The Red, the Blue and the Donkey named Uncle Sam 12/16/2005 03:53 pm The Red, the Blue and the Donkey named Uncle Sam Red - Blue and the Coke theory I filed this report upon my return from the Asia Foundation funded study tour venturing into the U.S presidential election in 2003. I posted it up here to share with thousands of ideas around the globe about the U.S election. Here it is! Statistics show that public interest in the 2004 presidential election is higher than any other election before although it has been characterized as a “nasty and uncompromising” campaign as a gentleman of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace stressed. It is nasty and uncompromising because, he anticipated, if Kerry won, he would have difficulty in dealing with the House where the Republicans are overwhelming and so would President Bush, if Bush won (and he did) with the Senate where the Democrats may gain victory in the legislative election that goes along with the presidential one (the current balance of power in the Senate is 50:50). This means to me that there will be “checks and balances” between the two parties if either win the White House. I, therefore, believe that the critical needs for job, health care and education of a broader population will not be taken into account as much as the two candidates stated. That said, they fought hard for the sake of their thirst for power. My perception of the two parties, as shared by other delegates, thus is a Coke politics meaning that they are like Coca Cola (the Red-Republican) and Pepsi (the Blue-Democrat). They are powerful, global and dominant corporations. I am not addict to Coke so I can not distinguish the taste or the flavour although there would be a slightly difference and so I would tell Coca Cola or Pepsi are the two of the same thing: Coke. In San Francisco, California, it was easy to see that this state is home of the Democrats. The campaign seems peaceful as the Republican knows certainly that they would do nothing here though there were some signs of their campaign efforts. San Francisco, therefore, does not have much to explore except meetings with some independent pollsters by whom we were lectured on how surveys are conducted and possible implications that those surveys might have on the voters, especially on undecided ones. Also in San Francisco, at the meeting with the Chinese Cultural Society, I was surprised to hear that the Vietnamese Americans are in favour of the Bush’s war on Iraq and therefore are likely to vote for Bush. The explanation was that the Vietnamese Americans fled their country, Vietnam, due to communist dictatorship meaning that they are allergic to any kind of dictatorship, something of the Saddam Hussein’s regime. Our next stop is Cleveland, Ohio, known as “swing and battleground” state for both parties partly due to its remarkable 27 electoral college’s votes. Throughout many meetings and interactions, I found issues of concern are varied (and more or less emphasized) between groups from the war on Iraq, the U.S. foreign policy toward Asia in particular, to healthcare, education etc, but the common points among them are the sense of insecurity, disappointment over poor economic performance and unemployment rate, the need for further improved political participation of ethnic groups (Asians, Africans and Hispanics e.g.). Every group stressed and specified themselves as the one that need to be addressed by either President Bush or his opponent, Senator John Kerry. As the state economy has been in decline, Ohioans, in one hand, seem to loose their confidence in Bush’s administration but, in the other hand, they do not seem to believe strongly enough in Kerry’s promise and that is precisely why Ohio remains swing state. By the time we were in Cleveland, Democrat vice-president candidate was also there to intensify the campaign efforts to secure the majority of the Ohio electorate. One of the interesting points in North Carolina as we visited the Republican headquarters in Chapel Hill is the African American Caucus in North Carolina (More in Raleigh, NC, when I have had a chance to joined fund-raising events by both Democrats and Republicans, what was interesting to me was the fact that people pay to join the event (I was lucky enough to go for free as a foreigner) while in countries such as Thailand, politicians would have to pay to get their supporters to such events). I am keen to explore how the Caucus, in tandem with other initiatives, might offer an effective tool in improving the participation of African voters but I was surprised to learn that it had just been formed whereas it should have been established long ago given the sizable proportion of the black American in North Carolina. Having spotted this, I believe that certain ethnic minority groups are currently underachieving in terms of political participation although both candidates competed hard to gain votes from those groups. It is also important to place any discussion around the potential of Asian Americans (Vietnamese Americans in particular) into context by acknowledging their broadening and societal issues that contribute to presidential election campaign. While election campaigns might be used to empower ethnic minority voices, as Bush still tries to speak Latino and Kerry continues to show his Vietnam War medal, it is clear that the fundamental questions of equality have not been addressed yet.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 05:54:56 +0000
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