Comment: US Mid Terms - Time for change?
Early Wednesday morning I sat in front of the television enthralled by the BBC News channel as the first results of the US mid-term election became clear. I’m not normally one to follow American politics closely, despite being in my third year of a Political Science degree, but this week’s elections have been no less than fascinating.
You can be forgiven for knowing little about the events of the last few days; after all, their system is not exactly easily transferable to ours. But to sum up in an incredibly crude fashion, Obama and his democratic party have lost control of the House of Representatives (this is the lower house of Congress, the same part of the legislature as the House of Commons in the UK; however, the distribution of power between each part of the legislature differs between each country).
This is the biggest exchange of seats since 1948. Essentially, the events of November 2nd have made it a whole lot harder for Obama to pass any legislation.
Not only does the President now face an opposition-dominated lower house, but a lower house which now includes several ‘Tea Party’ backed Republicans. Whilst the ‘Tea Party’ movement have not made huge gains, the low taxes small government campaign movement could still drive the Republican party further right, potentially causing paralysis in policy making.
In essence, they want to block and undo what they have labelled as Obama’s un-American agenda. An empty term, but one that carries a lot of weight amongst many American voters who are disillusioned by his healthcare reforms and economic policies. God knows why, the healthcare reforms make sure those with existing conditions receive insurance, and at the same time protect the health insurance industry.
'the group that has labelled President Obama as both a socialist and a fascist have seen many of their most controversial figures defeated where Republican gains had been expected'
Although several ‘Tea Party’ backed candidates won seats in the senate, the group that has labelled President Obama as both a socialist and a fascist have seen many of their most controversial figures defeated where Republican gains had been expected. For one thing, Christine ‘I’m not a witch’ O’Donnell, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon and multi-millionare Meg Whitman failed to impress voters despite an array of publicity stunts which included numerous sketches on WWE Smackdown.
Many in America must be wondering where the movement will go next. They have already attacked more moderate conservatives with Marc Rubio the new ‘Tea Party’ backed Senator for Florida laying the blame of both health and economic policies at the door of both the Republican and Democratic party despite being a member of the former.
More worryingly, Sarah Palin and her ‘God Warriors’ (the term she supposedly uses to describe her supporters) have spearheaded this movement and swing some serious political clout. Despite her lack of knowledge of policy, and national politics and complete naïvety when it comes to foreign policy, this paints a worrying picture for the next presidential election in 2012.
Clearly Guantanamo Bay will remain open with Obama unable to push through any legislation closing that stain on the country’s record, but it is likely to make other foreign policy and ecomonic decisions difficult to handle too, and of course all of this has reverberations around the world.
Despite our incredibly out of date electoral system, I thank God no one as insane will ever be picked to stand for election by either main party in the UK.
However, this incredible display of democracy has taught me two things; firstly, that I should stand up and be counted, get involved, fight against injustice and fight for what I think is right – not sit back displeased with how things are, letting those at the extremity of society drown me out.
Secondly, and perhaps on a lighter note, it has informed me of the potential for a lot more interesting and charismatic characters on the British political scene. Gone are the days of fantastic speakers, but we can still have a genuinely exciting electoral campaign if we took an americanised approach.
'we can still have a genuinely exciting electoral campaign if we took an americanised approach'
Imagine the television advertisements in the run up to election day. Teresa May taking a leaf from Christine O’Donnell’s book and declaring that she has never ever even dabbled in wicca. Nick Clegg being lambasted by Harriet Harman in television advertisements calling him out on his tuition fee U-turn, and adding a sly on his smoking habit in for good measure.
Perhaps this would inject some passion into voters. After all, everyone keeps moaning about electoral turnout steadily decreasing. Who doesn’t want to see politicians slug it out? No? Just me? OK then…
Originally written and published in Redbrick, the University of Birmingham's student newspaper on 5/11/10. www.redbrickpaper.co.uk