Opinion | Why US election between Trump and Biden is a moral test, not about democracy or freedom
- At the heart of human choice is ultimately a moral issue, whether one cares only for oneself or more about other people and Mother Nature
- Next month’s US election is a moral test for voters, candidates and everyone involved, and their decisions will have consequences for the whole planet
Imagine a beautiful beach where families are gathered on a clear day with blue skies. Some families are building sandcastles, others are playing on the beach. No one is watching as a tsunami with different waves approaches the shore.
This is the vivid story told by Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The first wave is the pandemic, followed by economic recession, then financial crisis and finally the big wave of climate change.
Why are people and politicians still building sandcastles and looking the other way? A more intriguing question is what kind of sandcastles are still being built. One is called democracy. Another, freedom.
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Interruptions and insults dominate first Trump-Biden US presidential debate
Electoral democracy is founded on the idea that each society chooses its own leaders through each citizen having one vote. Abuses of leadership are supposed to be checked and balanced through the trinity of the executive, judiciary and legislative branches.