God save America

While watching the first US presidential election debate on CNN on Saturday night, I could hardly believe my ears. I was shocked by the overall shallowness of the discussion. I kept asking myself whether the two leaders-to-be of the greatest country in the world were “saving their voices” like singers before a premiere, or what I heard was their full voice and all they had to say. Alas, the latter seemed to be true.

I shall pass on all the platitudes and rhetoric concerning US domestic problems, including several priceless live broadcast minutes wasted on an argument about something Henry Kissinger did or did not say. The question that interested me the most was the penultimate one about the future of the US-Russian relationship.

That produced the real shock. For once, John McCain and Barack Obama were in agreement. Both stated that the “resurgent aggressive Russia was a threat”, both condemned the Russian “aggression against Georgia”, and both promised to support Georgia and the Ukraine in their attempts to join NATO.

McCain and Obama also failed to mention that the recent armed conflict in the Caucasus was started by the Georgian government, or that a public opinion poll in the Ukraine clearly indicated that the overwhelming majority of its population is against entering the Alliance.  But who cares about such minor details, when the future of - to quote McCain’s words - “a young, brilliant President Misha Saakashvili” and the growing Georgian economy are at stake.

What charming familiarity, what touching concern. At the same time both gave assurances that they have no intention of starting another Cold War, no, no, no…

My God! This discourse revived a nostalgic memory. I remembered the 1980’s and my grandfather’s old radio – a solid piece of technological art made in the 1960s which sat by his bedside. Every evening, my grandfather, like all his friends in their respective apartments, watched the 9 pm news broadcast “Vremya” on Soviet TV. He would then glue his ears to the radio trying to catch, through the fuzz of state organized interference, Voice of America, or the BBC Russian service, or Radio Free Europe, in order to get the truth. In the morning all of them – including many exemplary Communist party members – held debriefing sessions to discuss in great detail every piece of news transmitted by the “voices”.

For the sake of this generation, for whom the “voices” were the only sources of truth about what was going on in their own country, I wonder what had happened to America? Does it really feel so weak and lost that its leaders need to use blunt lies and futile threats to win the election? Will Russia replace Al-Qaeda as enemy number one?

Having always admired the United States for its many splendors, in particular for giving shelter and support to many brilliant Russians who contributed to the country’s power and glory, I am for once happy not to be in American shoes and to have to choose between these two rather pathetic candidates. If they are America’s only choice, God save America!