The FINANCIAL — The American elections always has a special appeal for those who love the theatre.
The FINANCIAL — The American elections always has a special appeal for those who love the theatre. It is the ultimate in show-casing democracy to the world, mixed with a highly flamboyant and often well-funded display of artful campaigning where every note, every script and every word from the presidential candidates are meticulously analysed, lengthily discussed, opined, derided, praised and, mostly shelved for the archives once the elections are over. It is a time for every American to articulate his views, cry out his pains, talk to the media on everything ranging from same sex marriages, abortions, health care, education, benefits, taxes, home ownership, interest rates and of course, now more than ever before, jobs. It is party time for every man and his dog, and for the myriad of special interest groups.
In a land where the American dream of wealth and prosperity for every man and woman is the ultimate goal, the elections time is like an early spring where hope sprouts everywhere and a litany of promises are sung by the presidential candidates. Despite all the ballyhoo, the trumpeting speeches and the lofty ideals extolled from every political pulpit, America remains a nation in dire straits with twenty eight million people out of jobs, some sixty million on the poverty line, about sixteen trillion dollars in national debt, a soaring crime rate in some cities and, without a clear direction on where it is headed in its economy. All the money printed thus far through the somewhat inappropriate quantitative easing strategy has not helped either.
I often ask why America wants to assert its global leadership, engage in several wars, direct foreign policies of other nations, support some dictatorial states and condemn others, pour billions of dollars into the coffers of countries where national governances are so low that most funds are defrauded by people in power, and often get into some messy situations from which it then strives hard to extricate itself.
I also ask whether global leadership assertion and the demonstration of power through military and economic power is necessary for America in the twenty first century. Would not the average American have a higher quality of life and have the ability to help, through his taxes, America to provide life changing and transformational assistance to all those millions around the world who do not even earn a dollar a day. Would America be more rich, more powerful, more valued and more praised if it engages not in humanitarian hand-outs, but in helping structure and re-structure the global economic system where no one will see the sun set without food on the table.
The American elections, the media frenzy to report on some of the trivial aspects of policies and programs, listening to spin-doctors and revving up a massive momentum as if the election of one or the other presidential candidate is an earth-shattering experience is a macabre theatre where every line spoken and every line defended becomes a somewhat artificial and meaningless exercise of “one-up-man-ship”.
The presidential debates, televised and watched by some seventy million people, are viewed as make-or-break events for the presidential candidates. Pundits in the media, the academia and the political gossip analysts begin their own propaganda on who won the debates and the pollsters have a heyday telling the Americans and the world that one or the other candidate won or lost. If one regards the United States as a highly educated and advanced nation, the concept of short debates – often similar to those held in high schools, the facial expressions of a candidate, the presidential poise, the articulation, the defence – is anything but the core of any candidate’s strategy. It is part of the theatre.
America is also a highly complex nation, with so many cultural roots coming together with diverse in-built mental frameworks which encode and decode messages vastly different from the nations with monocultures. It is one vast melting pot of people, ideas, cultures, religions, perceptions, but all conforming to an ideal of making it better and greater in a country which was once a land of milk and honey.
Keying in political messages, changing opinion, swinging the undecided, powering up the campaign with huge donations to the respective parties and still walking the tight-rope of not making any significant blunder on any single issue is no doubt a massive task for any presidential candidate. The question that begs to be asked is whether all this is really necessary in the modern age of total communication where every man and woman has the ability to think and to form an opinion.
The months preceding the American elections is also breathing time for other nations which put on hold major decisions, or fast-track certain activities as the law makers in America are busy with campaign dinners and speeches. Some six months prior to elections is a rather lean time for any major decisions by the administration and does create a technical slow-down both in the United States and globally.
What is strange about all the razmataz is that, at the end of the day, both Obama and Romney do not have any major issues which polarize them substantially, however much the campaign strategists try and bring about sharp and clear differentiations. On almost all issues related to the national economy and foreign policy, I could not imagine the presidential candidates having substantially different views. There are basic tenets in the American political culture which will not and cannot change: adherence to the strictest code of protecting the nation, ensuring freedom for all , developing and working with allies in other nations for the betterment of America’s security and economic prosperity. On most key issues, America works bi-partisan and there is unity of thought and actions.
To imagine American elections being conducted the way they are done in some countries such as Norway and Sweden or even Singapore where an election manifesto put out by the political parties is the benchmark information for people to decide and vote, is perhaps like asking the Americans to turn off their TV sets. The media that reaps billions in advertising, the bill boarders, the fund raisers, the restaurateurs, the artistes, the campaign bus drivers, the large number of people hired to market the candidates through direct calling, house-visiting, pamphleteering, the printers, the cleaners, the sweepers and all the political analysts and specialists will have no real work if the elections are held quietly only at polling booths. It would also be difficult to think of American presidential election without all that fun.
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