In a pathetic indictment of their ability to master the more basic elements of American diplomacy, a number of major U.S. embassies around the world are canceling their traditional election night parties.
As Politico reports, U.S. “embassies from Brussels to London, Paris and Berlin have decided against holding their usual watch parties.” Explaining that the 2016 election watch parties had been “calamitous,” one senior U.S. diplomat told Politico, “I don’t think there was appetite to watch another Trump victory.”
That’s a lie. If the center-left Aspen Institute can find enough guests to host a major election night party in Berlin, so can U.S. embassies. The Aspen Institute recognizes something that the State Department’s $89 billion budget was apparently insufficient to figure out. As Aspen puts it, “the [election night] event serves not only to observe and analyze the election, but also as a forum for discussion, debate and networking, making it an important meeting place for the transatlantic community in Berlin.”
Indeed. Is the State Department actively trying to corroborate former President Donald Trump’s normally deluded supposition of a deep state that is out to get him? The problem here isn’t that of a lament over a lost festive party. Rather, it is that of the avoidable cost to American diplomacy and prestige.
Presidential election night parties at U.S. embassies serve as the quadrennial Super Bowl of diplomatic entertainment. They offer a chance to build personal relationships with key foreign stakeholders, to network in the furtherance of U.S. interests, and provide various productive opportunities for the NSA and the CIA. Most important of all, however, these parties offer a chance to show off the enduring compatibility and codependency of democracy and immense economic, diplomatic, and military power.
Failing to hold traditional parties simply because they fear Trump may win, Ambassador Denise Bauer (France), Ambassador Jane Hartley (United Kingdom), Ambassador Michael Adler (Belgium), and Charge d’Affaires Alan Meltzer (Germany) have failed their country.
Meltzer deserves special criticism here. Unlike the other aforementioned ambassadors who received their positions as a reward for bundling big bucks for President Joe Biden’s election, Meltzer is a career foreign service officer. He should know far better than to play to partisanship. Fortunately, one Democratic-bundler-turned-ambassador in Europe, Jack Markell (Italy), did know better. Politico notes that Markell will host an election night party. He evidently cares more about his country than keeping his fellow Democrats happy.
To be clear, this is deeply embarrassing stuff for the U.S. foreign service and for Secretary of State Antony Blinken. While ambassadors are responsible for whether to hold an election night party at their embassy or residence, Blinken could and should have given guidance that parties were to be held as usual. Failing to do so, he has allowed individual ambassadors to introduce an obvious partisanship to what is supposed to be an inherently nonpartisan mission of serving American diplomacy.
Trump’s willful ignorance of constitutional traditions and affinity for foolish threats to his perceived domestic enemies are well known. Nevertheless, power in America is balanced between the presidency, Congress, and the judiciary. Trump wouldn’t be able to become a dictator even if he wished for it. It also bears noting that while Vice President Kamala Harris offers a more conventional candidacy, she nevertheless pushes autocratic viewpoints in terms of restricting free speech and packing the Supreme Court, for example.
Put simply, neither Republicans nor Democrats have much confidence in their respective opposite presidential nominees. As the top-ranking representatives of America in each country, U.S. ambassadors are supposed to set a better example of bipartisan service to our democracy.
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Too many have failed in that task here, putting their political interests before those of the nation. They have made America look feeble and fearful.
Whoever wins on Tuesday, they should be ordered home.
