IT'S 5 p.m in the East Coast of the United States on November 6, 2012! As I write this column, voting for the US presidential elections is underway. Before 1 conclude this piece we will know who the next president will be. Whatever the outcome, the election mania will subside in a day or two.
The mania may subside, but Americans need to go through some serious introspection about the election process. The most controversial topic this election season has been campaign financing and advertising. According to estimates, the total cost of the elections was $5.8 billion — more than the entire annual
GDP of Malawi. For the presidential elections alone, the Obama campaign raised $1.08 billion and Mitt Romney garnered $1.13 billion. Apart from personal contributions which have a cap, the new funding mechanism is the Super Political Action Committee (PAC) which came into existence in 2010 by a US Supreme Court ruling. Super PACs can receive unlimited amounts of money from corporations and unions for supporting or opposing a candidate. In addition, campaign activities could be funded by non-profit organisations that are not required to reveal their donors.
The bulk of the money raised by campaigns is used for advertisements and advocacy, ostensibly to inform voters about candidates and their key policy choices. Instead, the voter pool is preponderantly subjected to a tirade of negative ads and robot calls which essentially run down the opponent. Sometimes the attacks can become vicious --
for example the false allegations that President Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya. (The US Constitution, however, does not bar a person of any faith from running for public office).
The phenomenal influx of money from interest groups comes with a heavy price. It can influence and skew subsequent public policy to serve vested interests. In addition, when electoral outcomes are primarily determined by the amount of money spent, the fundamental principle of one-man one vote is substantively undermined. Higher influence of special interests means lesser electoral equity.
Those who read my columns regularly may be a bit puzzled by my reservations about the US electoral system. You might ask why, despite my qualms, I have been so proactively involved in the presidential campaign. It's a perfectly reasonable question. And my answer is: because I still believe in the democratic process. As I cast my vote this morning, I felt empowered because, in the final analysis, every vote counts. AI Gore was defeated by only 537 votes and we know how those 537 voters changed the world...
It's past midnight and we now know that Barack Obama will return to the Oval Office for four more years!
The country is not poised at the best place right now and many of us are disillusioned. But I still believe that a second term presidency for Barack Obama will make a big difference. While every election has long term implications, this one was especially crucial. In simple terms it was a victory of the progressive forces against conservatism at its extreme. Apart from the debates on "more government or less government" and "higher taxes or tax cuts for the rich," there were critical social issues at play. Equal pay for women, a woman's right to make choices about abortion and her reproductive health, universal health care, safety nets for the retired and disabled, equal rights for gays and lesbians being some. The country has overwhelmingly voted for these reforms despite the noises created by big money trying to convince voters otherwise. Post election analysts and politicians continue to attribute President Obama's victory to demographic factors like Latino and female votes. But, for me, the results indicate that the common people comprehend the gravity of the impact of the president's proposed policies and have opted to change the trajectory of the US toward a new frontier.
When I first came to this country I was impressed by the diversity of races, religions and ethnicities. The election outcome has demonstrated the collective power of these diverse forces in influencing the direction of political discourse. It has also proved that when common people take ownership and fight for a cause their voices can make a difference.
On a personal note, I believe that President Obama really cares for all of us. True, sometimes he is caught up in the tangle of partisan politics. But I know that his heart is in the right place. He has been on the other side of the isle, having been raised by a single mother in a racially mixed family. Hence he understands the struggle of the common man. It's comforting to know that the man sitting in the Oval Office empathises with 100% of Americans and not just the top 1%.
The doomsayers will continue to tell us that the president's efforts will be blocked by the Republican Congress and he will be ineffective. May be that's true, but tomorrow is another day. Today, I want to sleep with a single thought in my heart: "HOPE!"