The Republican Party — from the outside
The United States obviously has a great deal going for it, not least of which is the ‘can do’ attitude of its population. But there are at least a few things where developing countries are better off than the USA.
USA has the Republican Party and its ‘believers’ so to speak. I’m not entirely sure how many foreigners think too much about American politics, and how many Americans know or care what the world thinks of them. but this is baffling to a lot of people outside the US. The Republican party is the only major political party in the world that doesn’t believe or denies climate change. This is extraordinarily strange. Climate change is not a belief or a set of principles to agree / disagree, but they do just that. Even assuming as they argue, that they don’t deny climate change, they just deny human role in it, it is still the most inane argument for a policy maker, any policy maker to put forward. So, if climate change is not man-made, the alternative is to, what, drown? Assuming climate change is cyclical?
Even leaders from other developing countries either shirk responsibility, pass the ball or try to play a blame game to get the developed world to pay for it, But none of them deny it or act like it isn’t happening — sure, some countries have nutters who expound on magical ways in which the world will rise above but here is the difference — they are still outliers. Rarely, if ever, do they get to decide policy. The Republican Party and it’s legislators wear their denial like a badge of honour, and harp on it every chance they get. They use it as a prime voting position, ban words and phrases linked to it, and generally strut around like they’ve made the world’s greatest secret discovery. Medicine men and charlatans from poor, underdeveloped and highly superstitious countries giving public credibility to such people is bad enough. The United States, with its education, its history, and it’s massive wealth, has prominent leaders who think like this. It is bizarre. With China massively cutting on coal, with the entirety of Europe moving to renewable energies and other countries also developing their renewable capacity, the Republic Party and its supporters seem to think it’s all a conspiracy to get them to give up coal. It’s simply bewildering.
The other sacred principle of the Republican Party — ‘small government’. In theory, and in some cases, one can identify that government agencies and their sizes can be cut down. But most of the arguments they have are along the lines of gutting the EPA, FDA, IRS etc. Now again, very few other countries seriously consider not having governmental oversight over medication and the environment. Ministries can be corrupt, inefficient, and circumvented, yes, but no other large voting collective sincerely believes that these topics should be free of governmental regulation, which is insane from an outsider’s perspective. Whatever people may believe, regulations aren’t thought up by policy makers for fun. They are meant to constrain human behaviour, generally greed. Does it cause bureaucratic red tape and inefficiency? Yes, but to argue that the ‘market’ or ‘production’ should be free of regulation is, frankly, the most bizarre stance one has heard of and is very destructive.
The idea that the Republican Party espouses that taxes on the rich cut down innovation is another peculiarity. Enough and more economists have proved that trickle down economics doesn’t work, and accumulation of capital at one level does not mean reallocation and investment leading to further profit. It just means that some have more summer homes than they can possibly use. It’s also completely bizarre that the rich are somehow being ‘punished’ for being rich if taxes are raised on them. The global financial system and economic system is inherently skewed towards those with capital. You have some money, you re-invest, and you make more. If you have capital, you have higher borrowing capability, and therefore larger amounts to play around with. I’m not advocating a complete reversal of the financial system (at least not yet) but this is an incontrovertible fact. Money produces money simply by virtue of it’s existence. No rich person becomes rich purely through hard work. Some skills have higher value in a knowledge economy, some ideas are deemed (arbitrarily perhaps) more worthy of investment. My point is that it is not a simplistic equation of I worked hard → I’m a billionaire. The Republican Party and its supporters believe this, and it is immensely puzzling while also breathtakingly selfish. This is also the belief that leads to Republican supporters hitting out at welfare or social support programs, because they don’t recognise that almost all of our societies are fundamentally based on inequity. So they stand on a soapbox and judge poor people and those who need help. To my immense gratitude, I do not see this attitude yet in India, at least. Sure, rich people can be selfish, greedy and generally out for themselves, but there isn’t a significant middle class which opposes pro-poor measures. The population doesn’t think it is valid to hold a belief that the poor are so by their own fault, and that all it needs is hard work to be rich. There is no widespread assumption that the Government should let the poor deal with themselves, and that, I think is still to India’s credit.
Contribution to welfare schemes — Obamacare lit a fire among Conservatives in the US because they believe ‘freedom’ is the freedom to not buy insurance (Paul Ryan)- another profoundly stupid argument. Insurance works on the principle of collective averaging of risk, which is why you have laws for car insurance, house insurance and third party insurance. It’s a side effect of living in a collective — called society. Conservatives I’ve interacted with fundamentally believe that to impose a contribution on those able to, to offset medical care for those unable to is equivalent to ‘stealing’. So far, I have not seen a trend in India based on such an assumption. More so, the middle class doesn’t resent every penny they pay that may go to help the poor. In that sense, I think the population as a whole is still more sympathetic. The middle class in developing countries, while politically inactive and largely apathetic, may not care too much and go out of its way to solve problems, but there is also no deep and burning resentment every time a government spends money on the poor or raises taxes for a specific scheme. The anger is because they believe that money is lining politicians’ pockets, but by and large the population doesn’t begrudge some cost towards taking care of the poor.
Abortion — This is truly the most mind-blowing aspect of America. There are quite a few countries that are intensely religious, and even there, the question of what a woman should do with her unborn child is not a major poll issue. It is incredible to the average outsider that some person who you may never meet or interact with, has such a strong opinion on what you should do with your unborn child that votes go according to these lines. Even intensely catholic countries may have an opinion, but their politics is not that intimately tied to reproductive issues. The Republican and Conservative obsession with it is simply unwarranted. Even if you did have an opinion based on religion, what makes it such a strange phenomenon is the intensity of your belief, that you vote according to this issue. Who the hell cares that much? A lot of countries are very opposed to homosexuality, and if you ask people what their opinion is they might express one, and even cheer a law criminalizing them. But when it comes to their vote — they will vote based on other issues, not one that barely affects them. But come election day, they are not going to vote for a party simply because it espouses their views on homosexuality. For a developed country, this obsession with another’s body is just insane.
I think most developing countries are lucky to not have a political class that believes in these principles, at least to the extent that the Republican Party and its staunch supporters espouse these principles. One may find vestiges of such beliefs, but by and large, these aren’t strong opinions that people hold. I think India is better off than the US in that respect.
