Mediocrity in general amongst America’s two main
parities – Democrats and Republicans – is also turning out to be a major
undoing of the stature United States had. The Republicans want to wrest the White House in 2016 and the Senate in
Nov 2014. There are number of Republicans who can be seen in the news jostling
for prominence and, therefore, trying to be front runners for 2016 elections.
However, two
types of Republicans seem to be trying to court their mass base:
-
One by
trying to be ultra-conservative (the ‘tea party’ brand)
-
Others
just by way of opposing Democrats – the level of vehemence in their opposition
differentiating one from the other (within this bunch)
If one looks at the prominent Republicans and their public
pronouncements, sadly, one does not find anyone who is really outstanding. On foreign policy, they are
being presented on a platter host of issues to criticize Obama, but no one
seems to be coming out on those issues in real statesmanlike manner. Most of
them do not seem to have thought through the lines of action they are proposing
– their strategies, lines of action sound so over-simplified, brash, jingoistic,
gung-ho type.
On domestic
topics, again, the public stand of these Republican politicians seem amateurish,
some of them even childish, and, in general, lacking deep thought and depth. The pronouncements are just anti of anything Obama is
trying to do, for example, on the immigration reform (and dealing with the
illegal immigrant children issue/crisis).
To be honest, Obama has created such situations at the
moment that if there was any one top class Republican politician at the present
time, that person would very likely hit the ball out of the political park, could
become a towering figure under whose leadership the Republicans could hand the Democrats
a decisive defeat in 2014 congressional elections and set the scene for a
repeat performance in 2016.
Sadly for the US, all this
is due to debilitating mediocrity in the top political layer that is currently
seen to people at large.
Over to the
Democrats’, the situation is no better.
Hillary Clinton is approaching the 2016 presidential bid very cautiously. She
has the advantage of advice and guidance of a very wily political figure,
namely, her husband, Bill. Hillary is maintaining a carefully calibrated
distance from the 2014 congressional elections – only her husband is pitching
in 2014 campaign, wherever he thinks expedient.
Other than
Hillary, the rest of the Democrats’ field is also full of mediocre political practitioners
– same old names, nothing noteworthy or outstanding about them.
With so much mediocrity pervading American politics,
it is not surprising that the leadership, the dynamism, the vision, the statesmanship
– the necessary ingredients for a nation’s all round development – are all
missing and United States is finding itself floundering miserably on various
fronts. Others are exploiting it –
whether it is Putin in Ukraine, or, the radical Islamic insurgents in Middle
East, or, the Chinese in the South China Sea, or, the illegals surging to enter
US and so on.
The industrial base also
does not seem fired up. The corporates seem
concentrating far more on how to avoid taxation. The technological edge that US
at one time possessed so uniquely is all but gone – there does not seem any burning
desire within the spectrum of industrial polity to come up with cutting edge
discoveries. If at all there is anything discernible, it is all in the notional
world of software related products, services.
If today, UK appears to be
taking lead on ISIS (though Cameron’s timing is suspiciously close to Scotland’s
independence referendum), Germany is taking the lead in arming the Kurds in
Iraq, the Canadians are willing to provide troops for a stronger NATO deterrent
force, it is all because there is vacuum at the international stage caused by apoplectic
dithering on the part of the United States – and the genesis of all of this is mediocrity
(and incompetence).
On the domestic
front, the virtual paralysis at the Capitol Hill, the canine-like fighting between
the two parties on almost all issues and inability to come to consensus is
costing US directly and indirectly both. These continual recriminations can be
said to be a major reason for creation/prevalence of an atmosphere which is not
at all conducive for harmony, hope, optimism, development and prosperity.
