Hello! Here in Smolensk butcher’s shop we enjoy US Midterm Election. On Polling Day, assistant Yuri bake special pies. For Republicans he cook one made from innards of beasts you shoot in wild – beaver, badger, vole, reindeer, rat – and add special ingredient, tea. He call it "Middles America". But Yuri struggle with Democrat pie. He make good pastry – flour, water, egg, sawdust – but filling? At end, he leave empty, full of possibility, but unfulfilled. We call it "Yes We Might".
Election interesting for us. In Russia, like many countries, we abandon pluralist democracy as quaint outmoded political governance. Instead we have "managed democracy". Putin/Medvedev leadership control organs of opinion so outcome of elections known in advance. Plenty efficient: we not even have to vote! Similar process start in UK. There merger of liberals and conservatives into governing Coalition is post-political development. Ideological debate replaced by government of indistinguishable technocrats. UK also follow Russian example on services and welfare. With fall of Communism, Soviet public sector dismantled. Vacuum filled by business oligarchs and racketeers who, in exchange for local protections monopolies, "take care" of people. UK undertake similar exercise. Stringent deficit reduction will cut down rotten wood of state services. These will be replaced by lush vegetation of voluntary action. Everyone will teach each other’s kids Latin and Greek, build their own railroads and perform kidney transplants in their kitchens.
But of course US lead the way. You invented Enlightenment democratic models. Who better to abandon them? We watched in awe as some States restricted voting rights for poorer and minority ethnic communities. In 2000 Florida was beacon to post-democratic world, surpassed only by your Supreme Court. China, Iran and North Korea understood message of Patriot Act, Abu Ghraib and extraordinary renditions: human rights were also outmoded 18th Century paradigm, unnecessary for prosperity. We perceive declining importance of elections with more transfer of power from public bodies to corporations, and relentless cutbacks in services. But above all, we witness greatest innovation. In Russia or UK, while technocrats consolidate material and political power, populace is tranquilised by erosion of educational opportunity and endless diet of game shows, soap operas and magazines, with articles asking if Simon Cowell is Messiah. But US achieve sophistication beyond this. It put soap opera in White House! People so diverted by George W Bush crazy speech patterns he able to front up for real man of power, Lon Cheney.
But now innovation go further. Instead of have hilarious front man for backroom rightwinger, why not make everyone in government hilarious? Tea Party approach ensure anyone can now run for office if believe Bible enshrine man’s right to carry guns, abortion is genocide, separation of church and state is misprint in Constitution, Washington bureaucrats now swear oath of allegiance on copies of Das Kapital, a mosque anywhere within a 6000 mile radius of Ground Zero is offensive and requires military action, the way to deal with homosexuals in military is to use for target practice, penal sanctions for flag-burning and rape should be the same, and poor people don’t need no health insurance as there ain’t nothing that can’t be cured by praising Jesus. Halleluiah! And after Tuesday, these are now the people who now control America! Government of the idiot, by the idiot, for the idiot.
Of course, between Bush and Tea Party was strange interlude: banking crisis, credit crunch and global economic downturn. It challenged post-democratic ideas. Suddenly, did we again need democracy and other dated concepts like reason and evidence to underpin our political and economic decisions? A Man of Reason emerged, who offered intelligent discourse, mobilised so many voters that elections again seem meaningful, and even proposed reversal of endless erosion of state, with new settlements on schooling, infrastructure and healthcare. But fortunately for America and post-democratic world, interlude short and feeble. In fact when Tea Party talk of need to "take back" country, they had set themselves easy task. Democrats were holding it so lightly.
Now I know many Democrats visit this excellent website. And today you all sad. Of course you got compensations. Still got Senate. Non-witch and opponent of people playing with their Ivans Christine O’Donnell lose. You can give yourselves a hand for that. But you probably all got sore head and heart full of sadness. So I ask local Smolensk politics egghead Student Arkady if he got any advice for you. He say, "What I not understand is timidity of US left. If Obama believe in healthcare reform, why was launch of policy so messy, lacking clear blueprint? Why was policy development left to ambivalent and divided Congress and not set out in advance along clear, principled lines? Why in short was a vacuum created for opponents to flood with hostile opinions? And Democrats say they believe in change, that crisis of banks and global economy require new economic paradigm. Very good. So what is it?
"Or are Democrats conflicted? Do all the triangulations of Clinton years mean that aside from the lofty poetry of Obama they can no longer speak clearly and practically about what they believe and thus match the simple, loudly articulated vision of their opponents? It looks like they believe banking needs drastic reform, even global regulatory oversight. But that they also want banks onside to prop up short-term economic recovery by lending again. So Democrats are caught between trading their principles in for that political gain or serving the long term. So they do very little. They know that the answers to many of their problems mean more not less public action, but unlike their opponents, don’t have the courage of their convictions, have become timid, will not fight. Jon Stewart said he was disappointed Obama had not achieved more. But then he led a march for moderation! Is that really fight? Is that really conviction?
"And what of all the people who followed the Tea Party. They are not all mad. Most are just bewildered. Sure they hate the Federal Government, even when it’s doing good things for them. But maybe that’s because they don’t understand it, any more than they understand exactly how bankers cost them their jobs, what that means for the future of global capitalism, how a stimulus package works, or what quantitative easing is and how it might help. So Democrats need to get alongside them. Talk to them, clearly, boldly. Explain. Listen. Explain. America has a great tradition of community action, a spirit of self-help. The Tea Party has hijacked it. They have also harnessed the alienated, given direction to their violent urges, and created a sense of insurrection. (Incredible! Since for all their anti-Establishment talk, Tea Party Republican agenda in practice bolsters vested interests of Big Business, Big Oil, Media Oligarchs and High Finance!) But these local energies and creative frustrations could complement positive government action. But for that to happen the US State, often just as faceless and remote from its citizens as bankers, needs to move from technocracy to immediacy. That requires Democrats to be clearer about what they believe, how these views translate into action, and how people benefit."
Well, it all very confusing to me. But at least it’s free entertainment. I look forward to John Boehner crying like Halle Berry every time the House cut a another federal programme. We can expect Salem Witch Trials, compulsory gun ownership for under fives and states being given the option to streamline judicial systems to rope, lamppost and angry mob. And today I am enjoying Yuri’s Republican pie. Very flavoursome, although after trying it this morning, wife Irina has been in restroom ever since. But though I wanted try Democrat pie, unlike Republican it got not guts, and sadly has crumbled into dust.