Not What the World Needs Now......Four More Years!
Just a few short weeks ago Indonesia voted in a new President, the first time it has ever had direct presidential elections. This was the third in a series of complex nation-wide elections, which were commonly accepted in Indonesia and the world as being largely clean and well run. No mean achievement in a country
as vast as Indonesia with a culture of corruption and money politics. The country can reasonably look forward with a degree of optimism to future administrations that, however imperfectly, will address the country’s huge problems of corruption, flawed judiciary, and raising the standard of living for the nation’s jobless and poor. The people of Indonesia have given the lie to the claim made by the country’s entrenched elite, that their less fortunate countrymen are just too stupid or ignorant to be trusted with the vote and that elections need to be “guided” or skewed to protect the influence of the rich and powerful. When it came down to it, the people of Indonesia showed an impressive maturity of judgment voting overwhelmingly for fairness and competence, for a moderate, open and non-military government.
Contrast that with what’s going on in America right now. A deeply divided nation goes to the polls, whose very structure has been shown to be seriously compromised and open to all kinds of electoral abuse. Electoral boundaries have been gerrymandered, tens of thousands of new voter registrations have been deliberately destroyed, large numbers of legally registered voters will be denied their vote, armies of partisan lawyers are attempting to disenfranchise their opponents and goon squads of party faithful plan to descend on the polling booths in an attempt to intimidate and mislead citizens seeking to cast their ballot. Unless there is an unexpectedly clear victory by a good margin the country could be in grave trouble.
And this is the Land of the Free, a shining beacon of liberty for the rest of the world to envy and emulate? What has a country like this to teach the rest of the world one may well ask?
Well, in the event, the election didn’t quite work out like that. George Bush got himself re-elected by sufficiently large a margin of both the popular and the electoral vote for Kerry to quickly concede defeat, leaving hordes of unemployed lawyers of both persuasions to gnash their teeth in fury. Meantime. Americans are already patting themselves on the back for the health of their democracy.
Are they justified in doing so? Hardly. One percentage point shift in Ohio could have called the entire election in question and made the Florida debacle last time around look like a picnic. No, Americans were simply lucky. They have little cause for self-congratulation and much for self-examination.
Quite where an entrenched and triumphant right wing Republican party will take the country domestically and what the results of that will be, one can only speculate and wish America well. Certainly Bush intends to alter the complexion of the country by packing the Supreme Court and moving the “moderate centre” sharply to the right. How long the Republican rich can pull the wool over the eyes of the poor and middle classes by appealing to “moral” issues (read abortion, gay marriage and guns) over self interest remains to be seen. Democrats, who had most of the arguments in this election, have to learn how not to be outflanked on these issues. Most Americans are obviously not ready to accept gay marriage with all the trimmings, even if most can and do stomach civil unions among gays.
Overseas, a Bush victory is not the result that the world wanted to see. Bush’s America alarms almost everyone, national leaders and public alike. Even in countries like Britain and Poland, who number themselves among the dwindling ”Alliance of the Willing”, it is only their leaders who support the US in Iraq. Their countrymen overwhelmingly do not.
American triumphalism, arrogance, cultural imperialism and knee-jerk patriotism is deeply disliked everywhere in the world. America has always pursued its national self interest just like any other country, it is just that US leaders have for the most part been perceived by its friends and allies as acting from enlightened self-interest. From Woodrow Wilson to Bill Clinton, even including Richard Nixon, for the past 90 years American involvement in the world has been seen overall as a positive force. Not any more. In four short years Bush and his cohort have seen to that.
Does that really matter to Americans? Possibly not, but it should. And in days to come it will.
America may be the world’s richest country, an economic and military colossus, the world’s one and only superpower, but even the briefest knowledge of history shows that empires based on military power alone do not last long. British supremacy rested on the industrial revolution it led and free trade. The dream of empire lasted barely 70 years and this imperial overstretch was directly responsible for the country’s economic decline. The Roman Empire lasted some 400 years and its cultural effect is still felt 2,000 years later. Its longevity was based on cultural inclusivity, not just the power of the legions. From Scotland to the Persian Gulf people could say, like the apostle Saint Paul, “civis Romanus sum” and be protected under the law. Even barbarians got to be Emperor. The Caliphate brought peace, tolerance and learning for centuries from Baghdad to Marrakesch, including large chunks at both ends of Europe.
America under Bush seems to be building an America based on the unilateral expression of economic and military power, combined with an unappealing self-righteousness and certitude that the American way is the best, if not the only way. Such thinking is seriously misguided. It cannot work and indeed it already does not. The US is already militarily and financially overextended. It may have the hardware, it just doesn’t have the young men. In no time at all the country has gone from trillions of dollars surplus to trillions of debt. It’s entire economy is underwritten by investment in the dollar by Europe and Asia, who own large chunks of corporate America.
Some Americans may indulge themselves characterising Europeans as effete, idle and impious slackers with no stomach for a fight, looking for a free ride from Uncle Sam, but this misses the point. Who’s really the fool here?
Consider: the European Union is already easily the largest market in the world. American corporations from Microsoft to GEC have found the truth of this to their cost and have had to modify their behaviour accordingly, even within the US. The countries that constitute the EU make up the largest voting block in all world trade bodies. What’s decided in these bodies is binding upon America. The EU already gives more aid to developing countries than the US and that too translates into political influence. Mao was wrong, power does not come from the barrel of a gun. Wealth is power and wealth trumps the gun in the long run, every time. Europeans have decided to go for economic power and a social compact giving all its citizens a reasonable life, free from abject poverty, with the state underwriting pensions, health and education. Not a bad deal. In return they have to forego military power and glory, which considering Europe’s bloody history, is the smart move.
And it’s not just Europe either. Joining Japan, China’s economy is already powerfully influencing the Asian region and India’s potentially vast economy is finally on the move. None of these countries are currently attempting to challenge the US in military spending, nor likely to any time soon. Why would they? Apart from the question of China and Taiwan, the major concern of the leaders of these countries is to stay in power by making their citizens healthier and wealthier.
In America you can find the best of everything. It is richer and better armed than any other nation on earth, so it may come as a surprise to most Americans to know that there are ordinary men and women in other countries who live in societies that are more democratic than the US and which provide them with better healthcare, better education and security in old age, not to mention quality of life, than the average US citizen enjoys.
Now that the Bushites are free to get rid of the few grown-ups in their administration, Colin Powell for example, declaring a mandate with 49% of the country staunchly opposed to them, they are free to do it “their way” at home and abroad. Understandably the prospect alarms the rest of the world, even more than they already are, just as it should alarm any thinking
American. Four more years of Bush can only confirm and increase resistance to American influence and hasten the country’s decline as the world’s only superpower. Sad in a way, the world and America have missed an opportunity for the good, but based on the last four years, perhaps it is no bad thing.
