As Americans Expose their Electoral Divisions, Chinese Dictatorship Powers Ahead
"While
this great and chaotic democracy exposes its weaknesses and infighting to the
world, in silence and behind closed doors, China's huge and well-ordered
dictatorship continues to make decisions that are momentous for us all."
A great and chaotic
democracy. That is how Obama described the political system of his country in
an interview
with Peter Baker of The New York Times (published in El País
on Oct. 14). America is great not only for its geographic and demographic dimensions, but
for its depth and wealth and its influence as a political model in the
world. This coming Tuesday, its citizens will go to the polls to choose the
entire House of Representatives (435 seats) and a third of the Senate (37 seats),
6,118 seats in state lower houses and senates, 37 state governors, 26
secretaries of state (equivalent to the prime ministers at the state level) and
30 state attorneys general, plus other minor posts and, in states with systems
of direct democracy, voting on 160 ballot initiatives that will decide a range
of issues, from the legalization of marijuana to the prohibition of gay
marriage. But the midterm elections are also an informal referendum for the president
who was elected two years earlier. Chief executives are usually punished by citizens
during these off-year polls, especially, as is the case this time, in the
middle of a devastating unemployment crisis.
Hence the appropriateness of
the second adjective Obama used: chaotic. And consequently, frequently
contradictory: citizens will punish Obama for decisions made by Bush, such as
the financial aid offered to distressed banks during the crisis. Moreover, a large
fraction of those who received such aid are now financing Obama's electoral
punishment. It's a chaotic and irrational system of election financing, after the
Supreme Court decided to allow unlimited private contributions, treating them
as an element of free expression applicable not to individuals, but to
corporations. Just as chaotic and irrational, if fearfully efficient, is the
radical opposition of the Republican base organized in the Tea Party, a
movement directed primarily against taxes and government intervention.
At every administrative level,
there's a lot at stake for the United States this electoral Tuesday, but more so
for Obama than anyone else. The next day, on November 3, his campaign to be
reelected in 2012 will begin in earnest. All of his actions over the next two
years will be oriented toward this goal. But what this great and chaotic
democracy decides will also have huge repercussions around the world. This is due
to the presidency, its range of influence and its capacity to act within the
international arena. But also to the ideological attitudes and political
initiatives for which the U.S. sets the trend: see how the entire world is
watching the Tea Party movement?
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
A weakened president and a
divided country make it more difficult to exercise global leadership, even if
Obama engages himself primarily in international politics, which is what this
new right-wing Republican Congress is likely to force him to do. Particularly when
the polls close and his legislation is impeded even more than it has been to
date. Notably, the better the Tea Party candidates do next Tuesday, the more
difficulty Obama will have in Congress; but the easier it will be for him to
get re-elected in 2012. For all that the Tea Party contributes to Republicans
by being so fiercely anti-Democratic, it also serves to unite and mobilize
Democrats around its presidential nominee for 2012.
Up to now, Obama has not been
a strong president domestically, where it has cost an arm and a leg to get
through health care and financial reform - his two clearest successes. Neither
has he shown himself compelling in foreign affairs, where it has proven
difficult to impose his vision on the world of emerging new powers like China; or
on allies and friends that are too weak - like the Europeans; or on the
excessively despotic - like Israel. Restoring America's image in the world, a
major task he chose to take up, is being eroded by his unkept promises (like
closing Guantánamo); his continuation of Bush's policies (see the revelations from
WikiLeaks); and the ongoing quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama will have
to deliver some meat to ensure his reelection and safeguard his presidency:
perhaps Middle East peace, for example, or a definitive containment of the
Iranian nuclear threat.
While this great and chaotic
democracy exposes its weaknesses and infighting to the world, in silence and
behind closed doors, China's huge and well-ordered dictatorship continues to
make decisions that are momentous for us all, as it did just 10 days ago at a meeting of
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Although the U.S. remains
immensely appealing to many of the world's citizens who would love to have a
vote in the election of the American president - and why not? - of
representatives and senators, the fact is that what former Prime Minister Felipe González
has described as the global fascination with China's mandarins is also on the
rise.
