First let me be clear, this isn't an essay on the ins and outs of the current American political debate, but rather an attempt to underline why they are more important ,both to Americans themselves and to everyone else on the planet, than other mid terms elsewhere . I will give two examples (there are probably more but I want to be brief).
Primarily this is important because what the American people are going to elect actually has some power . Yep, that's right. Unlike in the UK or any other western democracy, the state elections for Governor and Legislature result in mini governments which actually have the ability to decide a whole variety of laws and raise/lower taxation. Contrast this to the local UK elections, in which the main power of a council is to do whatever the national government tells them and whose main funding is from the central government.
Furthermore, at the national level in America, their Congress, as a legislative body, is the one which makes national laws and is not just given a bill to pass, in the same fashion as a nodding donkey (like the UK Parliament, whose business and agenda is run by the government of the day). Even more interesting is that in the Senate, because of tradition, individual Senators can simply stand up and talk and talk, until they collapse, or are told to shut up by 60 of their colleagues, which given that there is only 100 members, is a good way of defeating legislation. So if your a British Prime Minister who wants an $800 billion stimulus package, you just click your fingers; in America this has to be actually decided by the Congress (which may or may not be led by your party).
As far as the world is concerned, well, given that it has actually power and that it is extremely likely Barrack Obama's party, the Democrats, will loose control of the Congress, you will see that Congress becomes a counter point of legislation in which the President's agenda is more or less ignored .This might read like it is domestically important: it is . But Congress, because it has power exclusive of the government, can also get in on foreign affairs and trade- be that in your view a good or a bad thing.
So whoever gets control of Congress it will effect both the US citizen and the rest of us living on the globe.
3 comments:
Thanks for this very well-written and accurate description of our system, which though it has some flaws and contradictions, does allow 'we the people' to administer some severe course corrections when those in power wander off too far.
Expect to hear from the left an unstinting barrage of excuses and accusations that the US has been hijacked by racist, xenophobic, right-wing extremists, and that none of this has anything to do with President Obama. Don't believe a word of it.
Yawn, isn't there anything better to talk about - what about the chillian miners?
What about the Chilian miners? They are freed. Good. End.
What his Lordship is referring to is our unending rotten political system. He does not go far enough as he makes no reference to the EU, which tells our parliament and government what to do through its Soviet style system. Would that we had something remotely approaching the US constitution - on a strict constructionist basis, of course!
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