Professor Lawrence Lessig, apparently a supporter of the Republicans, teaches at Harvard. He recently commented on the youth movement in Hong Kong that is fighting for the democracy promised when the British handed over the colony. He contrasted this brave resistance to the diktats of the Chinese Communist party, who insist on nominating the candidates for “election” to the Hong Kong government, with the utter indifference of the American young, to the corrupt system in the United States. Lessig even started a PAC to raise money for independent-minded office aspirants (it failed – he was overwhelmed by the serious big money) .
In the US candidates for election to Congress are vetted and chosen by the big donors, and do their bidding. The new Congress elected yesterday will be under the thumb of big business and the super-rich, who now effectively have not only their personal vote but multiple other votes through their surrogates. So much for one man, one vote. But there is not a peep from the young people who have traditionally fought for democracy and social justice. Maybe they have simply given up, but one hopes not. This is not a party matter, for both parties are now just fundraising machines, depending on a small handful of money-men; the good of the country comes – where?
You cannot have a quiet and pleasant life as an Epicurean when you see the country stolen from you by self-interest. Where I live we have no vote for Congress at all, let alone any effect on the corporatocracy. One feels powerless, just like most Chinese. Just because you are having a delightful time in your garden with friends does not mean you should be indifferent to the political and moral decline of the country you live in.
Allons enfants de la patrie! Get off your cellphones, stop taking selfies and take to the streets instead! And good luck, Hong Kong!
I’m not sure why so many young Americans vote Republican- they seem so stale and old-fashioned. Can anyone explain this phenomenon?
I hope I am not being too simplistic, but one can describe it as follows:
The large bulk of Republicans vote Republican against their own economic interests because:
– they identify with rich people even though they are poor. They are going to get rich sometime, yes?
– the Republicans encompass right wing Catholics and the extreme protestant sects, which disapprove of birth control, abortion, sex outside marriage etc and who support Israel unquestioningly.
– They are against “big government”, and, while happy to avail themselves of unemployment benefit, social security and other government services, like to believe they are standing on their own feet and are independent. This is a chimera.
– Guns. They are a constitutional right, yes? (no, not really, but that’s another argument).
– They mostly old, and white and resent blacks, immigrants, white women smarter than themselves, foreigners generally.. Republican politicians play to this. Like UKIP in England they also grumble about political correctness in all its
– there are the people who believe in the literal words of the bible, and those who think that global warming is a liberal swindle, and distrust science and all things modern.
Then there are the people who benefit from Republican economic, free market policies:
– Most powerful, obviously, are the millionsires, businessmen and financiers who pay for elections, and the theorists who still believe in trickle- down economics, freedom of trade and minimal oversight of industry. These are the effective rulers of the US; the politicians are their gophers.
The Republicans serve all these interests, prejudices, anxieties and, dare I say it, hatreds. But they are not unique – their equivalents can be found in every country in the world.
How would you rate the Democrats as a party, relative to the social democratic parties of Europe?
I apologise for the delay in replying; I accidentally overlooked your last question.
It is tempting to regard the Democrats as mirror images of European Social Democrats. They have done some good things, such as Obamacare. This is all they could do, given the hatred of anything that smells of socialism ( in fact it is a hodge- podge of compromises, unwieldy and expensive). Aside from that they espouse fairly sensible economic policies, and have reduced both the national debt, and unemployment. Growth is 3%, which, given the individual US income levels, is equivalent to about 10% in China. The problem is that the benefits flow to the few, and it is almost impossible to put the tax rate up for that minority of rich people. Meanwhile, Obama has tried mightily to avoid another war, unfortunately unsuccessfully. He is a good President, if far too detached, and no natural politician.
The problem is now the ridiculous ruling of the Supreme Court that money equals free speech. Now the chief occupation of every politician is raising money. This means that Democrats are now as beholden to the super-rich funders and over-paid CEO’s as their Republican counterparts are, and the main objective of politicians it to retain their jobs. We have just seen the Democratic party hold an election where almost none of them even mentioned, let alone defended, the record of their President.
The reality is that, by European standards, there are a few Democrats who could be mistaken for European Social Democrats, but they are rare. It is a Democrat government that is negotiating the anti-democratic TTIP. It is a Democrat government that is killing people, not all of them terrorists, with drones. It is on the Democrat’s watch that the CIA is trying to avoid being taken to task for torture, and it is under a Democrat that forced repatriation of immigrants has reached its peak ( there are excuses for these things, of course, but they don’t help much).
The civilised attitude “we are all in this together”, and that tax is a good thing if it helps to raise all boats, is an attitude that is sadly out of favour. Meanwhile, it is rather difficult to work out what the Democrats stand for.
Rather a long reply, and my wife and friends could no doubt give you more considered answers – I am not supposed to get into party politics, but wanted to give you an reasonable answer.