Economics Business Music Politics Altruism : The US Presidential Elections-A Simple Singaporean Viewpoint

Over the weekend, I had an interesting back and forth email exchange with my close friend who was born in Singapore but had since given up her red identity card for a green card after marrying an American and has been living in Atlanta which is the capital for the southern state of Georgia. Atlanta is also dear to me as it is home to my favourite drink Coke. I must first profess that any racial or religious mentioned in this article is not to accentuate and amplify the racial and religious issues but merely to pen down the state of the union on where such issues stands. I am pro affirmative action in achieving equality along all lines including racial and religious lines.

This state is interesting in that it is both predominantly non-white and part of the bible belt. From reason standpoint, the bible belt tend to belong to the Republican due to their conservative stand especially on being anti-abortion which tend to win them popular votes. Being predominantly non-white, I would reason that racial lines would draw them towards Obama on the Democrats ticket. At the end of the day, the results partially spoke for itself as the state of Georgia went to the Republican candidate. I could read the results in many ways and one of which is that America has grown up in terms of racial equality in that a predominantly non-white state did not vote along racial lines The other way is that religion issues has won the day. A third alternative being that there are other factors that could have affected the results.

Firstly, I was shocked to hear that polling day is NOT a national holiday in the world's champion of democracy. Although I have been to America numerous time, I have always assumed that polling day is a national holiday to allow citizenry enough time and opportunity to vote. I was wrong. Democracy does have a voice and voters have to take time off work on their own private account to vote as not all companies are lucid enough to grant time off for voting. This could be part of the reason why the voter turn out has been fairly poor compared to other democracies around the world. It is either American could not be bothered or there is just too much barrier to the poll station. I was told that some queue up for as long as 3 hours to vote and I salute these brave souls especially in these tough economic season where time away from work might not be too popular. To me it is a resounding mandate for Obama to win by both a large majority and having record voter turn out.

Secondly, it is one rare occasion for a single party of have a clean majority sweep of the presidency, senate and house of congress. Americans, I believe still stand by the maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely and this could be one of the reason why it is rare to a single party to have control over the presidency and both houses thereby leaving less check and balance. Another indicator is the freedom to bear arms as citizenry as no government is infallible. Perhaps it is the unprecedented economic backdrop of a looming crisis on a scale and complexity not seen before and therefore, it is better to have a coherent government rather than a balanced and divisive government that could make unpopular but needful policies difficult to carry out. Perhaps it is the stomach that won the day as what the use of being a free but hungry man.

My selection of the State of Georgia is a personal one as I have been there and have a close friend there. My next choice of state is more deliberate; the State of Massachusetts. The capital of this state Boston is very unique town as it has produced the most number of nobel laureates as well as home to many of the country's ivy league schools. I would say that on this count without checking the census, the per capital wealth and income is likely to exceed that of Atlanta. Again this state has defied one norm of the richer generally tend to vote for Republican and one of the reason is that they tend to favour tax cuts which tend to favour the richer more economic wise. This has been shrink wrapped into a popular postulation of Reganomics or supply side economics that has largely gone out of fashion and thought leadership. I salute the voters of Massachusetts for not voting according to their pockets but for a higher calling of the good of America. Perhaps the strong academia population could have an effect on the level of altruism in the voters.

All said and done, my approach is too simplistic to be a viable gauge of the actual current that carried Obama to the White House but the simpleton mind could only process that much of complexity. Lastly, those who are in my inner circle of friends who grew up with me as a student will know who I am talking about in Atlanta. No prizes for the right guess.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye