Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.11.2016, Síða 10

The United States and its president are
often called The Leader Of The Free
World. American politics affect us all.
As a magazine, The Reykjavík Grape-
vine does not take political stands,
but what we publish shows some lean-
ings, that mostly have to do with who
wants to write for us and what they
submit. We very seldom comment on
other nations politics, on principle, as
our defined area of interest is Iceland
and Icelanders. Today we published
an opinon piece that angered some of
our American readers. Reading some
of the furious comments and mes-
sages we recieved, we first wanted
to print a harsh rebuttal, but after
catching our breath, we realised that
an understanding was missing, that
the viewpoint from the outside was
maybe missing, that our right-leaning
US readers deserved a primer on why
most of us foreigners are quite scared
of what lies ahead.
Tear Down This Wall
Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party’s
largest icon, is thought by his support-
ers to have been the most effective
change-maker in modern history, on
US soil and internationally. His legacy
is especially memorable to us Iceland-
ers, as the nuclear de-armament deal
that ushered in the more open europe-
an society and signaled the end of the
Cold War was in part established in
the meeting between Reagan and So-
viet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Höfði
in Iceland, 30 years ago last month.
Reagan’s most memorable quote is
“Tear down this wall!”, a line from a
speech he made in West Berlin, then
a walled-in fort in the middle of East
Germany, in 1987.
The leagacy of Reagan internation-
ally was this freedom, this openness.
In the 1990s, politics became a centrist
blur, where left- and right parties all
worked for openness, increased busi-
ness and trade, which ushered in the
prosperity that came after. This was
of course not without its pitfalls, and
various political groups have pointed
out that these changes have had some
adverse effects, be it criticisms from the
left about inhumane treatment of work-
ers in Asia, or from the right about the
loss of manufacturing jobs. These and
other reasons have created a backlash.
The economic reality is that the bottom
half of industry has moved to where
labour is the cheapest, in a very short
amount of time, ushering in painful
and scary changes for many.
Imaginary Walls
These changes have been compounded
by other policies of Reagan's party.
The opposition to state intervention
in jobs, especially the matter of “pork
spending,” has meant that the inhabit-
ants of blighted areas have been left in
an especially hopeless situation, that
where before they could ask their poli-
ticians to intervene in their situation,
they have been taught that there is no
solution, only blame. The institutions
of stability have slowly been picked
apart in a campaign to lower taxes,
and no one wants to take responsibil-
ity, or learn from the decisions made
and their repercussions.

Actual Walls
Who can blame these people of being
hopeless and angry, of choosing some-
one who’s familiar and shares their
rage and frutstration? And politicians,
working first and formost for their
own job security, play along, map-
ping out a way forward based on rage
and mistrust, rather than a clear path
based on workable ideas towards a
goal beneficial to the masses, rich and
poor. The case could be made that at
this point, we would not buy into any
reasonable ideas, good or bad, because
all of us, of all political leanings, are
furious and scared. We want destruc-
tion of the current system, but when
push comes to shove, we couldn’t re-
ally reason why this would be a good
solution, or what would be a solid good
way forward. Trump’s response is
building walls. Physical border walls,
trade walls, and removing defense
agreements, which will of course be
replaced by militaristic walls, and
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2016
10
Why Trump
Scares Us
Foreigners
“We want destruction
of the current system,
but when push comes
to shove, we couldn’t
really reason why
this would be a good
solution”
OPINION
Words
SVEINBJÖRN
PÁLSSON
Photo
REAGAN
PRESIDENTIAL
LIBRARY
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calling for nuclear re-armament. End-
ing the generally agreed upon good
parts of the legacy of Reagan.
These effects are not found politi-
cally outside the US. As Americans’ job
situations only affect us as far as trade
goes, we empathise, but this does not
hurt us.
A visit from Mr. Godwin
However, the peace and stability of
the world does. On the other end of
the trade agreements is the rest of the
world. On the other side of Nato is the
stability of the rest of the world. When
the choice was between a seasoned
diplomat and a temperamental busi-
nessman whose business record shows
he’s not afraid of failure and its fallout,
the choice to most of us is clear. If we
have something we want to hold on
to, we’d like peace and stability in the
Western world. We’d like to maintain
the institutions of peace and stability.
We remember being occupied in World
War Two, or our grandparents do, and
we’re grateful that it was the mostly
free and benevolent presence of the
US, rather than Nazi Germany.
This is not a Hitler allegory. Trump
is not Hitler. He doesn’t seem like an
ideologue. Not really. But he doesn’t
seem to care about the institutions of
Western stability. Frankly, he seems
like he’s opposed to them. He seems
like he’s willing to risk our stability
for the possibility of “better deals.” So
maybe he’s a bit of an ideologue. He’s
probably not gonna usher in legisla-
tion that affect things like active rac-
ism. But he is clearing the pathway for
a leader that might. Anti-semitism as
a broad movement started in the 18th
century, and didn’t become a valid po-
litical idea until 40 years later.
Americans are also unique in their
scepticism of global warming, ac-
cording to statistics. Outside US me-
dia, scientists and their goals are not
second-guessed so much; the effects
are already felt, the Greenland ice-cap
is already melting, this is surely hap-
pening, as it was predicted, so the fact
that America is the main obstruction
in fighting global warming, and that
the US just elected a government that
is for said obstruction, all this gives an
island state, where everyone lives on
the coastline, great pause.
So we’re scared. There’s not much
cause for optimism right now. This
is not our choice, it does not seem to
serve our interest, but we do need to
take the consequences. We’re still a
polite nation, though. We’re open and
friendly to our visitors. But we cannot
be asked to take our environment, our
livelyhood and our security lightly, for
the sake of politeness. Hospitality only
reaches so far. So when you meet us,
let’s not talk about Trump for a while.
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