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Meme of Hillary Clinton’s infamous response to the murder of Libya’s head of state Muammar Gaddafi by rebels, with nato forces’ military assistance went viral on the Internet. — CBS News

Hildegarde : The Arena

WHEN the United States of America holds elections, everyone has to know that the global circus has started, and that the season of madness is upon us. The brouhaha has been with us for quite a while, but the 2016 presidential poll has shown the world more than what the US bargained for — the ugly and the beautiful.The remaining three months promise to be more bizarre than the run-up to their Conventions (the equivalent of Zimbabwe’s political party Congresses).

It is an oddity that the election is allowed to proceed when both candidates — Hillary Rodham Clinton and her contender Donald J. Trump are the least favourite candidates to contest an election in recent US history.

Americans are being asked to choose between frogs that have had lipsticks smudged on them, and with Trump ending up the Republican Party nominee, it is an understatement that democracy has gone rogue.

The rise of Trump reveals another side of the United States — a US that wants to poke its nose in the internal affairs of other sovereign states, when there is muck in its backyard.

We now hear about rigged polls, stolen votes, vote buying, imposition of candidates, violent demonstrations, and a lot more that we thought would never be associated with United States elections, for they have made it their inalienable right to police elections in other countries, Africa in particular.

The run-up to their primary elections were marred by violence and deep divisions. The Conventions were no different.

Pundits are rushing to cover-up, arguing that claims about rigging are way too serious to be levelled three months before an election that is to be held on November 8.

But if the obtaining violence and hate language had occurred in other countries such as Zimbabwe, the US would have been the first country to give its pre-election verdict — not a free and fair election due to violence. What should be our verdict, considering what we have seen and read?

However, it is the extravagance that is crucial, in the event, damaging and/or redefining the role of democratic processes. For, billions are being pumped into selecting a leader. This is an indictment on the US political process.

Barack Obama can deny it until the cows come home, but the truth is that Americans right now are deeply divided, including in his Democratic Party.

As a sitting president, he declares a candidate from another political party unfit to hold office, but he should also introspect, and ask why his eight years in office have given room for people like Trump to contest.

The ball is in Obama’s court, and not the Republican Party and/or Trump. What happened since 2008, and why do some Americans think that Trump is fit for the White House? Why are they so angry with both Clinton and Trump?

Obama should also look at Clinton and ask whether she was the best choice that the Democratic Party could give the American people.

When Trump showed that he was there to stay, the world stopped laughing, instead, it is now very worried.

He broke from tradition of what the establishment on both sides of the aisle expect in conducting election campaigns.

His style changed the way the US conducts elections, and he is now the most talked about politician, who rose from being a political novice to the candidate who will represent the Republican Party in November under the mantra — Make America great again.

It is unthinkable that a man who holds extreme, and out of the norm views about migrants, Moslems, women, Latinos, people of colour among a host of other things, has changed the political landscape, and even if he wins and/or does not win, the United States will never be the same again.

His outlandish views worry the US allies — nato member states in particular — for he made it clear that his presidency would review the way it does business with its allies, saying they had to “fulfil their obligations to us”, in order for the US to assist them.

As the campaigning progresses, you also note the abundance of the United States’ hypocrisy.

Mrs Clinton is the last person to castigate Trump for disrespecting the Muslim parents of a soldier who died in combat in Iraq in 2004.

Indeed, Trump’s remarks were disrespectful, but the writer also wondered whether it was a question of semantics when Khizr Khan, the deceased soldier’s father said on Sunday that Trump has a “black soul.”

Maybe when one looks at the context in which this was said, Mr Khan might be seen as someone who just wanted to say — according to CNN — Trump “lacks empathy and compassion,” bluntly put, that his actions were evil.

Here are part of Mr Khan’s remarks: “He (Trump) has a black soul, and is totally unfit for the leadership of this country . . . The world is receiving us like we have never seen. They have seen the blackness of his character, of his soul.”

In a racially charged campaign where racial epithets, alluded to by Mr Khan should have been equally condemned, as they did Trump’s remarks about the Muslim family, and none other than Obama should have taken the lead?

Clinton also sought to make political mileage out of this soldier’s story, but the whole world remembers how when as Secretary of State Clinton on October 21, 2011 responded to the murder of Libya’s head of state Muammar Gaddafi by rebels, with nato forces’ military assistance on:

“We came, we saw, he died.”

Those who believe that it was not a statement of conquest, but a reference to Shakespeare’s famous quote in the play Julius Caesar, “veni, vidi, vici”, must revisit their analysis, considering what the Libya fiasco has led to.

Translated, it means, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Clinton had just returned from Libya, and she is likely to get into the White House with the blood of the people of Libya on her hands, and with a continued story emanating from the illegal regime change in Libya — the ISIS factor. The Benghazi issue will forever give her sleepless nights, whether she wins or not.

When all is said and done, this is a campaign of sorts with drama all over. No wonder Buhera South legislator Cde Joseph Chinotimba on March 27, 2016 asked leader of Government business in the National Assembly Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa why Government had not summoned the US ambassador over the election violence at Trump’s rallies.

We will observe knowing Clinton’s views on Zimbabwe and the Zanu-PF led Government. How about Trump?

If he wins in November, his highly cited plan when delivering the acceptance speech was an indicator of things to come, in an otherwise straitjacket position: “put America first.” And what does that mean? Any respite for Zimbabwe?