USA: The November Elections - Corporate Influence, Polarization, Public Confusion - a European Perspective

Starting today, and until some time after the US November elections, EU-Digest editor, presently on site in the US, will be highlighting news items about these elections for our readers. The upcoming US elections are seen by many as likely deciding the fate of the United States for the foreseeable future. Based on what is at stake, the outcome of these elections will also be consequential for US relations with Europe and the rest of the world.

One of the most amazing facts about Barack Obama’s improbable run to the Presidency was the role of young people in energizing his campaign and persuading their skeptical elders that Obama was the best candidate in the field. It inspired a wave of youthful idealism that one had not seen since the 60’s in the US..This passion carried through the primaries and the general election, moving a mountain once thought unbridgeable in American politics and led to the election of US's first Black president. So if the Democrats want to do well and hold control in the US Congress or Senate they will need the support of these young people again, but the enthusiasm does not seem to be there at the moment, and time is running out.

Has the Obama Administration so far been successful ? Based on the state of the US economy when President Obama took over from the 8 year Bush Administration, the answer in all fairness should be yes.  To put it more bluntly, the Obama Administration, in its first two years, probably helped avoiding a Depression. They created a health care plan which began to extend coverage to the nation’s more than 45 million uninsured people. What Obama was not able to do within this relatively short time was to start with the modernization of the US infra-structure, and to begin making an investments in wind and solar energy, necessary to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and retard Global Warming.

These are precisely the programs the US economy needs to compete with other advanced nations and for it to maintain its standard of living without putting intolerable pressure on the world’s resources.

But obviously the Conservatives are not happy and a lot of people are listening to them.  Fact is that based on what Republican candidates and their T-Party surrogates have been saying, it now seems that the result of a win by them and their possible control of the US Congress in 2010, could mean that the US would be looking at a future whereby it would get: *No major investments in infrastructure repairs, *No national commitment to developing alternative energy resources or providing incentives to car buyers, homeowners and businesses to become more energy efficient, *No construction of a high speed rail system comparable to those that exist in Europe and Asia , *An end to unemployment benefits for people experiencing long term joblessness, *No expansion of rights for gay workers and families, *Continued excessive military spending and expansion abroad, *Continued deregulation with obvious catastrophic economic  results, * Watered down controls on the  financial and corporate sector , and * Social security cutbacks.

On the surface, therefore, the choices in November for the American voter seem simple and clear, but that does not seem to be the case in this election.

Even though a recent  POLITICO poll  shows the Democrats were seen as the party of ideas: 31 percent of the public think they’ve offered better ideas for how to govern this year, whereas only 22 percent of Americans say the same about the Republicans, and the Tea Party slides in third with only 16 percent support, 34 percent of Americans think the Democrats have been the most negative party during this election cycle, vs. 23 percent who say Republicans and 15 percent who name the Tea Party.This seems somewhat strange, as Democrats manage to appear both more negative, and more idea-oriented, than their conservative opponents. For some reason the more positive image of the Democrats does not appear to have rubbed off on the US voters. Is it because the Republicans and their T-Parry cohorts are spending untold millions on mostly-negative ads, that a majority of the voters are still under the impression that Obama and his party are making political hay instead of helping them. Is this a failure of the Democratic "spin-doctors" or just a question of large sums of money flowing into the Republican campaign effort from corporate and even unknown local and foreign sources, giving them the upper-hand in the media, TV and air-waves?

Only time will tell, but one thing seems certain to us outsiders looking in, the American voter is confused, adrift and not in touch with the reality that positive change usually has to come at first with hardship.

As an opener for these daily "Election USA" reports in EU-Digest we feature Clarence Page's editorial 'Tea Party working anti-elitist theme'

EU-Digest 

For permission to quote or publish EU-Digest reports : editor@eu-digest.com 

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