Primary colours

Dear All,

For couch potatoes and news junkies alike, this promises to be an entertaining year: in addition to the tv news cycle’s staple diet of war, terrorist atrocities, earthquakes, scandals etc, we have coverage of two major contests to entertain us -- the Olympic Games 2016 and the US presidential election.

The Rio Olympics should generate the usual sort of excitement that these games do but the other contest, the US presidential race, has proved unexpectedly interesting. With two of the key primaries (the state-wise nomination phases) -- Iowa and New Hampshire -- completed, one thing is clear: this is a contest like no other, one where the mainstream candidates of both major parties are being overshadowed by political outsiders.

Senator Bernie Sanders, the man who is giving Hilary Clinton such a tough fight for the Democratic nomination, has actually only been in the party since last year. His political career has been forged as an independent, first as mayor of the Vermont town of Burlington (he was re-elected three times) followed by several terms as congressman for Vermont until coming to the Senate in 2007. His long and successful career as an independent is particularly unusual for somebody who openly calls himself a ‘democratic socialist’ in a country where socialism is seen as ‘anti-American’ and where the word socialist is used as a term of abuse and derision.

And at the other end of the spectrum is another dark horse -- again competing for the nomination of a party he has never officially represented through his career. That is the tycoon and celebrity author (The Art of the Deal, The Art of Survival, The Art of the Comeback etc etc) Donald Trump. Trump has, for decades, been famous for being rich, being loud and being in the media spotlight. His personal life and his hair (toupe? transplant?) has also taken up many column inches and tv time but somehow Trump has, like Sanders, managed to appeal to large sections of the American public by appearing to challenge the mainstream political establishment and champion the ‘ordinary American’. Trump is the outsider rocking the Republican presidential wannabe boat -- taking New Hampshire decisively, leaving behind strong contenders like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz (who won the Iowa primary).

How did this happen? Do these early primaries indicate that the American electorate has rejected the mainstream candidates and is hungry for ‘real change’ or is this just a dramatic chapter in a contest that will eventually fizzle out and settle into a fight between two bland candidates? It’s going to be an interesting and dramatic race to watch.

And what is truly fascinating is how a contender who is openly left of centre as Bernie Sanders has managed to garner so much support -- especially from younger voters. Sanders opposed the Iraq war and was extremely critical of the 2008 banks’ bailout; he is in favour of increasing taxes for the very wealthy and moving towards a system that is less about disparity and more about social equality and fairness. He has also shaken things up by raising campaign funds not from large donors but from small donation from thousands of supporters.

So what is now clear is that much of the electorate has shown its distaste for political arrogance and bland meaningless rhetoric. No doubt a greater degree of mudslinging and evangelical jingoism and scare-mongering will follow in the race, but it is evident that the voters want clarity, they want to know where exactly the candidates actually stand on important issues.

Looks like it’s going to be an eventful contest.

Best wishes