【ニッポンの新常識】 Common Knowledge Revisited(50)
『トランプ氏が大統領になったら…米国のみに依存では日本の将来は危ない』
What If Trump Becomes President? Japan’s Future in Danger If Relying Only upon the United States
The U.S. presidential election is about to go into full swing. Democrats and Republicans, the two major parties, will hold primary elections in each state beginning next month to choose the delegates to the party conventions, and at the conventions in the summer the candidate for the general election will be chose. The general election will be held on November 15th.
In order to win this long election, a vast amount of money is necessary. In the 2012 election, approximately 7 billion dollars was spent. Candidates who do not do well in the four primary elections to be held next month will have trouble gathering contributions and be forced to withdraw. For this reason, all the candidates are campaigning like crazy.
From the beginning, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been considered the front runner for the democratic nomination, but according to the latest polls, she is neck and neck with Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa, and Sanders is leading in New Hampshire.
Clinton was also favored in the 2008 election, but President Obama stubbornly fought out the primary elections, became the party nominee, and won the general election. It is possible the same thing could happen again.
On the republican side, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, whose father and older brother have been president, was seen as the favorite, but his ratings fell sharply after real estate magnate Donald Trump entered the contest. I had expected Trump to withdraw from the race early on, but his ratings continue to rise. What could be the reason?
Trump is a highly successful eccentric businessman with a funny hairdo, and he makes outrageous statements. For example, he announced that he would deport all of the 11 million illegal immigrants from Mexico, build a giant wall like the Great Wall of China between the U.S. and Mexico, and bill all the costs to Mexico.
This is highly unrealistic, but Americans are starving for that kind of strong leadership.
Obama’s foreign policy, including the immigration issue, has been a failure. The national debt shows no sign of stopping its steep increase. And for its part, Congress is hopelessly deadlocked. The American people are fed up with politicians who do not keep their promises. With these pent up frustrations, Americans are looking for a strong leader who will speak the truth and do what he says, even if he might be somewhat autocratic and coarse.
The other republican candidates are overwhelmed by Trump’s “bull in a china closet” approach. There is no way to tell what will happen with America or with the world if Trump, who has no political experience and has taken out bankruptcy four times, becomes president. Things may improve, but they may get worse.
Given the way the world has changed during Obama’s term of office, it is dangerous for Japan to continue to rely only upon the United States. Those opposition members of the Japanese Diet who continue to protest the recently enacted Japanese security bills have no sense of what is good for the nation or the world. Japan needs to become a self-sufficient nation as soon as possible and, in cooperation with other peace-loving nations, exert strong leadership.
明日1月24日（日） 大阪府吹田市で講演： http://www.rekishi-tankyu.or.jp/53/
