Where America has elected to go, no one will follow :
The mid-term results show the stark contrast between
the US and Europe
"Corporate power, instead of being shamed by its
recent crimes, can be expected to advance. This is the
Republican way, which America has now undeniably endorsed.
A truism often heard is that what happens in California today will
quickly reach New York."
Hugo Young
Thursday November 7, 2002
guardian.co.uk The Guardian As incumbents, the
The following is an excerpt:
"Republicans raised
more money than the Democrats. To an extent, they bought
their victories. These were, in any case, local not national. Bush
faced a party, moreover, that was singularly inept. Ever since Al
Gore lost the election the people had really given him in 2000,
he failed to perform like an opposition leader. There was no
opposition leader. Bush, the heroic riser to the challenge of
9/11, had nobody to match him, round whom the country could
gather to express its discontent with an economy that is failing,
not to mention the corporate scandals that taint the presidency
itself. All this can be used to explain away the election result as
something less than a decisive choice with enduring
consequences.
But that is not persuasive. Even if the process was messy, the
outcome is unambiguous. Now that he controls all the political
institutions - House, Senate, White House - Bush can move to
infiltrate the judiciary. Dozens of conservative federal judges with
lifetime tenure await confirmation they can now expect to get.
This will permanently reorient constitutional trends. The slashing
of forests and the drilling of wilderness, by timber and oil
interests newly let loose, will be still less reversible. The rich
men's tax cuts of 2001 will be secured against revision, and
other tax cuts added. The 40 million Americans without health
insurance can expect to remain that way. Axioms of inequality
will be engraved deeper into the pillars of American society.
None of these preferences has much appeal to many
Europeans, and the best exemplar of this is not German social
democracy but British conservatism. The Republicans confirm
themselves as a role model the Tories cannot follow. This should
have been apparent as long ago as the Thatcher era, when the
state's share of gross domestic product remained stubbornly
unchanged. The high priestess herself had difficulty making
Britain into a low-tax society, and was eventually frustrated by
popular demand. This has not gone away.
After the Budget last April, when ICM polled voters on
Chancellor Brown's tax rises, 76% approved them. More tellingly
for any British politician hoping for a rightist resurgence on the
back of a Bush-like philosophy, no fewer than 54% of
Conservatives thought Brown had done the right thing.
The mid-term elections, therefore, lock the America-Europe
divide more firmly into place. They define a society, more starkly
than at any time in 50 years, that's trending in a different
direction. Far from telling the benighted Tories how to win, they
show what IDS's successor will have to avoid if he's to make a
rendezvous with the dominant instincts of British society. From
east to west, in several unexpected places, sometimes
marginally but always decisively, American voters have made a
statement that separates them from most other mature
societies.
How this plays out on the international scene is now the
question. It may not alter much in the existing prognosis for Iraq.
The American stance was already bi-partisan in its rigour.
Democrats agreed with Republicans, which was one of the
problems they faced in fighting the heroic national leader. Bush's
patience in going through the UN process operated in parallel
with his willingness to go to war, and this will not change. But
neither will the arguments on the other side. The mandate Bush
has secured from his own people does have its limits. It may
increase his confidence, but doesn't make unilateralism over Iraq
any easier an option.
This was the week, however, when the US declared itself a
different country. That's what will leave a historic mark. The
capture of the Senate makes possible the advance of
materialistic individualism on many fronts. State and community
are in retreat. Corporate power, instead of being shamed by its
recent crimes, can be expected to advance. This is the
Republican way, which America has now undeniably endorsed.
A truism often heard is that what happens in California today will
quickly reach New York. Its sub-clause says that the political
economy of the US will sooner or later make its way east to
Europe. The 21st century is beginning quite differently. "
h.young@guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk |
