When Politics Dies

Trump is what happens to a country when it stops caring about politics and outsources democracy to corporate investors.

I’ve lived 12 years in the US.  Whenever I attempted to start a political conversation with an American, I would be interrupted by “OMG did you see that show on TV last night? It was hilarious”. It’s almost like a trauma response whereby they don’t want to touch a subject that hurts them.  The American people have suffered decades of desensitisation from politics, made to feel that they have no power, no say. Sedating them with products and entertainment, the capitalist necrosystem did its best to nurture this defeatism: “our country is so big, so great, you don’t have to worry about politics. It will work itself out. Just keep buying products so that the economy is strong, and everything else will be fab. This is, after all, the greatest country on Earth. What could go wrong?”

Americans’ apathy towards politics is absolutely terrifying.  Sometime, at some point, they were made to feel that politics is “someone’s job” as opposed to each and every citizen’s responsibility.  Of course they do not know how their political rights have been silenced, especially the ones who have never lived outside America to compare notes.

A great proportion feel that politics should be none of their concern.  It is the only country in the western world where you will hear many people, from ordinary general public to pop stars, declare :  “ I don’t think about politics, that’s the job of politicians, I just vote for them”.  I won’t go into analysing the terrifying implications of such a belief.

I guess you could say that all of this somehow changed in the past few years with Trump, BLM, etc.  Americans are more passionate about politics and more inclined to vote than ever before.  But they are still very early on in their journey of becoming a concerned citizen, in the way Europeans are, who follow politics constantly, not just a few weeks before they vote.  A political consciousness is a muscle you need to exercise often, and Americans have only just joined the gym. At this early stage in their political maturation, Americans are merely acting out their frustrations and hate, unaware that politics is much more subtle, much more nuanced and complex. Democracy is never easy. The more you become involved, the more you understand how fragile, and how imperfect it is.

Then again, Americans don’t know about the 50 shades of politics that exist in more democratic countries, where there is a much wider choice to choose from.  In the US there is also a lot of shaming for voting for parties that will not win, which we don’t have in Europe.  Last year here in Greece I voted for a party that didn’t even get into parliament, yet these small parties are crucial to democracy as they voice new ideas and speak truth to power.  For Americans its either “Us” or “Them”. The two-party system is in effect a one-party system: each party becomes a mirror of the other. You therefore end up with two extreme sides of the same coin, without a third or fourth option to increase healthy competition and debate.  As a result an already unequal, divided society is inevitably reflected into the so called “politics”. The two parties, rather than envisioning a united America, are simply acting out the existing tremendous social inequality and cultural disparity in the populace. This is not politics. It’s a recipe for division. People are being forced to choose sides, and as a result become even more polarised. 

But politics is an illusion in the US.  There is no politics, only corporate sponsors on either side of the spectrum.  The American political landscape is as archaic and stuck as its bizarre electoral system which defies logic and democracy.  It would seem that the old Civil War of North and South never ended.  It simply morphed into Democrats and Republicans.  It’s just simply not good when things come in “two’s”.  You want to have more options, more debate, less polarisation between two extremes.

This can all change, as voters realize that they are unhappy with both sides.  They can use their legs to walk out of both parties, and vote for something or someone, who believes in a whole society as opposed to two Americas who hate each other.

George is an author, researcher, molecular biologist and food scientist. You can follow him on Twitter @99blackbaloons

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