Enemies of the United States are joyously watching its upcoming elections that are exposing this once great nation as deeply corrupt.  It’s as if a huge rock has been turned over, exposing the swarming, slithering underside of America’s political system.

For those who admire America, like this writer, this week is a time to weep for the republic.

We see two candidates who are utterly unfit for the highest office:  Hilary Clinton, engulfed by scandals, and blustering TV mogul Donald Trump, a man of profound shallowness who advocates Islamophobia, torture, and environmental ignorance.

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Hillary Clinton’s core supporters are black food stamp and welfare recipients, and legions of women who are voting simply by gender. Trump’s core supporters are tax-paying workers who have watched Wall Street loot America’s economy and send their jobs abroad.   War at the Top of the ... Eric Margolis Best Price: $1.99 Buy New $14.48 (as of 09:57 UTC - Details)

Like many people, I’ve been tearing my hair trying to decide for whom to vote.  I now favor Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson who gained worldwide fame as a dolt when asked about the destruction of Aleppo, Syria.  ‘What’s Aleppo?’ asked this New Mexico Bismarck.

Now that’s the kind of president I’d like to see.  No more regime-changers and empire-builders.  No more Imperial America.  No more crusaders or world super power bullying.  No more mucking around the world and acting as the globe’s enforcer.   Let’s forget Aleppo, Beirut, Gaza, Tehran, Islamabad, the South China Sea and North Korea.

We can no longer afford to play ‘Game of Thrones.’  We’ve got to rebuild bridges and airports and clean the Augean Stables of Congress, America’s most corrupt institution.   We just spent $2.8 billion on roads in remote Afghanistan while our own highways are crumbling.

Such is the folly of imperialism.  The old Soviet Union did something similar, allowing its domestic infrastructure and industry to fall apart while adventuring in Afghanistan, and deploying 55,000 tanks in the Red Army. These tanks were useful in putting down the heroic Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – 60 years ago this week – but for nothing else.

But I fear that whoever wins the US election will very quickly face major problems for which they are woefully unprepared.  Most obvious is the bloody mess the US has created across the Mideast.

I just learned that Trump recently named, as Mideast advisor, a notorious Muslim-hating fanatic, who is a Lebanese Maronite Christian fascist.  His advice will likely be to invade Lebanon and Syria and kill more Muslims.

For her part, Hilary Clinton has long been a wholly-financed subsidiary of Wall Street and the mighty Israel lobby.  Just have a look at the list of her largest donors. Her pro-Israel supporters are urging her to create a so-called ‘no-fly’ zone over Syria, which is code for a full-scale war against the Syrian government and Russian forces.  Guess who will benefit from Syria’s destruction and disintegration? American Raj: Liberati... Eric Margolis Best Price: $4.99 Buy New $10.00 (as of 05:35 UTC - Details)

This supreme idiocy could lead directly to nuclear war with Russia, something I’ve been warning against for years.

There has been no mention in the campaign of rebuilding the Arab world, ravage by western imperial interventions.  Little mention of some 12 million Syrian refugees created by the Saudis and the US. Nor of five million Palestinian refugees, and who knows how many in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and now war-ravaged Yemen.  And not a word about America’s stalemated war in Afghanistan. Nothing about a shaky Europe.  Nor how to accommodate China’s rise.

Instead, we’ve heard tirades against the phony ISIS, which is funded by the Saudis, and Hilary Clinton’s absurd claims that wicked Vlad Putin is somehow behind America’s foreign disasters.   It’s stupid and shameful demagoguery.

At least Trump has the good sense to urge that we end our pointless confrontation with Russia and scale back the unaffordable American Empire.  Few Americans know that almost half their government’s budget is spent on the military.

Besides disgusting many Americans, the presidential campaign has made the US an object of derision and embarrassment around the globe.   Many analysts claim that this grand fiasco marks the beginning of the end of US global hegemony.   It’s certainly the beginning of the beginning.

This week alone, the Philippines and Malaysia, two staunch American allies, edged closer to China’s camp.  Neither Trump nor Clinton had a care for America’s reputation during their ugly debates.

My fear is that the election vitriol will not end America’ shame and misery but continue on, like an acid eating into the national fabric.

The Best of Eric S. Margolis

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$bio: Eric S. Margolis [send him mail] is the author of War                at the Top of the World and the new book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World. See his website.

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