as much of 2016 as well)....is mostly about the lack of any real choices. Some Germans may grasp the fact that neither US party is offering up agendas or candidates....that fit the entire model of what you want.
Americans look over the fifty-odd problems, personality traits, and promises....then come to hold their nose over twenty issues with this guy, while the other guy would require to hold your nose on thirty-odd issues. The least 'smelly' guy wins.
5. Finally, what few Germans grasp....it's awful hard to find the perfect guy/gal....in a nation of 300-million people, and make a majority of states 'happy'. Even in Germany, with a population of 83-million....it's getting to a point where there are more unhappy people than happy people...in regards of promises and agendas.
At the end of this chat forum business....if you were watching the whole thing as an American....it just seemed like the obvious answer here is to let Chancellor Merkel take over the US, and let this brand of German-Merkel-socialism be dished out. (just a joke, don't take that sarcasm serious)
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