Mereja.Forum

[ittuabafarda]

To those of us who are eligible to vote what is going on in the old country should have no bearing on how we cast our ballots. We can complain about our adapted country’s policy toward the one we left behind. We can holler bloody murder all day long all night long about the US policy but what we vote for should be based on factors that affect our daily lives and well being here where we live/make a living. This is very hard to avoid since we see other communities include foreign policy to play a deciding role in how they vote for candidates. Jewish, Indian, various Latino and other sizeable groups show how they take their hyphenated citizenship at the ballot box and monetary contributions. Some of them are so powerful that they make candidates shiver. One word against Israel, you’re out! One murmur against India you better think twice especially in small constituencies. I have come to notice such voting sentiments getting more and more influencing during elections. At such a pace it may not be too long before foreign policies playing major rules in the outcome of elections here in the USA. It sometimes amazes me the landscapes of politics shifting and changing right in front of my eyes. It is just mind boggling. Who expected our community to be noticed by candidates vying for our votes just a scant 20-30 years ago? Even that has subdivisions of communities. Now savvy candidates are battling it out to get votes from Amharas, Tigray, Oromos, Somalis and Eritreans. Just look at those reps and senators from Minnesota. Suddenly they are experts in the history of Oromos and Somalis. Who knows the black mane lion will be the next one to flex its muscle in US domestic politics. Such ‘small’ communities and their votes can decide who is going to the Capitol and who is not especially during low turnouts of eligible voters. You remember Trump screaming with ‘I love India’? You will never hear any candidate howling with ‘I love Ethiopia’. Never! But you will hear out loud ‘I love Oromia!’ and ‘I love Somalia!’ coming to your neck of wood sooner or later. Sorry Eritrea and Amharas. You are grounded and in the doghouse for some time to come!!! It saddens and upsets me when I see many among us try to re-plant here in our adapted home country the demons of politics that have been leading that gem of the colored we all left behind to runaway mayhem. For a small business owner who is blinded by such evil ethnic politics will likely vote for someone who has vowed to raise taxes on his business. He likes the candidate because he has said something to his/her liking regarding his ethnic group. I tell you if David Ernest Duke transplant himself in Minnesota and scream with ‘I love Oromia’ or ‘I love Somalia’ he may win an election. If he lambasts with ‘I hate Ethiopia/Eritrea’ that is guaranteed to be a landslide!!! Senator Inhofe is very lucky his constituency is not in Minnesota! May be I should run for an office in Minnesota screaming with the old time spiritual ‘Down, down’ not ‘with Woyane’ this time around but with ‘Down, down Ethioipia’ and ‘Down, down Eritrea’. That will be a guaranteed landslide! Then Abiy and Isaias will be toast!!!!