Escalating US Political Dispute Satirizes 'Omnipotent General Elections'

With his government suspending operations and an unbroken Congressional stalemate over the budget, U.S. President Obama has elected to cancel his entire itinerary to Asia. He will thus not meet with other leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali, Indonesia, but instead be forced to remain in Washington and continue mediating the budgetary brouhaha. With complete disregard as to the ramifications of their actions, the two major U.S. parties have seriously affected domestic affairs, foreign diplomacy and the livelihoods of all Americans and arrested the country’s economic recovery — and the entire world will suffer for it. Some say that all of Hong Kong’s problems would be solved if only it had general elections. The U.S. has general elections, but political strife has only been magnified in what has become a massive satire of the “omnipotent general elections theory.”

The U.S. federal government has lapsed into political palsy and temporarily shut down due to partisan bickering over the budget, causing a large amount of government employees to be furloughed. Tourism-related businesses have suffered immensely and major facilities have ceased providing services, greatly inconveniencing American urbanites and foreign travelers alike. To avoid arming Republicans with more mud to sling by traveling abroad while the country remains in gridlock, Obama has had no choice but to forgo his trip to Asia, including attendance at the APEC summit. The significance of the Asia-Pacific region to U.S. strategy cannot be understated; the U.S. has long sought to elevate its political and economic influence here in this, the largest developing region in the world. Obama has had to abandon this in favor of tending to internal affairs, missing the opportunity for face-to-face exchanges with Asian-Pacific leaders.

And compared to the shuttering of the government and Obama’s canceled trip abroad, the lingering issue of the U.S. debt ceiling is an even more worrisome time bomb. On Oct. 17, U.S. federal government debt will exceed the legally determined limit; Congress needs to raise the ceiling prior to such an occurrence. The U.S. debt crisis of 2011 rocked financial markets around the globe; despite a narrow escape from defaulting through a last-minute compromise between Democrats and Republicans, the episode had already drawn the ire of the international community. Two years later, the crisis is being put on rerun. Once more, the selfishness of the two U.S. parties is being displayed as they neglect the interests of the country and the world in their quarreling, with a complete lack of the sense of responsibility incumbent upon a world power.

At present, Hong Kong is exploring the question of general elections. The political discord and government shutdown in the U.S. should prove extremely enlightening for us. Some believe that general elections will solve all of Hong Kong’s problems. In the eyes of many, the U.S. is the world’s paragon of democracy. However, even a democracy as “perfect” as the U.S. will be unable to resolve many political, economic and welfare issues. Quite to the contrary, the see-saw of political squabbling will make these problems even thornier and more complex. Hong Kong society should embrace practicality in the quest for a general elections bill, rather than adopting an overly naive Americanized format.