Thursday, May 20, 2010
Powerful anti-Washington mood stalks primaries
From The Hindu
It has happened. The American election juggernaut has begun to creak into action six months ahead of its slated, official start.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, three states — Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Arkansas — faced primaries: intra-party elections in which candidates for the United States Congress from each party get nominated.
As one would expected in this feisty democracy — which could even compete with India in its degree of rambunctiousness — political pundits shifted into top gear as the results began to trickle in. Since then predictions have been flying fast and furious with all eyes on one variable — what does this mean for November?
While the answer is far from clear, one strong trend has become immediately evident: a powerful anti-Washington mood has gripped voters across the country.
In Kentucky, the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement scored a major victory — arguably its first in mainstream politics — when its candidate Rand Paul defeated Republican stalwart Trey Grayson, garnering close to 59 per cent of the vote.
Mr. Paul, the son of the former Congressman and Republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, was swept to the forefront after months of wooing the conservative Republicans with a promise to attack the soaring budget deficit, eliminate congressional earmarks and institute term limits.
Tea Party gains
His success marks a key inflection point for the Tea Party movement, and will likely galvanise their grassroots efforts in primaries in other states. Or so some pundits argued.
Others, including Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine, described Mr. Paul as an “extreme candidate” who “used a small part of the electorate to win over Grayson”.
For many Democrats then, Mr. Paul's victory would appear to improve their prospects in Kentucky.
In Pennsylvania, the sub-plot to the primary reflected the strong anti-incumbency mood more than anywhere else; heightening the risk that the November Congressional elections may be swept out of the hands of the Democrats.
In this state, it was a long-time Washington insider who lost his job. Senator Arlen Specter who, in a controversial volte face shifted allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic Party in 2009, was trounced by Representative Joe Sestak despite endorsements from the White House and leading Democrats.
Mr. Sestak, who took out TV advertisements criticising Mr. Specter's changing party allegiances, was quoted as saying: “This is what democracy looks like… A win for the people, over the establishment, over the status quo, even over Washington, DC.”
Arkansas also saw support for a Washington insider, Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln, wobble dangerously. She came away with a sliver of a lead over state Lieutenant-Governor Bill Halter. Too narrow a margin for her to avoid a run-off decider vote next month.
Observers cited a range of reasons why Mr. Halter did better than expected. While he had a reasonably solid support base — including labour unions, liberal groups and conservative voters in rural counties — it was too variegated to warrant any sweeping conclusions about his state-wide popularity. That conclusion, in turn, lends credence to the theory that the Arkansas result was principally shaped by a general air of mistrust surrounding Washington politics.
While Washington Democrats have held sway over Congress since 2008, they are in serious danger of losing at least a part of their control in November if this week's primaries are anything to go by. If it is not the far-right Tea Party, it may well be anti-establishment, local champions who oust them.
This would mean President Barack Obama would have a much harder time getting legislation passed.
Yet it is not all doom and gloom — Democrats and the White House have several powerful trends that may counteract the anti-incumbency mood, including improving jobs figures month-on-month, and possibly better healthcare outcomes in the aftermath of the hard-fought battle against insurance companies.
But these are hardly forces that Mr. Obama can rely on for success in November. If he wishes to save his Democratic colleagues from looming electoral defeat, he will need to continue reaching out to the American people to explain why their country is not as badly off as they think it is — and what he and Congress have done to help.
Labels: Democrats, elections, Republicans, Tea Party Movement, U.S. primaries, United States Congress
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Tea Party protest turns hostile
From The Hindu
During a protest over the weekend, organised by the conservative Tea Party movement, crowds attacked Democratic members of Congress present on the scene with racist slurs and abuses over sexual orientation, revealing an ugly side of political polarisation the United States.
The protests — centred around the healthcare reform bill that Congress was scheduled to vote on — turned hostile as members of the Congressional Black Caucus were leaving the Longworth House office building from across the Capitol.
According to a member of staff for Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, Representative John Lewis of Georgia was subjected to racist slurs and a derogatory term relating to sexual orientation was hurled at Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, an openly gay Congressman. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri was spat on by a protestor.
In a statement to the Huffington Post Mr. Clyburn said, “It was absolutely shocking to me… Fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since… March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus.” Mr. Clyburn said he had told one heckler that he was “the hardest person in the world to intimidate, so they better go somewhere else.”
He went on to add, “A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this… is not about health care at all. A lot of those people today demonstrated that this… is about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful.”
In a similar vein Mr. Frank was reported to have said, “I'm disappointed with the unwillingness to be civil… I was… surprised by the rancour. What it means is obviously the health care bill is proxy for a lot of other sentiments, some of which are perfectly reasonable, but some of which are not.”
According to reports, Capitol police escorted the members of Congress into the Capitol after the confrontation. At least one demonstrator was reported arrested in connection with the spitting incident although a spokesman for Mr. Cleaver was reported as saying that he would not be pressing charges.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union programme on Sunday, Democrat John Larson and Republican Mike Spence, both from the House of Representatives, condemned the incident.
The Tea Party movement, which rose into prominence last year, is a fiscally conservative political group whose primary appeal was based on its opposition to the stimulus package of 2009 and expansionary social welfare policies such as healthcare reform.
Labels: Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Tea Party Movement
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A new brew of American politics
From The Hindu
Ever got sick of mainstream American politics and looked for alternatives? Yet frightened away by the right-wing fringe elements in the new Tea Party Movement? Well now you have yet another beverage-sipping group of moderates you can join: welcome to the Coffee Party.
