Many of my friends in Canada are politically involved and most of us follow US politics along with our own. In fact, our politics have been rather business like and dull lately and while that's probably a good thing, it doesn't have the entertainment value that it had when Trudeau, Mulroney or Chretien were in office.
On the other hand, since Bush v Gore and all that followed, US politics has been to say the least interesting. One of our newspaper columnists once called it "somewhere between a circus and a trainwreck" and while that may be overstating it, there's some truth there.
But aside from the entertainment value, US politics has an importance derived from American impact on the world economy and international stability. To that degree, we all have a stake in what's happening even though we don't vote and we have to hope and expect that our governments react and adapt well to US events and developments.
For this reason, the growing split or more realistically, chasm between the right and the left in the US is more than disturbing. We all have some level of extremism in our politics and it ebbs and flows with time and events. In the 60's the most radical level of extremism came from the left sparked by the Vietnam War and opposition to it. The difference between that, however, and what seems to be happening today in the US is alarming. The 60's left was made up by people who could be called virtually disenfranchised--not that they did not have the right to vote (some, because of age didn't) but because they did not own property, have established jobs or were not part of the mainstream. They were students, the unemployed or underemployed, African Americans or members of other minorities.
Today however, it is apparent that extremism comes from the right and what makes that particularly disturbing is that its proponents and followers are not the disenfranchised and marginalized but are the mainstream, property owners, job holders, big business and big media (as in Fox) It's this fact that makes this level of extremism more toxic and more likely to damage or destroy the very structure of the US.
Those of us who watch this from countries outside the US have experienced a growing sense of unease despite the election of Barack Obama who seems to us a breath of fresh air compared to what was there before him. But it has become apparent that US discourse and government may have become so dysfunctional due to the level of toxicity emanating from the right that restoration and rebuilding may not in fact be possible. This is not good news for people abroad of goodwill.
Everyday, in the world of the internet and satellite tv, people see or read about the new horror story--the debt and deficit, Tuscon, Arizona show me your papers, lack of reasonable gun control and proliferation of gun violence and inexplicably to most of us, vociferous and deranged opposition to a rather moderate health care bill. The next decade will be about global competition, jockeying for influence and building partnerships and alliances. Governments are reflections of the attitudes of their people. If they're not, they go the way of Mubarek. The US will need to build a credible and progressive narrative as to why it should lead global expansion and economic development. And yet this is what people around the world have seen on this and other US websites over the past few days.
1. Idaho considering nullification legislation
2.Missouri seeking to eradicate child labour laws
3.Kansas to further liberalize gun laws to allow the blind to own guns
4.South Dakota considering legislation to legitimatize the murder of abortion doctors
6.Arizona wanting to require doctors to refuse to treat illegal immigrants in non emergency situations.
And more everyday
For the many thinking, rational, liberal and humane Americans who want to turn this around, we are cheering for you. I hope it can be turned around and that 2012 will break this tide of nativist, objectivist, anti progressivism nonsense. Good luck to you
