Interesting Analysis of current situation in USA presidential election cycle
Here's an interesting article, US election: If it's Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton, it will be thanks to the 'rust belt revolution', http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/us-elections-2016/US-election-If-its-Donald-Trump-vs-Hillary-Clinton-it-will-be-thanks-to-the-rust-belt-revolution/articleshow/51337389.cms, dated March 10th 2016.
[BTW this is a reprint of an article in The Independent, a UK publication, by Rupert Cornwall, a British author (who I just learned from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Cornwell, is the step-brother of one of the greatest spy story writers, John le Carre (David Cornwell). So the view presented in the article is essentially a Britisher's view of the current USA presidential election.]
A very short extract from it:
... Michigan, with its combination of epic industrial collapse and large student population, is as good as it gets for him [Ravi: him is Senator Bernie Sanders] in terms of rust-belt states. [Ravi: Apologies to any person who feels offended by the term rust-belt states. Sometimes we need to tolerate harsh words used by analysts, so that we get to know their FRANK view of the matter, IMHO. We need not agree with their view and may dismiss their harsh words.]
In fact he and Mr Trump appeal to a similar swathe of voters - above all blue-collar whites who feel left out and, as the current jargon word has it, "unprotected" by both major parties, betrayed by the latters' decades old support for trade deals, starting with Nafta in 1993, that have sent US manufacturing jobs overseas.
--- end short extract ---
Please note that I have a NEUTRAL informal-student-observer role on these posts that I put up about the USA presidential elections. Of course, as I am an Indian citizen living in India, there is no question of me voting in these elections.
[I thank indiatimes.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above very short extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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I put the above contents up as a Facebook post here:
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1713012202248683. Given below are some of my comments on this Facebook post.
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks [name-snipped] for your thoughts on this.
BTW the Times of India article mentioned in the post is a reprint of an article in The Independent, a UK publication, by Rupert Cornwall, a British author (who I just learned from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Cornwell, is the step-brother of one of the greatest spy story writers, John le Carre (David Cornwell); I was a great fan of his books and I still have great admiration for them). So the view presented in the article is essentially a Britisher's view of the current USA presidential election.
I tend to agree that India, USA and many, if not all, countries of the world are essentially in the same boat with the same destination (as you nicely put it).
Due to my neutral stand, I would not like to comment on the Republican vs. Democratic policies and/or implementation part. However, I am very concerned by the problems faced by the lower and middle classes of the USA, including its youth. Having spent around two years in the USA over several stints in the late 80s & early 90s, I did not ever imagine that USA lower & middle classes would be going through such a rough time now in the 2010s. Of course, then I did not have the time to read up on such analysis neither would I have understood the matter well, if I had read it then.
My considered view is that the huge numbers of manufacturing jobs that the USA lost in the past few decades was something that should have been noticed and halted by USA government. That the USA government did not do that, and its trade unions were not strong enough to force the USA government to do that, is, in my considered view, a very big failure.
Now there is an URGENT NEED to create decent paying jobs for the lower and middle classes in the USA. Republicans and Democrats both agree on that, it seems. However they have different views on how to achieve that.
I thought the part of the analysis of Rupert Cornwall where he says that blue-collar workers feel unprotected by both the main parties of the USA and so are going towards Trump and Sanders, was interesting. Your view seems to be that it is not a correct analysis. Thanks for your view.
Regarding workers in countries like Haiti & China, it is very sad if the workers are paid poorly by their country's standards and/or made to work in very difficult working conditions. I have read some horror stories about bad working conditions in iPhone manufacturing/assembling plants in China, but which were disputed by Apple and its Chinese partner (Foxconn).
About India: The poverty issues that India faces are HUGE (YUGE to use Bernie Sanders's style) and very distressing. In comparison, the USA is far, far better off when viewed from material standpoint. [Perhaps Indian social system is such that one can somehow survive even if one is poor and so one can say that perhaps the poor are tolerated much more in India than they are in USA, in general.] The exploding population with a very big youth component is a major challenge for the Indian economy to keep on producing new jobs. Further, Indians have now become far more aspirational materially making the situation even tougher given the huge population. Overall, India's challenges on health, poverty alleviation, education, transport, clean water etc. are far more severe than USA.
My intent of studying this USA presidential election cycle is to learn about the top leaders'/candidates' views about major problems confronting the USA, how they say they plan to solve it and see how they go about their election campaigns so as to get an opportunity to implement their plans (i.e. win the election). It is also very interesting for me to see how some USA social activists and commentators including political commentators provide their input to the process.
