Backgrounder: United
States Election
Hadiza Wada, DBA ...October 31, 2010
With three days ahead of us to the
Tuesday Election, we again write in the hopes of further informing our readers
of some basics before the actual elections.
Our article from last week may sound too simplistic, because it stressed
one factual side of the argument.
But as you may have seen across the screens of your TV sets as well as heard on
radio from many news sources within the last few weeks, the battle for
nationwide legislative seats and gubernatorial seats across many states of the
United States was no joke. Each
party has been busy and fighting hard for those seats, even as polls continue to
sound upbeat for the Republicans and discouraging for Democratic voters.
There are many
facets to the dilemma, it all depends on what one wants to emphasize. For example, even though
historically voters have maintained some balance of power by refusing any single
party complete control of the executive and legislative branches of government
at the same time, the variables at play each election time varies, and these are
what makes the news headlines on such occasions.
Everyone tries to work with and/or around such variables, holding some
variables constant while manipulating others to ensure an upper hand.
Many political analysts have maintained
that it is not the reasoning or will of the majority of the voters, who one will
describe as the middle and lower class groups that will shape the outcome of the
election. These are the two classes
that the Democratic Party mainly draws supporters from. Such analysts say that the present
political system is “broken” and by that they mean more people will vote for the
Republicans out of the way the system is set up.
Others from the frustration they encounter with the present democratic
administration for not getting what they want “quick” enough. But it may not be mainly because the
Republicans have anything better to offer.
This may not make good sense, you may say, but this is how it works
presently within the framework of the two-party system the country maintains.
But minority voters, especially African
Americans, Hispanics and others all have a divergent view from the mainstream
press. The press, which has been criticized for about two decades as one
representing mainly the interest of big corporations that own them of course
will have issues with any government that will come hard on corporations, the
financial markets that sustains them, and Wall Street that buys its stocks.
The first order of business of the Obama
Administration, after inheriting a failing economy, unemployment, and inflation,
was working on some regulations that reign in the wild barely regulated market. That lax regulation, as per
financial experts, was largely responsible for the collapse of the economy.
A few intellectual African Americans feel
that some harsh criticisms of the Obama Administration is coming from some ultra
conservative groups who do not believe any colored person is fit enough to be
the commander in chief of the nation, and they hide behind other groups such as
the “Tea Party” movement to attack
the President and his team. They
agree however that, people generally have short term memory and will not
remember where the nation was back in 2008 when the baton was passed onto a
democratic Obama administration, and that is a hard pill to swallow and an
equally hard point to make at election time.
Every individual voting class sees the
issues in different light. Others
especially from the majority white population express a neutral view voicing
their frustration with the bickering between political parties that has
practically stalled the government. The
two of the most incredible successes of the Obama Administration i.e. Health
Care Reform attempted by many past administrations for almost a century without
success; and a reform of the financial institutions were both passed along party
lines. Not only that, but unknown to many people there still is some less
visible Republican stalling going on.
Many credible publications, including an influential African American
talk radio (Radio One) have discussed and pointed to for example a back-up in
judicial approval of judges across the nation causing intense frustrations for
the court system, since the Obama Administration got on board in 2008.
It is some of those who want
to express their disgust with the bickering that made up a large share of the
audience that converged on the National
Mall today, at a nationwide rally called by two of the most popular
comedians from Comedy Central Jon
Stewart and Steven Colbert. The
rally tagged “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” drew an enormous amount of
people from across the nation
The Tea Party
Movement
So what is the tea party and
what is the story behind their emergence?
The most credible explanation goes back to the President’s own
constituency of Chicago, where a single individual Rick Santelli, a Business
News editor from a television network CNBC made a protest call from the floor of
the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on February 19, 2009 against the first major
action the Obama administration had taken, as a result of the Republican
Administration’s economic policy woes.
News of a failing economy emerged while he was still a President-elect. By the next day various news sources
including Fox News Channel were using the same tag to describe the call. Today the Tea Party movement is
described by Wikipedia as “… a populist,
conservative/libertarian, grassroots, political movement in the United States
that emerged in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally coordinated
protests. The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and a series of
healthcare reform bills.”
Because of the historical
famous Boston Tea Party event, people may think there is a relation, but wiki
explains that there is no connection as such.
What
about the statistical representations racially?
A poll conducted by CBS News, one of the four major television networks
in the U.S. in the state of New Jersey shows some significant difference in the
level of support the administration gets from various voter groups. “Most of us still believe he’s doing
a good job” commented one of the African Americans.
The polls say 85 percent of black voters
believe he’s made progress on the economy, while only 36 percent of white voters
agree; 85 percent of African-Americans think he’s made headway in providing
affordable healthcare, while only 40 percent of whites do.
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