My neutral political science self-study student stand in USA presidential election posts
This post has the contents and some comments from a Facebook post of mine (slightly edited), https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1652891444927426.
Interesting article, "However it ends, Trump’s surge is historic": https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/08/20/donald-trump-makes-his-moment-american-history/Qo3VHnoAqBFpfks72Am9oN/story.html, dated Aug. 21st 2015
The article refers to Huey Long (died 1935). His wikipedia page is very interesting (populist leader but dictatorial with a "Share the Wealth" message): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long.
---- end Facebook post content---
Some comments of the Facebook post are given below:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote: [Name-snipped]: The article linked to is not an article supportive of Trump, IMHO, but an article that comments on, and tries to analyze, the reality of Trump continuing to be Republican party nominee front-runner for many weeks (one to two months, I guess), to the surprise of most people & analysts. As a person studying this USA election process, in an amateur fashion as against a political science or sociology academic, it would be a mistake for me to ignore Trump. Note that I am not supporting any candidate, Republican or Democrat, and so I am not supporting any candidate's plans & positions. I am taking a neutral political science self-study student stand in these posts of mine.
I think I have posted fair amount on Sanders too.
I went through my last ten Facebook posts, previous to this post, on the USA presidential elections. Here's the list with candidate name and date of my post:
1) Jeb Bush, Aug. 21st: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1652868688263035
2) Sanders, Aug. 21st: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1652659291617308
3) Hillary Clinton, Aug. 12th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1648532368696667
4) Sanders, Aug. 11th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1647772838772620
5) Rand Paul, Aug. 10th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1647444775472093
6) Sanders, Aug. 10th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1647106992172538
7) Trump & Sanders popularity analyzed by academic, Aug. 9th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1646844958865408
8) Trump, but critical of him not being able to keep his emotions under control,Aug 8th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1646377898912114
9) Republican Debate, Aug. 7th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1645659972317240
10) Republican debate line-up article with Trump being centre-stage, Aug.5th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1644571252426112
I think the above list shows that I certainly have covered Sanders almost as much as I have covered Trump. The Republican debate skewed it a little more in favour of Trump, and that is quite fair, I think. Once the Democratic candidate debate(s) is/are held, for some time then, the posts will be skewed in favour of Democratic party candidates.
About Sanders and Baba's teachings (or even Jesus Christ's teachings): I prefer not to comment, as I want to be neutral. Hope you don't get too upset with me on my neutral stand as a self-study political science student of USA elections smile emoticon . If you see me praising Trump and criticizing Sanders (i.e. taking sides), I request you to let me know ASAP and I assure you that I will carefully examine your input and correct myself, if required.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
About why neutral: I am not an American citizen and so do not vote in this election. Further, as I do not live in the USA, I do not have a direct feel of the issues involved. While I still could give my views on positions & plans (or lack of them) of various candidates, that can lead to intense and emotional debates, which I want to avoid, in this case.
But why I am spending time reading up & viewing up on this USA presidential election? I want to understand social processes like groupism that leads an orgn. or movement or country in a particular direction. This desire sprung up after I was traumatized by the groupism that sprung up bigtime (it was there earlier too but muted) in the Sai organization and Sai institutions after Mahasamadhi. People got swayed by all sorts of things. Logic & Swami teachings & truth did not matter so much. It was emotion that dominated. Some leaders latched onto these emotional needs of Sai devotees and became really big, swaying even long time devotees & leaders of Sai orgn.
Being a neutral observer of this USA presidential election gives me the objective perch from which to learn about these social processes like groupism. How did Trump become so popular? What really did he tap into? How did Sanders move so many people even though he does not have BIG MONEY support? How are the other candidates fighting to attract people to them & their causes?
I could have done something similar for Indian elections. But that would have become too emotionally charged in my circle of Indian friends (on the net). Even my limited comments to a small mailing group on some Indian political matters raised a storm of very emotional debate. That led me to drastically reduce my mails on such topics. On Facebook even if I try to be just a neutral observer of some Indian state elections (like Bihar elections which are to be held in the near future and is seen as a big battleground for BJP versus regional parties there) I may see an avalanche of very heated and sometimes rude comments.
My (neutral) USA elections posts generates much lesser heat in comparison. Though I do seem to irritate you and a few others by sharing views on Trump. But it is not too bad smile emoticon . Even now I recall the strong opposing comments I got when I praised, in 2014, the then outgoing Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, for his services to the nation. Well, I am old enough to know what a great job Dr. Manmohan Singh did when India was in deep financial crisis. The younger guys don't and they were outraged by the scams that happened under his watch in his second PM term. Your and others' cribs about my posts on Trump are very polite disagreements in comparison to those strong comments I received from some young Indians :-) .
Another reason why I am interested in USA elections is that I want to study how a mature democracy in a materially advanced country elects its President.
Finally I would like to say that one thing I am learning about social processes and mass movements and democratic elections is that, whether we like some political leader or not, the leader becomes a leader only if he is able to quite successfully represent the views of a significant number of people. For various groups of people to live together in peace, it is vital that the leaders of these groups are able to interact and negotiate with each other for the various, many times, conflicting demands of the people they represent. So, from a social & political process point of view, you need to know the views of these popular leaders, even if you find them completely unacceptable.
Many times, these demands can be illogical and create problems for the people concerned instead of helping them. But if that's what a large group of people want, social processes and political processes are such that they get them! And then they even suffer the consequences for the ill-advised demands.
------------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Thanks a ton [Name-snipped] :-) . All the best for your efforts to help a Dharmic candidate get elected as the next president of the USA, who will help to steer USA towards a Rama Rajya (ethical governance as done by Lord & King Rama, and celebrated in the Hindu epic Ramayana) democratic equivalent in the USA.