Any description of current USA problems that I mention in these posts have to be seen in that light. What is USA's problem today, may already be India's problem now itself or may become one in the near future. So knowing about the problems and how a democratic society in today's world goes about tacking the problems which includes the political part of selling it to the voters, is my main objective in this current informal study of USA presidential election activity of mine. It is CERTAINLY NOT from a viewpoint of taking perverse pleasure from the problems that USA is facing now. Not at all! I have enjoyed my stints in the USA as well as my interactions with many Americans over the past few decades. I have nothing but goodwill and love towards the USA and its citizens, and wish them all the very best in solving their problems. Thanks again for your input.
------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to comment that the term rust-belt states is common and wondered who would be offended by it.
---snip---... I thought [---name-snipped---] may have got a little offended by it, and so I wanted to go the extra mile to prevent any offence to others who might read it. ... Criticism, especially in such matters which deals with states of a country, is tricky. On the one hand, I think criticism is necessary as it allows people to know about faults in existing policies, and then prompts them to consider solutions. But on the other hand, people feel unhappy when states they like or they live in, get criticized. ... In India, in the past, say about two or three decades ago, op-ed articles by Indians in mainstream newspapers would be rather mild in their criticism, as far as I can recall (however I did not have the time to read many op-ed articles then, so I could be wrong on this one). But nowadays some op-eds by Indians can be as frank in its criticism, say of Indian federal level policies or of Indian state level policies, as one would read in mainstream Western newspaper media, which I think is a good thing overall.
-------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
[name-snipped] In my previous comment what I meant was that mild criticism was OK earlier on too in India, but not in-your-face kind-of criticism of top govt. heads, spiritual orgn. heads, business heads etc. I think criticism has been quite acceptable in Indian life for ages, but criticism of people in power had to be couched in polite terms. The Western brand of criticism which can be very aggressive is rather new (perhaps a decade or so old) to Indian media (print & TV), based on whatever I have seen. Today Indian TV media criticism of the govt. can be as shrill as some USA TV media. ... An exception here is Indian spiritual orgns; I think tolerance for criticism in these places is very low even today. I mean, the people in power in Indian spiritual orgns. prefer to simply ignore criticism from the media as well as unimportant individuals; they react only to criticism from those in power and those who are big donors.
------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to comments that no offense had been taken by my post, and that big corporations rule the day.
Thanks [name-snipped]. I think the influence of big money over democratic governments worldwide (including USA & India) is undeniable.
------
[BTW this is a reprint of an article in The Independent, a UK publication, by Rupert Cornwall, a British author (who I just learned from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Cornwell, is the step-brother of one of the greatest spy story writers, John le Carre (David Cornwell). So the view presented in the article is essentially a Britisher's view of the current USA presidential election.]
A very short extract from it:
... Michigan, with its combination of epic industrial collapse and large student population, is as good as it gets for him [Ravi: him is Senator Bernie Sanders] in terms of rust-belt states. [Ravi: Apologies to any person who feels offended by the term rust-belt states. Sometimes we need to tolerate harsh words used by analysts, so that we get to know their FRANK view of the matter, IMHO. We need not agree with their view and may dismiss their harsh words.]
In fact he and Mr Trump appeal to a similar swathe of voters - above all blue-collar whites who feel left out and, as the current jargon word has it, "unprotected" by both major parties, betrayed by the latters' decades old support for trade deals, starting with Nafta in 1993, that have sent US manufacturing jobs overseas.
--- end short extract ---
Please note that I have a NEUTRAL informal-student-observer role on these posts that I put up about the USA presidential elections. Of course, as I am an Indian citizen living in India, there is no question of me voting in these elections.
[I thank indiatimes.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above very short extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
--------------------------------------------------
I put the above contents up as a Facebook post here:
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1713012202248683. Given below are some of my comments on this Facebook post.
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks [name-snipped] for your thoughts on this.
BTW the Times of India article mentioned in the post is a reprint of an article in The Independent, a UK publication, by Rupert Cornwall, a British author (who I just learned from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Cornwell, is the step-brother of one of the greatest spy story writers, John le Carre (David Cornwell); I was a great fan of his books and I still have great admiration for them). So the view presented in the article is essentially a Britisher's view of the current USA presidential election.
I tend to agree that India, USA and many, if not all, countries of the world are essentially in the same boat with the same destination (as you nicely put it).
