How are American Politics Perceived?

Recently, one piece of news has rattled American voters ahead of both the 2010 midterm elections and the slightly more distant 2012 presidential election. The Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to overturn the previous restrictions on corporate campaign finance arguing that it conflicted with the First Amendment’s most basic principle of free political speech. Not being a Supreme Court specialist, this news instead made me think of things closer to home, specifically what people’s impressions are of political occurrences across the Pacific. Although admittedly there are limited elections here, the political system is vastly different from what is found in America. Given the difference in governing system, how do average citizens interpret news of elections in foreign countries?

This question evoked the memory of a conversation I had with a good friend of mine, a Beijinger of a similar age. I cannot recall exactly how we got to the topic of American politics, because it was not an election year and no major political upset had occurred. Regardless, I remember this friend saying something along the lines of, “Aren’t American elections simply a game dominated by the rich?” There is arguably some truth to this statement, but I did not want my friend to live life thinking that all of American polity is simply some game manipulated by the ultra-wealthy and corporate interests. I tried to respond by explaining public funding for campaigns, campaign finance rules as well as a few rags-to-riches examples of American politicians, but despite my efforts my friend was not convinced.

Where do these sentiments come from? The media here does not denounce elections that occur abroad. In fact, there is fairly wide coverage of elections all over the world (there was, in fact, considerable coverage of Ukraine’s recent elections, something that I found largely absent in even American media sources). However, especially given the political movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong, there is often an association of what someone from the American context might conceive of as a representative political system with something that is either chaotic or manipulated by elites (the affluent background of many American candidates plus the Bush/Clinton political families are probably enough to convince anyone of the latter).

There are aspects of the American system of governance that people here do admire, but these are, counterintuitively, aspects that are not things most Americans like to advertise about their country. Two such events are the Monica Lewinsky and Watergate scandals. While these are events that do not make Americans proud of their political system, there is a deal of admiration here for the American political institutions that enforce the laws even at the highest echelons of political society and that will hold powerful leaders accountable for their actions.

These are simply my thoughts. I do not know enough about other areas such as the education system to say with any degree of accuracy what is taught in the classrooms. Other interpretations are welcome.