I am an outsider. I have lived in France for the last thirty-three years and before that I lived in England. I left the United States as a minor, so don’t really have any of the political environment ingrained in me. All I know is what I read, hear and see from across the Atlantic.
It won’t do anyone any good to try and sway me to their affiliation because I don’t vote. I can’t vote having lived out of the country for so long.
The debates, reports, published comments (true or false, exaggerated in either direction) on social media, all appal me.
Dignity seems to be a foreign word to either party. I’ve heard base criticisms from all directions.
In France, we had a man called Jean-Marie Le Pen (National Front party — Front National) who persistently lied at meetings and on television and when he was pressured into retracting his false statements, it always ended up in some small corner of a newspaper. His lies had already been heard and believed in his fear-mongering methods. Few people would read his retractions two weeks later…
The verbal attacks which have consistently besmirched this campaign in the US have made me glad I’m not in a position to vote. The only person I would have wanted, is no longer in the running. In my outsider’s opinion, neither candidate has the poise nor dignity one expects from a world leader who is supposed to set an example for others.