People walk past a screen showing a media advertisement for the voting day at the Times Square in New York, the United States, Nov. 7, 2016. The U.S. general election will be held on Nov. 8. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
by Xinhua writer Zhu Dongyang
BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua)-- American voters are heading to voting booths across the United States Tuesday to elect a new president, frustrated that they are stuck with two of the least desirable candidates in perhaps the whole history of the U.S. electoral politics, and facing an uncertain future.
The fact that the past few months of a mud-slinging, insult-driven and scandal-ridden presidential campaign is about to end comforts few, as more caustic rhetoric or false promises could follow even after a new administration takes over.
In their bids to replace outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama, the two White House contenders have been very unscrupulous and incoherent.
The traditional idea that a presidential race ought to be a contest of better policy options has been pronounced dead. Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, and his Democratic competitor, Hillary Clinton, have pulled almost every lever they could to convince the constituency of their rival's lack of qualifications for the White House job.
Together, they have succeeded in revealing the darkest side of the political system Washington intends to impose on the rest of the globe.
Trump's arrival at the center stage of U.S. politics is certainly no accident. His rise was largely fed by strong public discontent over the existing political establishment in Washington that has lost touch with the working class.
However, his supporters are almost certain to be disappointed. The real estate mogul-turned-politician has little backing inside the Beltway. His ability to deliver the kind of change his proponents desire is very much in doubt, not to mention whether the billionaire really means to deliver on what he has promised.
Unlike Trump, Clinton is very much a polished veteran politician, yet repeated opinion polls have shown that many believe she would not make a trustworthy leader.
Seeking to return to the White House as president, the former First Lady has to hide or twist a long list of inconvenient facts she does not want the public to know.
The emails she has tried to conceal from public scrutiny could easily remind people of the Watergate scandal and the secret tapes of former U.S. President Richard Nixon. Her rich political experience now seems to be a liability rather than an asset.
Meanwhile, the two candidates' foreign policy approaches are also equally alarming.
A Trump administration might also turn away the Syrian refugees his country should take in. They have lost their homes because of a bloody and long-running war Washington has helped spark and sustain.
As for the former U.S. secretary of state, Clinton is believed to push a hawkish doctrine. Under a Clinton administration, more overseas military adventures would not come as a surprise.
The tactic of blaming Russia for the leaked emails would not do much to boost the Clinton campaign, but would make a President Clinton harder to reach out to a country she might grudgingly find necessary to work with on many of the world's pressing affairs, such as ending the war in Syria.
The ballots are now being cast, and whatever the results might be, only troubles seem to be guaranteed, both for the United States and for the world.
