Dear Sir,

Every four years a particular good comes with the American presidential election, which I absolutely enjoy. Somehow, especially during the party conventions, we get reacquainted with principles and tested values that can define a nation.

It is also a sad time because many of these very principles are not even considered in my little country.

The year 1776 divided the world between a progressive experiment involving “We the people” and that of being ruled. We got stuck outside the progressive experiment.

This particular rivalry between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is not just a contest between two persons or even two parties; it is a fundamental test between rule based on mutuality and respect for all and rule based on populism and sentiments borne out of fear and hatred.

Every now and then, it happens where resentment and anger build within society, which affects a critical mass who become desperate for change.

When it happens in small countries, it may go unnoticed, but when it’s a major country, the results can lead to global conflict and pain.

Adolf Hitler was elected under such circumstances. If you can remember the sentiments he expressed then, they were to make Germany and its people great.

However, their rage was poured upon all those deemed obstructionist to their fascist dream.

No, we don’t have the threat of one home-grown demagogue. In Bermuda, as a spin-off from our colonial heritage, any leader that rises among us will be hammered to the ground.

Ironically, instead of one, we have two demagogues that appear as the mouthpiece representing the disquiet of segments of our society. As much as I would like to dismiss it, in both cases the culprit is racial interest.

The kinds of political principles that could bond us and provide the environment to facilitate mutuality are totally ignored, while the methodologies that ensure distrust and conflict are embraced because they serve their promise and thirst for domination and control by a few.

Neither the Progressive Labour Party nor the One Bermuda Alliance would want to be characterised as demagogues. However, their blind love for and devotion to a process that causes the bulk of the electorate to be as spectators ruled by these two clubs of political elitism, makes the title “demagogue” befitting and even kind — because neither is interested in evolving towards a truth or towards empowering people.

Here, again, attaining towards truth is not the core principle of our politics; it’s the baser drive of attaining power. We are paying a heavy social and economic price for our ill devotion, but who is watching?

Not until each member of the electorate realises their individual value and develops a taste for their inherent and inalienable right as a fully endowed human, will we as a society begin to see the light of day.

Although there is value in every person, and the committed stand of one does count, we need a group of persons who respect individual dignity to stand up and invite others to the call.

A wave began in thee early 1960s but ended too quickly. We must reacquaint ourselves to progressive ideology and build a democracy the world can admire.

KHALID WASI