Who do the Swiss-Americans want for President?

As election day approaches in the United States, many of the 71,000 Swiss citizens living there say they hope President Bush won’t be re-elected. In the run-up to the presidential vote on November 2, swissinfo contacted some of them to get their views on the past four years in America.

Around 40,000 of the estimated 71,000 Swiss in the US are dual Swiss-American citizens, many of whom say they are fed-up with the Bush administration’s actions abroad.

“I’m not voting ‘for’ a candidate, but rather ‘against’ one,” said Walter Liniger, a music professor living in South Carolina, who says he is “ashamed of his American nationality”. “The worst thing is that Americans don’t know what to do… they are completely disoriented by fear and terror and their incomprehension of what’s going on,” Liniger said.

His comments were echoed by Bernard Nussbaumer, a film producer from canton Vaud who now lives in Dallas, Texas – President Bush’s home state. Nussbaumer says the past four years in America have left him “disgusted and without hope”.

“Half of this country is blind and anaesthetised,” he said. “I don’t think Bush is dishonest or has bad intentions… but I believe his values are fake, that he has caused a lot of damage to the US and that his country isn’t even aware of it.”

According to Matthias Meyer – a Swiss who spent many years living in the US as an executive director at the World Bank – terrorism has catapulted security and foreign policy issues to the top of the election agenda.
 
Besides being fed-up with US foreign policy, many Swiss citizens and dual nationals living in America are also critical of the Bush administration’s domestic track record. “When it comes to the environment, social issues and civil liberties, like freedom of expression, we have gone backwards by decades,” said Nussbaumer.

Meanwhile, Liniger believes America’s disadvantaged have been “manipulated by fear mongering” and that they are just as likely to vote for Bush as “the rich that have become richer under him”. He also cites an “erosion of the middle class,” which, in his mind, is becoming “more critical and liberal”.

But not all Swiss in the US share Liniger’s opinion. Peter Jordi, a businessman living in New York, is a strong supporter of the Bush administration. “I totally agree with what President Bush has done,” said Jordi, who added that he was happy about the tax breaks granted by the Republicans.

He also said he was in support of US foreign policy and the war against terror. “I know this isn’t how most Europeans feel, but in my opinion, the European way of thinking is defeatist,” said Jordi, who predicts that Bush is certain to win next week’s election.

For his part, Nussbaumer believes a Republican victory wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. “If Bush gets re-elected, the Americans won’t have any more excuses and they will have to make some choices… a little bit like children who have to learn,” said Nussbaumer. “Perhaps it’s better to let the Republican abscess burst… then we can try to heal it,” he added.

But he is sorry to see how deeply the country has been divided by the election. “It’s like a gigantic iceberg splitting in two, with both parties following opposite currents,” Nussbaumer said.

Copyright: Swiss Info