{"id":3085,"date":"2010-07-18T14:02:33","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T13:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=3085"},"modified":"2010-07-18T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T13:04:59","slug":"the-american-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=3085","title":{"rendered":"The American dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

And yet, and yet, his poll ratings are so low. Some Democrats think that he has not been radical enough, while many Republicans think that he is dangerously Left-wing.<\/p>\n

This is well-described in this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The problem is that Obama can do little without Congress and Congress is a legislative quagmire with Republicans refusing to support presidential initiatives and even many Democrats demanding amendments that weaken the proposals. There are two main reasons for this.<\/p>\n

Reason one is the constitution. The Founding Fathers designed this so that power is distributed between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. This may have made sense two centuries ago when the fear was an all-powerful centre like the King in Britain whose tyranny the Americans had just overthrown.\u00a0 It makes no sense in the 21st century when the USA is a superpower and political problems demand speedy and radical solutions.<\/p>\n

Reason two is money. It is virtually impossible for anyone to be elected to office in the USA without spending sums of money that would be considered obscene in most democracies. And this money come from the vested interests – financial institutions, energy companies, private health companies – that are opposed to any change that would challenge their profits and benefit the majority of Americans.<\/p>\n

To change the rules on political funding would mean electing more independent-minded Congress men and women but they can’t get elected without a ton of money from the companies that like to be able to buy power and block change. Catch 22. Ah yes, that famous American<\/em> novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"