Last night, off ZDF (Channel Two, public TV) ran a 45-minute documentary piece, entitled: 'We Germans and the USA'. You can click at this site and review the piece (all in German). I give it a somewhat thumbs up.....although it a German prospective that is confusing (even for a German to admit).
To put this all in a nutshell....Germans have been waiting eternally for the return of JFK (the 'wonder' President of America), and will briefly admit that for a 8-year period....President Obama filled the role.
In this documentary....they go back to 1945, and then weave this story of the wonderful relationship they had with America....with the exception of Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and particularly with Trump.
At some point in the documentary, a historian steps in to detail how the Germans are wonderfully seen within the US. Then Joschka Fischer (former Foreign Minister) comes to a brief bit of analysis....the world's problems get forever dumped on Washington's doorstep, and the fractured system existing presently....can't get any resolution out of the American 'system'.
At the end of the 45 minutes....I came to three observations:
1. It's a polished piece, built to deliver the message that Germans probably shouldn't go expecting much of anything out of President Biden/VP Harris over the next four years. It's an odd message to deliver three months into the 'era'.
2. It's designed to be the intellectual explanation why the relationship worked, and how it fell apart.
3. Oddly enough, in the end....it's suggesting that Germany is the obvious place for the world to come and drop off their problems....for German resolutions.
So, I'll recommend the piece....simply for a prospective, and little more. Some Germans (probably less than 3-percent) seem to worry and torture themselves into a frenzy.....that some scripted Disneyland-like political system is supposed to exist....saving the world from annihilation. In the end, the message kinda hints....don't go and expect much for the next four years.
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