With only two days left for polling in the midterm election, the US political scene seems to be heating up. Until now the campaign has been lackluster and voter apathy unmistakable in spite of the high stakes involved. President George W. Bush is now on a 16-state sweep to boost Republican candidates in a bid to break the deadlock in the US Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney and first lady Laura Bush are also on the campaign trail.
They are all campaigning with the full awareness that their party, Republicans, holds only a razor-thin majority in the Congress, with 223 members to 208 Democrats, one independent and three vacancies. The Senate balance is even closer, with Republicans and Democrats each holding 49 seats, one independent and the vacancy caused by last week’s death of Sen. Paul Wellstone in a plane crash. With the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives by just six seats, and the Democrats controlling the Senate by one, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want to leave anything to chance.
As a rule, foreign policy does not count even in US presidential elections. Maybe because both the main parties — Republicans and Democrats — share the same views on all contentious issues. When it comes to Middle East, it is only a question of which of them can prove more pro-Israel and more anti-Iraq.
One corollary of this is that even purely local races are fought on external issues as when a candidate running for Senate from New York promises, not better policing to fight crime or better educational facilities in inner cities, but shifting of US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem! So nothing surprising if Iraq looms large as Americans prepare for Tuesday’s s ballots in which a third of congressional seats and 35 governorships are up for grabs. There are two additional factors. One is the changed post-Sept. 11 political landscape in the US which has given Bush strong and continuous overall approval ratings.
The second is the dismal economic performance of the present Republican administration. Bush has turned a $237 billion federal budget surplus in 2000 into a 2002 deficit of $159 billion. Less than half the public is happy with his handling of the economy.
In any other country the main opposition would have capitalized on this. But Republicans know that if they are vulnerable on economic front, their opponents are vulnerable on another (a more crucial) issue. No Democrat would like to appear “soft” on terrorism by criticizing a president who is basking in the Sept. 11 glory. The Republicans are ruthlessly exploiting the security issue — fears about the terrorist threat, Iraq replacing Al-Qaeda as the new threat to US security. Against such crude appeals to patriotism and brazen display of chauvinism, Democrats remain paralyzed.
So even if Republicans fare badly, as is most likely, the war cries against Iraq are not going to diminish in intensity. After all, Saddam Hussein, whether vanquished or still in power, will be an invaluable electoral asset if Bush runs for re-election.