Started by documentary filmmaker Annabel Park on her Facebook page just over six weeks ago, the Coffee Party has brimmed over with more than 126,000 fans on the social networking website and already a presence in over 30 states. And they profess that theirs is a unique blend of politics, “not in any way aligned with the Democrats or Republicans or any party,” according to Ms. Park. This coffee isn’t black or white.
While there is much they have in common with the Tea Party movement that arose equally rapidly last year in opposition to big government spending and higher taxes, the focus of the Coffee Party is on dialogue and a greater willingness to “work with the government and restore the democratic process to the people”, according to one of its chapter leaders.
With its nationwide kickoff on March 13, designated National Coffee Party Day, nearly 400 coffee shop gatherings across the country began stirring into action. And what would they do, besides sit around steaming mugs of Java?
Their website, www.coffeepartyusa.com says the Party’s primary mission is to “give voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government”. In a marked divergence from the Tea Party it affirms that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of the collective will of Americans, and participation in the democratic process is essential to address the challenges that the nation now faces.
So is there anyone at all that the caffeine enthusiasts disagree with? The site goes on to say, “We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.” Yet they do not require nor adhere to any pre-existing ideology, they hasten to add.
In a recent interview Ms. Park reiterated both her passion for coffee and determination to fix a “broken” political system through discourse. “First of all I love coffee,” she confessed.
“There is a historical reference as well. During the American revolution, after they dumped tea into the water, they declared coffee the national drink and that was the solution. So I associate coffee not only with the solution to problems but also with people working hard… to get our government to represent us.”
Ms. Park said that their main preoccupation was to get meaningful representation in government for those disillusioned by the paralysing politics of today’s America. “We don’t feel represented by our government right now, and we don’t really feel represented by the media either,” she opined. “So it’s kind of a call to action for people to wake up and take control of their future and demand representation. That involves people standing up and speaking out and we’re encouraging people to do that by getting together and getting the conversation going.”
All sound like a bland brew of generalised discontentment? Well hang on to your mug, there are still some good ideas in there. Ms. Parker went on to explain, “I think most of us feel that the two-party system is incredibly outdated. It encourages people to think of politics as a kind of game, like a football game, in which there are two sides and it is a zero-sum situation.”
Arguing that a system in which one person’s win was another person’s loss was not a healthy for conducting collective decision-making, she said, “That’s not a democracy. Democracy should start with the sense that we’re a community and we share common goals and values and that there’s such a thing as a common good that we’re all working towards”
Now there’s an idea worth more than a few coffee beans. Watch this space.
Ever got sick of mainstream American politics and looked for alternatives? Yet frightened away by the right-wing fringe elements in the new Tea Party Movement? Well now you have yet another beverage-sipping group of moderates you can join: welcome to the Coffee Party.
Started by documentary filmmaker Annabel Park on her Facebook page just over six weeks ago, the Coffee Party has brimmed over with more than 126,000 fans on the social networking website and already a presence in over 30 states. And they profess that theirs is a unique blend of politics, “not in any way aligned with the Democrats or Republicans or any party,” according to Ms. Park. This coffee isn’t black or white.
While there is much they have in common with the Tea Party movement that arose equally rapidly last year in opposition to big government spending and higher taxes, the focus of the Coffee Party is on dialogue and a greater willingness to “work with the government and restore the democratic process to the people”, according to one of its chapter leaders.
With its nationwide kickoff on March 13, designated National Coffee Party Day, nearly 400 coffee shop gatherings across the country began stirring into action. And what would they do, besides sit around steaming mugs of Java?
Their website, www.coffeepartyusa.com says the Party’s primary mission is to “give voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government”. In a marked divergence from the Tea Party it affirms that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of the collective will of Americans, and participation in the democratic process is essential to address the challenges that the nation now faces.
So is there anyone at all that the caffeine enthusiasts disagree with? The site goes on to say, “We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.” Yet they do not require nor adhere to any pre-existing ideology, they hasten to add.
In a recent interview Ms. Park reiterated both her passion for coffee and determination to fix a “broken” political system through discourse. “First of all I love coffee,” she confessed.
“There is a historical reference as well. During the American revolution, after they dumped tea into the water, they declared coffee the national drink and that was the solution. So I associate coffee not only with the solution to problems but also with people working hard… to get our government to represent us.”
Ms. Park said that their main preoccupation was to get meaningful representation in government for those disillusioned by the paralysing politics of today’s America. “We don’t feel represented by our government right now, and we don’t really feel represented by the media either,” she opined. “So it’s kind of a call to action for people to wake up and take control of their future and demand representation. That involves people standing up and speaking out and we’re encouraging people to do that by getting together and getting the conversation going.”
All sound like a bland brew of generalised discontentment? Well hang on to your mug, there are still some good ideas in there. Ms. Parker went on to explain, “I think most of us feel that the two-party system is incredibly outdated. It encourages people to think of politics as a kind of game, like a football game, in which there are two sides and it is a zero-sum situation.”
Arguing that a system in which one person’s win was another person’s loss was not a healthy for conducting collective decision-making, she said, “That’s not a democracy. Democracy should start with the sense that we’re a community and we share common goals and values and that there’s such a thing as a common good that we’re all working towards”
Now there’s an idea worth more than a few coffee beans. Watch this space.
Labels: American politics, Annabel Park, Coffee Party, Tea Party Movement
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