Dr. Craig L. Dicker-the department of Public affairs US embassy, New Delhi visited us to speak on the US electoral process with special reference to 2016 presidential elections. This session was held in Christ University, Bengaluru on 2 August 2016, by the Department of International studies and History.
Dr Craig began with quoting the Indian Express’ article which said that the candidate who has secured the majority in the opinion polls 2 weeks after nominations would eventually win the elections. From the article written in The Hindu “it can be seen that Mrs. Clinton is leading 2%.” We have to wait for the November 8th to see if this holds on.
Explaining the electoral process, he divided the districts into democratic strong holds, republican strong holds and flip sates. Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Virginia were considered as major flip states whose vote bank plays a major role in deciding the president of United States. Emphasizing on 2016 elections where there is a close competition between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, he has opined that south districts have more republican inclination where there is more white domination which favours the latter.
Speaking about the electoral reforms, it was said that it is very difficult in United States to bring in actual reforms as vested interest groups counter them by saying that any restrictions on individuals and groups would oppose the freedom of individual. The latter opinion was substantiated by showing the
unsuccessful “Federal election campaign amendment (1974)” and “McClain Feingold attempt” in curbing the extensive use of money for the election campaign. Even though there has been a cap on the spending of the Political action committees (PAC), Super PACs take their roles with unlimited access to the spending on campaigns. While these are not officially associated with any of the political parties or political leaders, there can be seen an obvious understanding.
The old trend where campaign funding is done by the capitalists has been changed from 2004 presidential elections. The new player in the campaigning is – The Internet. The social media has been playing a major role in the election campaign where individuals take up the task of the latter. In 2004 there were 3 million people on the list of Mr. George W. Bush’s mail and in 2008 it has been increased to 13 million on Mr. Obama’s mail. There is also increase in the online individual donations which can be seen in this 2016 elections where one of the major contributions for Mr. Bernie Sanders’ campaign while Barack Obama was the first to use this online funding.
In this presidential elections the interesting change in the mind set of young Americans can be observed. People of age group below 30 mostly support Mr. Sanders and the reason for this has been attributed as worry of employment and Xenophobia. The stand of both presidential candidates is not supportive towards the “Trans Pacific Partnership” which is due to the public pressure. He said that may be in the coming 40 years there may come an acquit able change in the health care system to which Obama care is a small step forward. This shows the shift in the mind set of people which is moving away from the pure capitalism. When it comes to foreign policy of United States, he has stated that bureaucracy has a high influence. This can be seen in Henry Kissinger’s book “World restore”.
When it comes to the dilemma of Indo-US relations after the 2016 elections, he opined that it would not change no matter who wins the elections and said that the present Modi- Obama relationship status quo will be maintained.
Dr Craig began with quoting the Indian Express’ article which said that the candidate who has secured the majority in the opinion polls 2 weeks after nominations would eventually win the elections. From the article written in The Hindu “it can be seen that Mrs. Clinton is leading 2%.” We have to wait for the November 8th to see if this holds on.
Explaining the electoral process, he divided the districts into democratic strong holds, republican strong holds and flip sates. Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Virginia were considered as major flip states whose vote bank plays a major role in deciding the president of United States. Emphasizing on 2016 elections where there is a close competition between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, he has opined that south districts have more republican inclination where there is more white domination which favours the latter.
Speaking about the electoral reforms, it was said that it is very difficult in United States to bring in actual reforms as vested interest groups counter them by saying that any restrictions on individuals and groups would oppose the freedom of individual. The latter opinion was substantiated by showing the
unsuccessful “Federal election campaign amendment (1974)” and “McClain Feingold attempt” in curbing the extensive use of money for the election campaign. Even though there has been a cap on the spending of the Political action committees (PAC), Super PACs take their roles with unlimited access to the spending on campaigns. While these are not officially associated with any of the political parties or political leaders, there can be seen an obvious understanding.
The old trend where campaign funding is done by the capitalists has been changed from 2004 presidential elections. The new player in the campaigning is – The Internet. The social media has been playing a major role in the election campaign where individuals take up the task of the latter. In 2004 there were 3 million people on the list of Mr. George W. Bush’s mail and in 2008 it has been increased to 13 million on Mr. Obama’s mail. There is also increase in the online individual donations which can be seen in this 2016 elections where one of the major contributions for Mr. Bernie Sanders’ campaign while Barack Obama was the first to use this online funding.
In this presidential elections the interesting change in the mind set of young Americans can be observed. People of age group below 30 mostly support Mr. Sanders and the reason for this has been attributed as worry of employment and Xenophobia. The stand of both presidential candidates is not supportive towards the “Trans Pacific Partnership” which is due to the public pressure. He said that may be in the coming 40 years there may come an acquit able change in the health care system to which Obama care is a small step forward. This shows the shift in the mind set of people which is moving away from the pure capitalism. When it comes to foreign policy of United States, he has stated that bureaucracy has a high influence. This can be seen in Henry Kissinger’s book “World restore”.
When it comes to the dilemma of Indo-US relations after the 2016 elections, he opined that it would not change no matter who wins the elections and said that the present Modi- Obama relationship status quo will be maintained.
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