A Little Election Education

AREN’T THOSE Americans stupid? If they are not eating themselves to an early grave through the mass consumption of KFC, they’re electing a president with the intelligence of lobotomised fly. And aren’t they so brash and so uncultured? If only they weren’t so reactionary and took the time to think things through and analyse, in an intellectual manner, as we do.

So goes the stereotype the British love to tar the Americans with. Yeah sure, they’re the most politically powerful nation on the planet, but we know deep down, with a wink and a nudge, that we are superior. Is it not us who bridges the gap between them and Europe, keeping them onside with our special relationship, taming their unilateral instincts with our international democratic vigour? We know we’re the intellectual ideal, the more domestically reflective state that the world wishes America would be.

But are we so ideal? So much more intellectually thorough in our processes? I wouldn’t be so sure. It has struck me recently that we have much to learn from American democracy, particularly from their electoral process. Unless you have been in a coma since the Christmas holidays, you will not have failed to notice the increasingly fractious race for the White House, which has left three candidates bloodied but still standing.

Bloodied is certainly the word for it. I can think of no more rigorous process of fighting to the very top of the political pile than presidential primaries followed by presidential elections. Clinton and Obama, the remaining Democratic candidates, have spent the best part of four months attempting to tear chunks out of each other’s political reputation. Obama is, according to camp Clinton, supreme at rhetoric but low on substance, whilst the “Obama-maniacs” portray Clinton as a shrill opportunist. McCain, the now victorious Republican nominee, managed to fight off attacks from the right wing of his own party.

Add to this the in depth scouring of each contender’s private life and private dealings, and you have an incredibly hard-edged power struggle on your hands. Any major elect-able weaknesses will be squeezed out by a zealous media and fed to the sceptical masses. For instance, Obama has got this far primarily on his gift for public speaking, but if he faces the Republican machine in the national election, he is going to need every drop of policy substance he can muster.

Now compare this to the dusty politics of Britain. How did we come to have Gordon Brown as our PM? Well, he was parachuted in unopposed, sailing through on the back of the ‘smooth transition of power’ card he played to the Labour Party members (Why should the rest of us have a say in who the Prime Minister is?) David Cameron, I seem to recall, was elected after he demonstrated the nifty ability to deliver a speech whist walking back and forth across a stage, as opposed to standing still. As for Nick Clegg, the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, does anybody even remember his leadership campaign?

Where were the democratic ideals we pride ourselves on here? The Conservative leadership election was short enough that Cameron was able to win it without uttering a single policy, being elected by card-carrying Tories, still wowed at his ever-so-clever conference speech. Gordon Brown was also not subjected to the questions, fears and hopes of his electorate. It was rumoured at the time that he may have faced a challenge from David Miliband. I think it would have benefited us all to see both of them compete face-to-face, policy-to-policy, over a sustained period, in order for us to make an informed decision as to who leads us.

The American public have been weighing up its options for some time, and won’t be rushed into its decision. They may get it spectacularly wrong in our opinion, the case in point being the incumbent Bush, but at least they had some idea of what they were letting themselves in for. Our system allows us to know little or nothing about our prospective leaders. So it makes little sense to claim to be the reflective voice of reason. How are we superior America when we elect our leaders on the whim of the few, compared to the will of the many?

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