Due to my neutral stand, I would not like to comment on the Republican vs. Democratic policies and/or implementation part. However, I am very concerned by the problems faced by the lower and middle classes of the USA, including its youth. Having spent around two years in the USA over several stints in the late 80s & early 90s, I did not ever imagine that USA lower & middle classes would be going through such a rough time now in the 2010s. Of course, then I did not have the time to read up on such analysis neither would I have understood the matter well, if I had read it then.
My considered view is that the huge numbers of manufacturing jobs that the USA lost in the past few decades was something that should have been noticed and halted by USA government. That the USA government did not do that, and its trade unions were not strong enough to force the USA government to do that, is, in my considered view, a very big failure.
Now there is an URGENT NEED to create decent paying jobs for the lower and middle classes in the USA. Republicans and Democrats both agree on that, it seems. However they have different views on how to achieve that.
I thought the part of the analysis of Rupert Cornwall where he says that blue-collar workers feel unprotected by both the main parties of the USA and so are going towards Trump and Sanders, was interesting. Your view seems to be that it is not a correct analysis. Thanks for your view.
Regarding workers in countries like Haiti & China, it is very sad if the workers are paid poorly by their country's standards and/or made to work in very difficult working conditions. I have read some horror stories about bad working conditions in iPhone manufacturing/assembling plants in China, but which were disputed by Apple and its Chinese partner (Foxconn).
About India: The poverty issues that India faces are HUGE (YUGE to use Bernie Sanders's style) and very distressing. In comparison, the USA is far, far better off when viewed from material standpoint. [Perhaps Indian social system is such that one can somehow survive even if one is poor and so one can say that perhaps the poor are tolerated much more in India than they are in USA, in general.] The exploding population with a very big youth component is a major challenge for the Indian economy to keep on producing new jobs. Further, Indians have now become far more aspirational materially making the situation even tougher given the huge population. Overall, India's challenges on health, poverty alleviation, education, transport, clean water etc. are far more severe than USA.
My intent of studying this USA presidential election cycle is to learn about the top leaders'/candidates' views about major problems confronting the USA, how they say they plan to solve it and see how they go about their election campaigns so as to get an opportunity to implement their plans (i.e. win the election). It is also very interesting for me to see how some USA social activists and commentators including political commentators provide their input to the process.
Any description of current USA problems that I mention in these posts have to be seen in that light. What is USA's problem today, may already be India's problem now itself or may become one in the near future. So knowing about the problems and how a democratic society in today's world goes about tacking the problems which includes the political part of selling it to the voters, is my main objective in this current informal study of USA presidential election activity of mine. It is CERTAINLY NOT from a viewpoint of taking perverse pleasure from the problems that USA is facing now. Not at all! I have enjoyed my stints in the USA as well as my interactions with many Americans over the past few decades. I have nothing but goodwill and love towards the USA and its citizens, and wish them all the very best in solving their problems. Thanks again for your input.
------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to comment that the term rust-belt states is common and wondered who would be offended by it.
---snip---... I thought [---name-snipped---] may have got a little offended by it, and so I wanted to go the extra mile to prevent any offence to others who might read it. ... Criticism, especially in such matters which deals with states of a country, is tricky. On the one hand, I think criticism is necessary as it allows people to know about faults in existing policies, and then prompts them to consider solutions. But on the other hand, people feel unhappy when states they like or they live in, get criticized. ... In India, in the past, say about two or three decades ago, op-ed articles by Indians in mainstream newspapers would be rather mild in their criticism, as far as I can recall (however I did not have the time to read many op-ed articles then, so I could be wrong on this one). But nowadays some op-eds by Indians can be as frank in its criticism, say of Indian federal level policies or of Indian state level policies, as one would read in mainstream Western newspaper media, which I think is a good thing overall.
-------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
[name-snipped] In my previous comment what I meant was that mild criticism was OK earlier on too in India, but not in-your-face kind-of criticism of top govt. heads, spiritual orgn. heads, business heads etc. I think criticism has been quite acceptable in Indian life for ages, but criticism of people in power had to be couched in polite terms. The Western brand of criticism which can be very aggressive is rather new (perhaps a decade or so old) to Indian media (print & TV), based on whatever I have seen. Today Indian TV media criticism of the govt. can be as shrill as some USA TV media. ... An exception here is Indian spiritual orgns; I think tolerance for criticism in these places is very low even today. I mean, the people in power in Indian spiritual orgns. prefer to simply ignore criticism from the media as well as unimportant individuals; they react only to criticism from those in power and those who are big donors.
------
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to comments that no offense had been taken by my post, and that big corporations rule the day.
Thanks [name-snipped]. I think the influence of big money over democratic governments worldwide (including USA & India) is undeniable.
------
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