Brazil vs. US Elections, an Outsider's Perspective

I am always amused when I read news about the US from a non-US news source. This article is from Jamaica and compares the election scenes of the US and Brazil. It also summarizes the US economic and social situation from and outside perspective.

About the elections:

Elections this year in Brazil and the USA provide a study in sharp contrasts. Brazil approaches elections with enormous zeal, boosted this year by the outstanding international economic situation of their country... By contrast, the economic situation of the USA is probably the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. With the unemployment rate hovering at 9.6 per cent and approximately 15 million individuals out of work, the national mood is most dour. Normally when there is so much unhappiness about in the land the electorate tends to punish the party in power.

About punishing the party in power (Democrats):

Democrats who hold majorities in both houses of the Congress fear the worst, although the present economic problems arose largely under the previous Republican administration of George Bush who, between 2000 and 2008, managed to eliminate the substantial budget surplus built up by Bill Clinton. Not only that: Bush reduced taxes, mostly benefiting the rich, and started two extremely expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without introducing any measures for underwriting them. At present both wars cost American taxpayers more than US$100 billion each year.

About the candidates:

The interesting ethnic background and solid intellectual achievements of the three leading Brazilian presidential candidates would probably be severe handicaps in the United States.

About the US electorate:

The US electorate, especially adherents to the Tea Party, demonstrate a marked lack of political sophistication. There is a general hankering for the good old days of Ronald Reagan, despite his disastrous economic policies. Many are attacking government at all levels while expecting government to solve their basic problems.

On the new world order:

It will take many years for the economy of the USA to recover. Of that every thinking person is certain. The imagined good old days will never return. The world has changed and the new economic powerhouses are Brazil, Russia, India and China. Brazil represents the future; the USA, the past.

Interesting stuff, eh? And basically true.

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