For Joe Reeve, the midterm afterglow faded fast.
The London startup founder was among the wave around the Trump-weary world awakening to the stunning news that Americans had sharply rejected President Donald Trump’s fist-in-the-eye stewardship of the United States that had started a war with Iran, forged no peace in Ukraine or the Mideast and made gas and food so expensive.
Voters, Reeve saw online, had flipped control of both houses of Congress, handing the power to check the president to his rival Democrats. American democracy, 250 years on, had survived the Trump era.
But a deep and profound distrust of the United States had survived the vote, too. And from national leaders to aspiring American immigrants, no one seemed confident that change was afoot.
What does this change?
Like 20 million people actually came out and voted, which is great, but the system is exactly the same.
So how can we trust the US when frankly, never in its history has the US punished their leaders or this tore off behaviour.
For a country that brags about checks and balances, I’ve watched your leaders sell pardons, pardon each other, and your Supreme Court decided the president is immune to consequences.
I lined the day one sober comment, but the US isn’t even sober.