Spectacle

      Alexis de Tocqueville was a French scholar. An important one in the realm of political philosophy and thought. Alexis lived during the 19th century and went on to become widely known for his original work “Democracy in America” written in the year 1835. A fascinating description of a young American democracy, an account composed by him after traveling much of the United States. He was particularly interested in the participatory and representative aspects of American governance. Some of his observations and insights of his sill influence works in the field of political science today. I write down my observations of the social and political dimensions. Similar to Tocqueville, I observe and analyze American culture and its political landscape. America in the year 2012 is politically in a grid lock. The Republican and Democratic parties are utterly polarized in their fundamental premises, values, how they define the role of government and unfortunately the way they see reality itself. Freshly re-elected, the Republican House of Representatives, a Democratic Senate and the re elected Barack Obama forced at last by the hand of the  looming "fiscal cliff". A political moment of truth, which no matter what, will reveal what US politics in 2012 is made of. 

     There are some realties and trends that surely are here to stay. Here are a few noteworthy ones. “Obamacare”, the President’s affordable healthcare act will remain the law of the land. The military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq are coming to an end and job by job, house by house, the American economy seems to be slowly recovering. Furthermore, the 2012 elections transformed the judicial landscape in the US. Chosen from a vast sea of proposals, voters gave local, state as well as federal government a new direction and mandate to fulfill. A mandate that now requires to transform discourses and create new relationships to Marijuana, campaign finance, the election process itself and gay marriage. This election cycle dramatically highlighted the role of media, television ads, the internet and technology in general has on the process and the political "sea-change" they brought. That  being said, it was truly astonishing to witness how candidates managed to keep climate change, global warming or the acute loss of bio diversity off their political platforms. In addition, I would also argue that the time for a public investigation and re-assessment of the astronomic increases of sums of money required and spend on running for a public office. The shear price tag, roughly 8 billion dollars, has made the political process highly exclusive seemingly making the attempt to run for office, impossible. Although, I am sure that even during de Tocqueville's times it required money to run for any political position, however, I proclaim he would probably turn in his grave if he saw to what kind of degree politics have become professionalized today and how much money it requires to be part of it. Perhaps these contemporary conditions and state of affairs would remind him of the ones which ruled France during his lifetime.

Ralf Hugger