Why the U.S. Presidential Election is a Lie for Sri Lanka and the World

Editorial

As America descends into another episode of its self-glorifying election drama, the question we must ask is this: does any of it matter? For nations like Sri Lanka, the answer is a resounding no. The US presidential election has devolved into a cynical spectacle, an elaborate lie meant to maintain illusions of “democracy” while obscuring a ruthless, unaccountable deep state. As the two-party charade unfolds, we are asked to believe that this election represents freedom, choice, and progress. In reality, it represents power, greed, and domination. Behind the façade of the American electoral process lies a permanent bureaucracy beholden not to people, but to wealth and empire—a force Edward Abbey might describe as “a monarchy masquerading as a republic.”

America has become, as political philosopher Sheldon Wolin warned, an “inverted totalitarianism” where the outward appearance of democracy masks an autocratic core. Presidents are not the decision-makers; they are spokespeople for a system designed to perpetuate American control. This grip is enforced through an iron-fisted deep state, led by the Pentagon and other bureaucratic forces that exist beyond the reach of public scrutiny. Behind the patriotic rhetoric and calls for “democracy” lies the reality that America’s foreign policy is dictated by military and corporate interests, immune to elections and indifferent to human lives. As the writer Gore Vidal observed, “The United States of Amnesia” blindly votes and cheers, forgetting that “democracy is nothing more than a word.” For countries like Sri Lanka, this truth makes the US election nothing more than a sideshow—a distraction masking the darker, immovable machinery of empire.

The American election promises “change” but delivers only the continuity of power. The faces may change, from Trump to Harris or whoever else, but the engine remains fuelled by one agenda: to preserve the military-industrial complex. Candidates like the Green Party’s Jill Stein or Socialist Liberation Party’s Claudia de la Cruz offer anti-war policies, yet their voices are silenced, scrubbed from mainstream media. We are left with two candidates who each serve the same master, disguised under partisan banners. Philosopher Hannah Arendt noted that, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… no longer exists.” In the US, facts have ceased to matter; what matters is maintaining the status quo.

America’s deep state operates with cold precision and absolute impunity. Its power lies not with the figurehead elected every four years, but with the Pentagon and the monolithic defence industry, which consumes over $824 billion annually to maintain nearly 5,000 military installations worldwide. These installations are not bastions of “freedom”—they are tools of control. They cement American interests in every corner of the globe, reducing sovereign nations to mere chess pieces. As Edward Said once argued, America “intervenes abroad only when its interests are directly at stake,” casting its imperialistic endeavours as “self-defence” while others are forced to live with the consequences.

This apparatus perpetuates itself by stoking a culture of fear and nationalism, dressed up as patriotism. Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and Harris’s muted critiques of immigration policies both serve to reassure white America’s “ownership” of the nation. Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian descent, is celebrated by some as a symbol of progress, yet she offers no real challenge to the racial power structures that oppress minorities both within the US and abroad. She advocates incremental “opportunity” for minorities within the US, while supporting the status quo that systematically exploits non-white populations worldwide. This hypocrisy extends to her foreign policy, where she has carefully avoided calls to reduce US military aggression or rethink America’s support of violent allies. As Malcolm X put it, “The American white man’s press generally controls the minds of the black man’s mind,” and in Harris’s case, it seems she has joined that very press in advancing white America’s agenda.

For those who expect the US to act as a force for peace, this election will be yet another bitter disappointment. Whether in Gaza, Ukraine, or Latin America, the American deep state wages silent wars and funds brutal regimes under a veil of “security.” The White House has never truly answered to the American people on matters of war, nor will it now. These decisions are made not by elected officials, but by unelected military elites and their corporate benefactors, who work in the shadows of the Pentagon. Karl Marx’s words ring true today: “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” America’s wars are good for business, and nothing more.

Even at home, America’s democracy is hollow. The election focuses on symbolic issues—will the president be Black or white, female or male—while ignoring the deeper truth: real power lies outside the ballot box. Presidents come and go, but Wall Street and the Pentagon remain, fuelling a brutal cycle of militarism, consumerism, and exploitation. As George Carlin wryly put it, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” The US government serves the interests of corporations, arms manufacturers, and private contractors, while average Americans, and the rest of the world, are left to foot the bill.

For Sri Lanka, what does any of this mean? Very little. Whether it’s Trump or Harris in office, we know the same policies will continue: the same military interventionism, the same indifference to international sovereignty, the same hypocritical calls for “freedom.” America’s sprawling military budget, its aggressive foreign policies, and its ironclad corporate alliances will remain untouched. The US election is nothing more than a well-crafted performance—a script designed to distract from a political machine that neither shifts nor surrenders.

Ultimately, this US election is not a choice between candidates but a reinforcement of empire. It is a reminder to the world that America’s democracy is for show, while its foreign policy is about domination. And as Edward Abbey said, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” For countries like Sri Lanka, it is time to see through the charade and realise that America’s democracy is not our salvation. It is our warning.