To my dear American Friends: Do the right Thing today…

This is not a political blog and I´m not a political person. And some may even say, the U.S. election is none of my business, being a German citizen. But then, in this hyper-connected, globalized world, who gets to be POTUS is everybody´s business to some extent. Also, I´ve lived in your country for a year. I´ve studied there and some of the people I hold most dear live on your side of the pond. That´s more than enough reasons to care.

On the morning of this election day, I remembered part of the lyrics from the song “American Babylon” by Christian Metal Band Saviour Machine that I listened to a lot in the 90s:

A thousand bloody hand prints stain the walls of liberty.
A stranger hides in dreams denied, awaiting his release.
I’ve seen this picture before.
I never thought that we would end up here.
When fascism comes as an angel of light,
its license parading as tyranny drives forth its son.

Dear American friends: A lot of your (great-)grandparents helped to liberate Germany and the whole world from the tyranny of fascism. Please don’t make the same mistake my ancestors committed in 1932/33. Hitler being appointed to the office of “Reichskanzler” in 1933 was most likely an undemocratic act – but historians agree this was enabled by the fact that 37.2% of the German people voted for his party (NSDAP) in a free election prior to that.

When you go voting today, please remember the most famous passage from your Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

And then do the right thing…