Having just moved to D.C. from Toronto, where I majored in American politics in university, I feel like an alien who studies Planet Earth for years and then discovers, once he gets there, that those human beings are actually nothing like what his fellow martians told him. As the resident Canadian TAP intern, here are five things about Super Tuesday and the American primaries that will forever mystify me, no matter how many times they're explained: Having just moved to D.C. from Toronto, where I majored in American politics in university, I feel like an alien who studies Planet Earth for years and then discovers, once he gets there, that those human beings are actually nothing like what his fellow martians told him. As the resident Canadian TAP intern, here are five things about Super Tuesday and the American primaries that will forever mystify me, no matter how many times they're explained:
1) If everyone agrees that it's absurd and unfair that Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina get to decide so much for the rest of the country, why don't you change it? Don't say there's nothing you can do about it or blame it on special interests or say "it's just the way it is.'" You're America. You gave the world the television, the automobile, electricity and The Simpsons. And you can't gang up on Iowa? It's Iowa.
2) How is Barack Obama a "hard-left socialist"? Obama is for the war in Afghanistan, talks about bombing Pakistan, won't make it mandatory for Americans to have health insurance, will leave troops in Iraq indefinitely, will maintain the United States' comparatively low levels of taxation, and constantly gives speeches filled with religious rhetoric. In Canada this would place him nicely in the Conservative party.
3) How will having a female president "change the world"? India, the U.K., Israel, Germany, Canada, Argentina, Finland, New Zealand, Chile -- all have had (or currently have) women as the head of their governments. Change the world? Um, the world changed a long time before America did.
4) How can voters decide if candidates will make good presidents without knowing who their vice-presidents will be? From Harry Truman to Dick Cheney, vice-presidents have been incredibly consequential. In retrospect, voting for George W. Bush in a primary without knowing that Dick Cheney was to be his V.P. was like betting on a Formula 1 car without knowing who its driver would be.
5) Isn't the term 'endorsement' getting tossed around a little too easily? Teacher's unions and editorial boards can endorse someone -- Andrew Sullivan can't. Al Gore or Rush Limbaugh's signature might arguably carry a little weight, but most individuals can only support candidates, they can't endorse them.
--Jordan Michael Smith
