The real choice was not and is not between candidates, but between two different ways to look forward. We can look forward thinking as football fans, and believe that the important issue is to ensure that our team keeps winning. Or we can look forward and think what needs to be done to make sure the boat we're all in doesn't sink. If the boat sinks, after all, everything else becomes academic.

 

As a country, the United States is facing a fiscal cliff unless the White House, the Senate and the House work together across party lines to find a compromise. The compromise will probably be something that nobody will be one hundred percent comfortable with, but hopefully everybody can live with. If this compromise is not found and the country does indeed go over the cliff, all other differences between both parties become irrelevant. Without money, countries cannot provide services of any kind.

 

On the international agenda, the situation is not different. What makes the US influential is the fact that is the largest economy in the world and the largest National market as well as a provider of significant dollars in foreign aid to a number of countries and the owner of the most powerful military forces in the world. Should the economy crash, many of this advantages would evaporate.

 

In my opinion, now that the Elections are over, it is time to start working seriously on our collective future by putting the country's finances back on track; by finding compromises in economic policy which would stimulate employment; by leaving partisanship behind and by restoring civility to our political discourse. Too much to ask? Maybe, but unless we do it we will have destroyed the American Dream.