America thinks itself good at war and is bad at it. America thinks itselfbad at democracy and is good at it, very good.
Every time I visit America at election time I am left exhilarated by thesheer, pulverising potency of its democracy. Nowhere on earth are themighty brought so low, nowhere is power so tested by fire. Yet ABC Newsthis morning could announce judgment day with the downbeat message that itwas "the nastiest mid-term election in history."
Nasty is right. Within two minutes of turning on my television I hear"Andrew Cuomo is lying", Bob Menendez is supported by kickback hoodlums,worst calumny of all, Thomas Kean "supports George Bush". Almost everyoneis in favour of killing babies, rupturing stem cells and torturing Iraqis.The corridors of power are awash in corruption, adultery, mendacity andsin. The torrent of abuse is relentless and, to those used to the blandhustings of European oligarchy, gloriously refreshing.
Above all the negativity is good. The Karl Rove strategy of identifyingelectoral difference rather than consensus inflames democratic choice as itshould be inflamed. Voters cannot make that choice if, as increasingly inEurope, candidates are bland mirrors of each other. Only at an Americanelection am I told what candidates stand for, because their opponents tellme so, in vivid technicolour. Voters are merely the residuum of democraticscrutiny of power. It is those out of power and craving it that are thereal scrutineers. By hook and by crook, American elections deliver thatrequirement.
The sums of money involved in these elections are shocking to outsiders, asis a constitution that allows incumbents to gerrymander their ownconstituency boundaries. No less extraordinary is the pork-barrel traditionwrecking state and national budgets. But at $10 a voter the costs are lessby far than candidates used to pay in 18th-century Britain, and they bringthe election into every living room. The age of the internet has mademoney-raising a facility available to many not just a few. The ailments ofAmerican democracy are at least curable and tangential to the main task:giving the bastards a really hard time.
Everything I see, the knocking ads, the robo-calls, the push polls, theface-to-face contact, the grip-and-grin, is directed at one objective,closing the ever-dangerous gulf that divides the individual voter from thecharacter and views of those who purport to exert power of them. I love it.