Opinion: US Congress and Saeima elections show a state cannot deliver everything demanded of it
An opinion piece by the news portal TVNET compares the US congressional elections with Latvia's Saeima elections. The author concludes that complex problems cannot be solved with a single signature, phone call or threat.
In an opinion piece published on 5 November, the Latvian news portal TVNET discusses the US congressional elections held overnight into 4 November and compares them with the Saeima (Latvian parliament) elections held a month earlier. The author says he followed the results of both until five in the morning.
He argues that in both cases voters punished politicians, but that elections cannot make a state suddenly able to deliver everything people demand of it.
A reality check for Trump
According to the author, Americans gave US President Donald Trump a firm reality check. The high cost of living has specific economic causes, migration has its own, and wars do not begin because national leaders failed to strike a favourable enough deal.
He cites Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an example. In his assessment, it is not the outcome of failed negotiations but a deliberate decision by the Kremlin to destroy Ukraine as an independent state by military force. Such problems, he writes, cannot be resolved with one signature, a phone call or threats.
The author's forecast
The author does not expect the election outcome to change Trump. In his view, the president will keep running the country as if it were his company, with residents as employees and allies as clients.
This is the author's opinion rather than a news report, and the piece does not present official election results.
