Commentary on the US Political Process, by Rick Gunderman

*note: I will try to make this as fresh a commentary as I can, as I recognize that we’ve all heard enough about the problems, merits, shortcomings and benefits of the US political system. To that end, I will specifically talk about the way voters represent themselves and how the media interprets it at election time.

When election season comes around in Canada, some of us may be called by pollsters to ask us which party we plan to vote for. The results of those polls are broadcast and published in the news, showing a voter preference for the Liberals, the Conservatives, the New Democrats, sometimes the Bloc Quebecois, and recently the Greens.

In the United States, voters are registered full-time as either Republican, Democratic, or “Independent”. Such is the nature of the US political system that narrows down to two “competing” parties that the only third option is a voter of “independence”. I have a hard time seeing Communist Party USA and Constitution Party members sitting comfortably together in this boat.

Truth be told, it isn’t that different than here in Canada, where three to five parties are represented, and none of the fourteen other registered parties are.

Even so, the Canadian polling process captures how people plan to vote, with the undecided choosing the “undecided” option. The American registration process, on the other hand, is structured in such a way that the established media applies the declared registration on a spectrum with the ultraconservative Republicans at one end, the neo-hippie liberal socialist Democrats at the other, and the mindless Independents in the middle.

But as I pointed out by using CPUSA and the Constitution Party as examples, there exist those beyond the Republicans and Democrats on their respective sides of the spectrum.

Which is why I find it odd that many pro-Democratic political commentators seem to believe that to win over the Independents, Barack Obama (or Hillary Clinton…maybe…probably not…) must drag themselves more towards the centre of the American political system.

The graph on this website should illustrate just what it means to be a centrist caught between Republicans and Democrats in the States.

Hardly very “centrist”, is it? There’s maybe a needle between the two through which to wiggle, with some Democrats even being more authoritarian than some Republicans! Incredible.

Voter turnout for the 2004 Presidential election was a dismal 60.7%…the highest since 1968. Yes, the highest. And as far as I can tell, the 39.3% who didn’t bother must know what they’re missing out on: a superficially “divisive” election which, right down to the bone, is just another battle in the Civil War of Political Capitalism.

No wonder Independents are treated almost exclusively as the mindless middle between the “left of the right” and the “right of the right”! The registration process abandons the socialists, communists, social democrats and left liberals…and that’s just those to the left of the Democrats. As much as I despise what they stand for, I must also speak out against the anti-democratic forces’ attack on the anti-democratic forces of the far-right as well…grudgingly.

~ by redrising on May 15, 2008.