Introduktion

Today we had the joy of listening to Kim Bildsøe, who told us about the current political state in USA. On this blog you can read about the things we learned and we hope this will give you an insigt into the american politics and inspire you to have an opinion.

- Group 3

USA and freedom

The United States value freedom above all. It can be hard for us Danes to understand how they can vote for ”such a lunatic as Bush” or even consider listening to Donald Trump.

But the big difference between citizens of the United States and citizens in Denmark is that we are born here, and feel danish because of culture and traditions. America is a country build out of many cultures and is the only country in the world to be build entirely out of an idea: that every man has the right to be free. They believe that you have the right to defend yourself, that you have the right – and the responsibility – to keep yourself alive in the way you find best.

Freedom is a big, vital part of USA. On the dollar bill it reads “Freedom”, they have songs about freedom and everything they do, is to protect the right to be free. When the politicians talk about a welfare state, you can most likely replace that word with freedom.

That is why it is impossible to asses the American politicians from a danish perspective. Our basic ideas are not build around the idea of freedom and for that simple reason we cannot judge. We must keep in mind, that even the most leftwing party in USA is further rightwing than any party in Denmark.

Who is Donald Trump?

Lately we’ve probably all heard a lot about Donald Trump, when he in 2015 started running for president. Trump is 69 years old, and from Queens, New York City. He’s known for having a lot of relationships with many different models of different nationalities. But today he has been married to Melenia Knauss-Trump since 2005.

Donald Trump is a representant of the republicans, but he is also a brand. He’s become very famous over many years, for many reasons. His name is seen not only in politics, he also has his own Vodka, Airplane, Board Game, Casino and many more. But he also has his own TV Show where he tells people what to, how to do it and then have them battle for his approval. This TV Show was called the Apprentice and premiered in January 2004. On top of that, he is the owner of Trump Organization and Trump Entertainment Resorts, and he is a real estate developer. He’s definitely good at what he does, which is being a businessman and entertainer.  

Most of all, Trump is probably known for the way he has displayed his personality in the media. He’s very self-promoting and self-centered, both in real-life and on social media, for example Twitter. He’s not afraid to say on national television that he as a person is billions of dollars worth. He’s also a person who’s definitely not afraid to say his honest opinion on things, like we’ve have seen in his TV Show and lately in his political campaign. He one time said during the run for president : “If I run & win, our country will be great again”

We think that maybe the election will be a little difficult for Donald Trump, because of his wild past and extravagant personality. His main reason for people to vote for him as a president is his insane amount of money, which here in Denmark would be a lousy argument, but in the US may sound more appealing. Almost everyone has their opinion on him, and many are not positive, which will possibly affect his credibility as an upcoming president.

"Trump for president"

Donald Trump is a Libertarian-Leaning Conservative.
He has some interesting opinions, such as:

• the US has some economic problems and need a businessman like himself to bring them back on track

• same-sex-marriage should be decided by the individual state

• he wants to legalize drugs

• he cut way down on the Department of Education

• 20% tax on all imported goods

• he's against gun control

• "ObamaCare is a catastrophe that must be repealed and replaced"

• many of the illigal immigrants could be possible criminals

• "Mexico and Latin America send us drugs, crime and rapists". "Illegal immigrants populate many criminal gangs". "Mexican government is sending criminals across the border".

•  He wants a great wall between the US and Mexico.

• "Limit new immigration; focus on people already here."

Hillary Clinton - the next president?

Hillary Clinton who is the wife of Bill Clinton, the former president of United States of America (1993 - 2001),  announced in 2007 in a Youtube video  that she wanted to return to The White House. Not as the president’s wife or as the Secretary of State (2009-2013), but as the president herself.

In 2011 was the support to Hillary very striking, where 69 percent had a favourable meaning to her character, but this year the percent has dropped to 53.

Although the percent has dropped with 18 percent, Hillary is still a very famous and liked politician. A page which is “all about her” has been written, and she has several fan pages on Facebook. She has supporters all over, but even though, she still has her own struggles to deal with:

1. She’s in the shadow of her husband, the former president, Bill Clinton. Some people wish that Bill Clinton could run for president instead of her.

2. People in general have a hard time to figure out who she is as a person, which can cause trouble for the choice of her election as the president of the United States of America.

3. Her own gender causes trouble for her chance as becoming the next president. That Obama got elected as the president in 2008 is in itself a very big thing, since he’s the first person to be Afro-American. But from having an Afro-American as the president to electing a woman is for a lot of people - men in general - a very big radical change.

So to sum up everything, Hillary have a good chance of becoming the first lady president.

Democrats VS Republicans

Kim Bildsøe also presented to us the differences between the republicans and the democrats in the USA. It was really interesting to learn more about it and we are so much cleverer about this topic now. Underneath can you read, what we found out:

1. Democrats and republicans are each other’s complete opposites. Just as mouse and cat you can say… ^^
2. According to the republicans the State should not be a part of the individuals’ lives, because they think that a person should be responsible for it’s own life. The State should only be responsible for the military, the police, the prison and so on.
3. On the other hand we have the democrats, who allow the State to help in some circumstances if the problem is big enough.

Something that Kim Bildsøe  made clear to us was that Freedom means everything to the americans! The whole country is built on the idea of freedom and the freedom of living the life you wish for.

In the USA everybody has the right to own weapon to protect themselves and they actually don’t trust the police - “Why trust someone you’ve never seen before?”.

In the USA the civilians have the largest amount of weapons compared to any other country in the world. A total of 270.000.000 weapons for 319.000.000  people. :O It is crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The republicans loooooove their right to carry guns or even submachine guns.

But the democrats think that the number of people who own guns has gone out of hand. They want a new law with more control of who is allowed to buy weapons.  It is quite understandable, because who feels safe when a psycho carries a gun?