The other face of the US

The final round of the US elections was a breathtaking show. Not because of its dramatic results, but because of how America showed us what Respekt likes about it: big ideas and fulfilled faith in the American dream on the side of the winner Barack Obama and generosity, reconciliation and dignity on the side of John McCain. This gave us a chance to see the Americans getting moral encouragement, which they really needed after the events of the last few months. This, of course, doesn't mean a happy ending has arrived and we can fall asleep in peace. In one way, the really important things are yet to come. For the major part of the Czech Republic, however, this beginning has a specific aftertaste.

Leave the cover alone

Barack Obama won the most votes in the history of US elections, and his entry into the White House has unveiled the United States' other face. For the last nearly two decades during which the Czechs have enjoyed free access to information, a consensus has ruled in Washington, which we had a reason to associate with the United States as a nation. America represented free market economy and conservative morals. That's how we knew Ronald Reagan's America and that of his successors and of the subscriber to the Third Way, Bill Clinton, who was not very different from them. It was, above all, Czech right-wing politicians who liked to say this was the core of America, while comparing its…