------------
Interesting article, "However it ends, Trump’s surge is historic": https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/08/20/donald-trump-makes-his-moment-american-history/Qo3VHnoAqBFpfks72Am9oN/story.html, dated Aug. 21st 2015
The article refers to Huey Long (died 1935). His wikipedia page is very interesting (populist leader but dictatorial with a "Share the Wealth" message): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long.
---- end Facebook post content---
Some comments of the Facebook post are given below:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote: [Name-snipped]: The article linked to is not an article supportive of Trump, IMHO, but an article that comments on, and tries to analyze, the reality of Trump continuing to be Republican party nominee front-runner for many weeks (one to two months, I guess), to the surprise of most people & analysts. As a person studying this USA election process, in an amateur fashion as against a political science or sociology academic, it would be a mistake for me to ignore Trump. Note that I am not supporting any candidate, Republican or Democrat, and so I am not supporting any candidate's plans & positions. I am taking a neutral political science self-study student stand in these posts of mine.
I think I have posted fair amount on Sanders too.
I went through my last ten Facebook posts, previous to this post, on the USA presidential elections. Here's the list with candidate name and date of my post:
1) Jeb Bush, Aug. 21st: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1652868688263035
2) Sanders, Aug. 21st: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1652659291617308
3) Hillary Clinton, Aug. 12th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1648532368696667
4) Sanders, Aug. 11th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1647772838772620
5) Rand Paul, Aug. 10th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1647444775472093
6) Sanders, Aug. 10th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1647106992172538
7) Trump & Sanders popularity analyzed by academic, Aug. 9th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1646844958865408
8) Trump, but critical of him not being able to keep his emotions under control,Aug 8th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1646377898912114
9) Republican Debate, Aug. 7th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1645659972317240
10) Republican debate line-up article with Trump being centre-stage, Aug.5th: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1644571252426112
I think the above list shows that I certainly have covered Sanders almost as much as I have covered Trump. The Republican debate skewed it a little more in favour of Trump, and that is quite fair, I think. Once the Democratic candidate debate(s) is/are held, for some time then, the posts will be skewed in favour of Democratic party candidates.
About Sanders and Baba's teachings (or even Jesus Christ's teachings): I prefer not to comment, as I want to be neutral. Hope you don't get too upset with me on my neutral stand as a self-study political science student of USA elections smile emoticon . If you see me praising Trump and criticizing Sanders (i.e. taking sides), I request you to let me know ASAP and I assure you that I will carefully examine your input and correct myself, if required.
------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
About why neutral: I am not an American citizen and so do not vote in this election. Further, as I do not live in the USA, I do not have a direct feel of the issues involved. While I still could give my views on positions & plans (or lack of them) of various candidates, that can lead to intense and emotional debates, which I want to avoid, in this case.
But why I am spending time reading up & viewing up on this USA presidential election? I want to understand social processes like groupism that leads an orgn. or movement or country in a particular direction. This desire sprung up after I was traumatized by the groupism that sprung up bigtime (it was there earlier too but muted) in the Sai organization and Sai institutions after Mahasamadhi. People got swayed by all sorts of things. Logic & Swami teachings & truth did not matter so much. It was emotion that dominated. Some leaders latched onto these emotional needs of Sai devotees and became really big, swaying even long time devotees & leaders of Sai orgn.
Being a neutral observer of this USA presidential election gives me the objective perch from which to learn about these social processes like groupism. How did Trump become so popular? What really did he tap into? How did Sanders move so many people even though he does not have BIG MONEY support? How are the other candidates fighting to attract people to them & their causes?
I could have done something similar for Indian elections. But that would have become too emotionally charged in my circle of Indian friends (on the net). Even my limited comments to a small mailing group on some Indian political matters raised a storm of very emotional debate. That led me to drastically reduce my mails on such topics. On Facebook even if I try to be just a neutral observer of some Indian state elections (like Bihar elections which are to be held in the near future and is seen as a big battleground for BJP versus regional parties there) I may see an avalanche of very heated and sometimes rude comments.
My (neutral) USA elections posts generates much lesser heat in comparison. Though I do seem to irritate you and a few others by sharing views on Trump. But it is not too bad smile emoticon . Even now I recall the strong opposing comments I got when I praised, in 2014, the then outgoing Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, for his services to the nation. Well, I am old enough to know what a great job Dr. Manmohan Singh did when India was in deep financial crisis. The younger guys don't and they were outraged by the scams that happened under his watch in his second PM term. Your and others' cribs about my posts on Trump are very polite disagreements in comparison to those strong comments I received from some young Indians :-) .
Another reason why I am interested in USA elections is that I want to study how a mature democracy in a materially advanced country elects its President.
Finally I would like to say that one thing I am learning about social processes and mass movements and democratic elections is that, whether we like some political leader or not, the leader becomes a leader only if he is able to quite successfully represent the views of a significant number of people. For various groups of people to live together in peace, it is vital that the leaders of these groups are able to interact and negotiate with each other for the various, many times, conflicting demands of the people they represent. So, from a social & political process point of view, you need to know the views of these popular leaders, even if you find them completely unacceptable.
Many times, these demands can be illogical and create problems for the people concerned instead of helping them. But if that's what a large group of people want, social processes and political processes are such that they get them! And then they even suffer the consequences for the ill-advised demands.
------------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Thanks a ton [Name-snipped] :-) . All the best for your efforts to help a Dharmic candidate get elected as the next president of the USA, who will help to steer USA towards a Rama Rajya (ethical governance as done by Lord & King Rama, and celebrated in the Hindu epic Ramayana) democratic equivalent in the USA.
------------
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