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In November 2016, Donald Trump had just been elected president four days earlier, a man from Münster took the stage at the federal conference of the Greens party because he wanted to shake up the hall, the party and a little the whole country. He came directly from Washington, from a capital of the United States in shock, he had barely slept in three nights.
His name: Bastian Hermisson, director of the Washington office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. He described the disturbing new America to delegates and why Trump’s election was no accident. His message: Liberal elites have “lost understanding of their own country, of much of their own society.” Not only in the US, but also in Germany, there is danger. An elitist arrogance blocked the view of many and turned the citizens against the establishment. “A lot of us belong to exactly these elites,” Hermisson said in the room (click here for video of the performance). “We like to cross borders to exchange ideas with like-minded people in other countries. We already know what is morally correct and we look with pity on those parts of society that are not yet ready.” It is time to leave your own comfort, your own echo chambers. “We have to explain, listen and seek contact with other people. Otherwise, we are part of the problem and not the solution,” Hermisson said.
