‘Political divisions in our country are very personalistic and individualistic.’
CLOSE friends know how fascinated I am with politics — which is basically human relations — and more with US politics.
Some ask me my opinion about the current US presidential elections despite my wearing my political preference on my sleeve. (On my shirt is more exact). But others don’t bother asking, precisely because I wear my preference on my sleeve.
They know that as a rule, I am sympathetic to the Democratic Party and what it stands for. Though I have a list of Republicans I admire — Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and John McCain.
Make no mistake: the political divisions in the US are not simply explained as being Democrat or Republican. For the longest time, both parties had deep internal divisions, the Democrats more than the GOP. The Democrats had a conservative segregationist southern wing, and they had a north and northeastern liberal wing. The Clinton years saw the rise of centrist Democrats but recent years have seen the emergence of a “progressive” (extreme in the eyes of the Republicans) wing that includes the congresswoman from New York more popularly called AOC.
Bernie Sanders, who is an independent Democrat, caucuses with the AOC wing of the party.
The Republican Party has not been monolithic. They too had a northern liberal wing led in the 1970s by Nelson Rockefeller, who was the New York governor, while a conservative wing was represented by Sen. Barry Goldwater. Lately, of course, the GOP is now called the MAGA GOP, overrun by those who pledge loyalty to Donald Trump. Interestingly, earlier in his life Trump was registered as a voter identified with the Democrats.
But even though the lines of division in the US aren’t really clear lines of division, that’s still far better than how we divide our politics here. Forget party labels — these are just convenient camouflage more often than not dependent on where the money is coming from. This is why almost immediately after a new administration is sworn into office you see an exodus of legislators (usually congressmen) from whatever party they had run under to the party of the newly-elected President. “Show me the money.”
And that’s why we voters choose candidates to vote for individually, hardly identifying with a specific party and its complete lineup. This reality hit me again two days ago when a friend asked me whether I felt the same excitement about the Philippine elections that I feel about the US elections. I barfed.
And I barfed a second time when he asked me who I was voting for as senators.
Political divisions in our country are very personalistic and individualistic.
It’s because this is how and who we are.
