American Elections

Hello friends,
I have always wanted this to be our blog and to that end I have been cajoling some of my friends to contribute their views.
We are now opening up
Safiul Huda has sent his views in his inimitable style on the present American scene vis-a-vis the elections.
It is very instructive for us Indians who are used to booth capturing by our politicians.

Radheshyam

February 27, 2008

For the first time in my 3+ decades in this country, lots of people are excited over elections. Even I, the ultimate apolitical being, a person who is totally turned off by politics and more so by politicians, am taking interest. This time around, the process started a year earlier than usual. People were immediately fed up because the normal year-long cycle of lies, counter lies, spin, half-truths, mud-slinging, fact-twisting was bad enough, now we’d have to put up with two. The pundits began their assertive predictions and immediately declared a “foregone conclusion” nominee from each political party.

But what surprises! John McCain arose phoenix like from death-by-financial-failure to become the unassailable leader for the title of “Republican Party’s nominee.” Barack Obama, whom even I had dismissed as “too inexperienced”, has given the “jhanu” [= veteran or experienced in Bangla ( = ‘Bengali’)] politicians a run for their money.

I like and have always liked John McCain. He has, though, always been the angry young man and now he is the angry old man. He was involved in a financial scandal and reprimanded by the senate for it. Now he is talking endless war and clearly espouses America’s imperial right to rule the globe. Don’t forget, when asked about Iran, he sang that popular song of old, changing the sound ‘bom’ in the song to bomb, thus “Bomb, bomb, bomb/ Bomb, bomba-bomb-bomb.” A clear case of testerone poisining, don’t you think? So what? His adopted child is from Bangladesh. That makes his philosophies, whatever they be, OK by me. Just kidding.

Mike Huckabee hasn’t thrown in the towel yet. He still has his hat in the ring. He’s quite a speaker. And he’s quite a determined achiever. Given that I’m having a heck of a time losing 10 pounds [now less ambitiously, 5 lbs], I cannot but admire a person who has shed 160 lbs and kept it off. But he is of, and he appeals to, the religious right. It always pays to be wary of people who speak to and on behalf of God.

Michelle Obama came to stump at our campus last week. I was surprised to learn her [only sibling] brother is the basketball coach at Brown! {For the uninitiated: Brown is Rhode Island’s Ivy League school. All of the Ivy institutions place near the top in the U.S. News & World Report college and university rankings and rank within the top one percent of the world's academic institutions in terms of financial endowment. Ivy League institutions, all except Cornell, account for seven of the nine Colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The Ivies also are all privately owned and controlled. The following institutions constitute “The Ivy League”: Brown University [Providence, RI]; Columbia University, [New York, NY]; Cornell University [Ithaca, NY]; Dartmouth College [Hanover, NH]; Harvard University [Cambridge, MA]; Princeton University [Princeton, NJ]; University of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia, PA]; and Yale University [New Haven, CT]}. Anyway – back to Michelle Obama.

You see, Obama has created something unique – hope and belief that what is hoped for is attainable. He has been able to inspire. He has been able to overcome racial divisions [which are almost as insurmountable as the caste barriers in India]. He may be able to overcome political party affiliation and “work across the aisle” as they say. Aren’t these the very things a leader is supposed to be able to do? And aren’t these traits precisely what has been lacking in Washington for ages?

But then, as I listened to Michelle, three things occurred to me:
(1) In the mid-70’s too, America was fed up with a war, sick and tired of the shenanigans of Washington insiders. America flocked to a genuinely good person who was far removed from “the beltway” [circular road around the environs of Washington, D.C.; “inside the beltway person” is a derogatory figure of speech to indicate political people without a shred of integrity]. He was enthusiastically received by the young and was a highly educated person [nuclear engineer – note: the current movers and shakers cannot even pronounce the word “nuclear” and say “new killer” – rather accurate and appropriate nomenclature, don’t you think? – instead]. But that person, a really wonderful human being, Jimmy Carter, did not make a good President.
(2) The economic philosophy of America is to let capitalism rule and then have the government ameliorate the worst side effects. Since the 80’s, since Ronald Reagan, instead of the government softening the ill effects of capitalism, government has been exacerbating [yes, even during the Bill Clinton era] the same. Obama means to go back to the old social contract. But the beneficiaries of the distortions [of government being by the corporations, for the corporations and of the corporations rather than by the people, for the people and of the people] are persons in positions of power and they’ll make it rather impossible for Obama, should he be elected, to implement that agenda; indeed they’ll make it impossible for him to effectively carry out the duties of the chief executive of this nation.
(3) In electing a President, Americans are electing the nearest thing we can have to a King. Oh yes, there is a hidden royalty worship in this land –witness the endless fascination with the British Royal family! And we want the elected King to be a person “above” us, not like us. Barrack and wife are too much like us. Yes they both went to Princeton and Harvard [Law School]. But many of us know such people. They understand us; they know where we are coming from. Royalty needs to be more removed from ordinary lives.
(4) It is part of the unwritten Constitution that anyone with a Muslim name cannot be elected anything, leave aside president. You may say that there is no such thing as a “Muslim name” really. There are Arab names, or African names or Indian names, English names, etc. So, you have known Christians from the Middle East whose names, to us, would be very Muslim indeed. Now, few in America would recognize his first name, Barrack [remember Ehud Barrack, PM of Israel?], as from the Middle East or his last, Obama, as African. But as soon as he is nominated, the most bruited about name with great and heavy insinuation will be his middle name, Hussein. That will automatically equate him to “terrorist” in tens of millions of minds and tens of millions of others will be so persuaded to equate. Already the other party is calling him Barrack Hussein Osama and openly saying he sympathizes with terrorists. Never mind that he is a regular church-attending Christian. Also, I don’t like the fact that in this most “secular” of countries, you are disqualified as a candidate for office due to your religion or sect. Case in point: Mitt Romney.

Don’t rule Hillary out yet. She was valedictorian of her [also Ivy League Law] class! Unlike many Americans, especially American males who for some reason feel threatened by her, I have nothing against Hillary. Here’s a new twist, our perpetual spoiler, fellow resident of Connecticut, Ralph Nader [there’s a Middle Eastern name for you, Nadir] has, as per usual, thrown a monkey wrench into the works – declared his candidacy. He usually takes votes away from Democrats. I really, really admire Nader’s contribution to American consumer rights. However, he’s getting cranky, just like me. Here I am, trying to teach these gems of knowledge to my students, and no one is paying attention! So I can sympathize even as I realize both of us are getting tiresome. Even Garrison Keillor, the Democrat’s Democrat, was lampooning him on the “Prairie Home Companion” on Sunday.

This is certain – we live in interesting times.

March 5, 2008
PS: Yep, it has happened. Hillary has pulled a rabbit out of a hat. She has won Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. The fight continues to the bitter end. At the same time, John McCain has clinched the Republican nomination. Some pundits say now he can bash the Democrats even as the two Democrats are busy bashing each other all the way to the Convention. Other pundits weakly suggest that bashing each other keeps them firmly in the news and gives Democratic policies and Democrats free publicity. We do indeed live in interesting times!

Safiul