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As a Ukrainian journalist, I've covered the US for 20 years. I find it increasingly shocking by Natalia Guminuk, read by Inna Bagly. A version of this piece appeared in the dial, under the headline, No Common Ground.

I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.

In 2008, when I was a reporter for a leading Ukrainian TV station, I insisted on following

Barack Obama's campaign for U.S. President.

Few Ukrainian media outlets could afford to send a journalist to travel around the US to report

on the election.

Even the newsrooms of those that could took some convincing.

As a media student in 2004, I had spent two months on the streets of Kiev during the Orange

Revolution, where people protested a stolen election and succeeded in defending their vote.

The excitement of the fight for freedom and justice, combined with the energy of mass gatherings, was seductive.

I recognized a similar momentum in the U.S. during Obama's campaign and wanted to see how things

felt on the ground. As a Ukrainian, I could relate to Obama's promises to restore respect for human

rights and the rule of law, and his desire

to mobilize people around the idea of hope. It also stood in contrast with what I knew of the

U.S. I had studied foreign news reporting at the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the military

crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. I went on to cover four more

U.S. elections. What stood out to me, and still bewilders me now, is the extent to which the

conversation around access to affordable health care and education has become radicalized in the US. To a Ukrainian,

or indeed most Europeans, these are simply what people expect from a functioning state.

...