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from The Guardian

The Observer View on the Next US President

When contemplating the onset of this four-yearly ritual, a basic question arises: does it really matter who is US president? Fashionable pundits of a conservative bent claim Barack Obama has presided over a sharp decline in American power and influence around the world. They point to his inability to halt the war in Syria and defeat Islamic State terrorism. Similarly, liberals and leftists profess disappointment that the first African American president failed to do more to promote social equality, combat climate change, resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict – and close Guantánamo Bay.

Delivering his State of the Union address, Obama was in no doubt that it still matters massively who occupies the White House, and not merely to Americans. But the way in which he defined US pre-eminence, in terms of guns and missiles rather than ideas and inspiration, was troubling. “The US is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined. Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world... When it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead – they call us,” Obama declared. [...]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/17/observer-view-next-us-president-american-elections-2016

from The Guardian

Trump's Success Shows Many Americans Only Believe in America

by Giles Fraser

It has long been presumed that America is more Christian than Europe. But it’s a myth. Of course, way more people go to church in America. And you can’t become president without holding up your floppy Bible and attending prayer breakfasts. But what the Donald Trump phenomenon reveals is what several intelligent Christian observers have been saying for some time: that a great many Americans don’t really believe in God. They just believe in America – which they often take to be the same thing. God was hacked by the American dream some time ago. “The evangelical church in America has, to a large extent, been co-opted by an American, religious version of the kingdom of the world. We have come to trust the power of the sword more than the power of the cross,” writes Gregory Boyd in The Myth of a Christian Nation.

On the whole, I defer to people’s self-description when it comes to religious belief. If people say they are Christian then that’s good enough for me – unless we are talking about school places or running for office. Then it’s worth a little more scepticism. So with Trump, who has done so much to peddle the ridiculous birther conspiracy about Obama’s nationality, there is a considerably less ridiculous re-birther question. “Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian,” said the pope of Trump’s faith, “… if he says these things, this man is not a Christian.” Likewise, the head of the US Presbyterian church into which Trump was baptised said: “Donald Trump’s views are not in keeping with the policies adopted by our church.”. [...]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/mar/03/donald-trump-success-shows-many-americans-believe-only-in-america

Back in the day when the European settlers first arrived on the shores of North America, I am almost certain the big word they started throwing around was 'God'. The zealots loved it because that is how they usurped their power to dominate and control the Anishinaabek tribes. The America that The Donald loves so much was built on those Christian values, and believe you me, he is using them to his full capacity. Make no mistake he is holding that Bible for a reason. All that being said, he leans a little to far over to the other side, many of us know what his true values are and what he stands for. He doesn't pretend that leaning is just enough to keep the population on their toes. His talk of immigrants and building walls shows his fears and yet he is the one to be feared. His true immigrant colors are showing, down with Trump is what I say!