Thoughts on the American Presidential Election (Gateway Article: Longer Version)

Much of the campaign for the two main presidential candidates Republican John McCain and Democratic Barack Obama was rife with contentious issues such as the American economy and setting policies for economic and environmental sustainability. There were also issues with the cost of the Iraq war measured in both dollars and lives. Also, there was much talking on the American reliance on foreign oil and the need to develop energy independence within the nation. Presumably, this is so that the America’s flag-waving surburbanites could wipe clean their mental slates of any liability to the actions of the people who pump the oil abroad: namely the Saudi Arabians.

The global (impending) economic crisis has shaken not only worldwide bank accounts; it has also shaken the foundations of both major campaigns built on promises of big public spending. Both major candidates have since committed to the Bush “bailout” package, raising eyebrows about where that leaves the financial future of Americans. This has the unintended response of holding Americans hostage to their wallets rather than to their common sense. Will any of the promises made by either man pan out? Or has the era of big public spending as the red herring of progress come to an end?
Also troublesome is the irony of proposing energy independence as a means to ensuring national oil supplies for the maintenance of “status quo” American standards of living, while simultaneously promising an increase in the usage of and investment into “green” technologies and research – a promise of which both candidates are guilty. The candidates cannot plausibly make commitments to both forms of energy security without detriment to the other: the advent of more reliable “greener” technologies would necessitate the need to use less carbon-heavy energy forms such as coal, gasoline, and petroleum. Both men make commitments to oil and several “green” energy technologies to arbitrarily varying degrees. Also lacking is the attention paid on behalf of both candidates regarding the role of power grids in pursuing sound energy policy in America. The Northeast Blackout of 2003 was a prime example of why this is important. The inability of either man to commit to a realistic energy policy defeats the purpose of proposing one. This reveals a lack of understanding regarding energy policy and the science behind it. Their mutual indecision indicates future energy policies will be swayed by the strength of the successful lobby instead of the science behind it.

The dumbing down of the issues by the candidates so that they can be used as political fish bait slights the ability of ordinary Americans to understand them and encourages the twisted version of events sold on their national media. The pandering of these two politicians to the values of the “alienated” demographs of America is not only an insult to the democratic hopes of the people whose votes they intend to procure but also to democracy itself. Joe Biden is supposed to be a counter-balance to the maverick old guard reputation of John McCain, since they are chiseled out of the same stone. Sarah Palin was wryly chosen as an enticement of the female vote subjugated traditionally by patriarchy and most recently, in the form of Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, by Obama. Pulling a page out of Michael Moore’s playbook by suggesting the unison of America’s “alienated” behind Ralph Nader is not that much different, either.

The contradictions of the two campaigns belonging to McCain and Obama taint an important episode in American history. As a result of this, McCain and Obama are tragically derailing any chance for Americans to seize the opportunity to fix not only problems created after 8 years of the Bush administration, but also the opportunity to fix what has been truly broken in the American system over the long term: a sense of connectedness to the rest of the world.

In all honesty, it’s hard to support either candidate because the criticisms for both are so similar that they read like a carbon copy. Would this be a situation where a Canadian like myself would suggest that our neighbours to the south choose the “lesser of two evils” as SNL would have you believe? Hardly. Perhaps it would boil down to something unexpected – such as the ability of the Head of State to survive some sort of imagined catastrophe. The recent assassination attempts on Obama does not bode well for him in this regard.

Choose apathy, then, because the presidential candidates have not given American a reason to care.