America Decides

The manner in which the US has decided upon the two main Presidential candidates (there are several smaller party candidates running who get zero electoral votes) has been fascinating. Even if we sneer, as some do, that this is merely a choice between Twiddeldum and Twiddledee, the process itself has been open and millions have already voted in the many primaries and then will do so across the country on Tuesday. It is an open democratic process in which not just the candidates, but many more express themselves. All opinions, prejudices, hatreds and obsessions get their play.

In this, America is much like India. It is a collection of social cleavages of race (black and white), language—the Hispanics along with the English speaking and many more hyphenated groups like Italian-Americans, religion—Christians, Jews, Muslims, both the local Nation of Islam and the immigrant Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists—and so on. There are regional differences—North versus South, East Coast versus the Midwest, farmers versus city-dwellers, workers versus employers, Wall Street versus Main Street .

America has managed to contain the differences with some difficulty. The myth of the melting pot never accommodated the Black population, which arrived as slaves involuntarily and continued to exist in the lower depths of the nation. America fought a Civil War not on the issue of slavery but on the constitutional question of States’ rights as against Federal rights. It was the bloodiest war in its history, with more lives lost than in the Second World War. It was only towards the end that Lincoln declared the Abolition of Slavery. Even then it has taken another 144 years till a half-black candidate has come to be one of the two major candidates for Presidency.

The solvent for America has been a robust notion of what it means to be an American. Immigrants who aspire to be Americans are told to leave their previous histories and cultures behind and take on the full burden of American history and integrate into its culture. America did not admit all the languages that the immigrants brought with them nor the many that the original Native Americans (Indians) spoke. It stuck to English. Even a Vietnamese who becomes an American must accept all the errors and follies of the Vietnam adventure America undertook and the way in which it tore the country apart. But he can debate with anyone else the legacy of the Civil War or whether the decimation of the Native American tribes was an avoidable tragedy. When you play Cowboys and Indians, are you General Custer or Sitting Bull?

... contd.

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.