…in US politics?
The US “midterm” elections are over, and some are hopeful that this will result in a less “Trump-dominated” politics in what’s still the most powerful country in the world. And which, not so incidentally, has the largest Guyanese population outside of Guyana. Frankly, your Eyewitness doesn’t think anything will change a whit! But then, like cricket, you never know!
After all the Sturm und Drang, the bottom line is the Republicans snapped up two more seats in the Senate to now have an outright majority of 51 Senators out of the total of 100. In the Congress, the Democrats as of when this was written, picked up 26 seats by defeating Republicans to now command an outright majority of 219 in the House that has 435 members. So some might say, it’s a tie, with Republicans controlling the Senate and the Democrats controlling the House?
Not really…since that analysis doesn’t take into consideration the elephant in US politics – the President, Donald Trump! No wonder he said he won big time!! While it’s said with a great deal of truth that the US system of government is based on “checks and balances” between its various components, a President as forceful and obstreperous as Trump can still maintain dominance with the new configuration. The President, after all, sets the agenda for government – and more than any other President in the history of the US, including Franklin D Roosevelt – Trump hasn’t been bashful in setting that agenda DAILY on Twitter!!
Take the matter of appointments to the highest offices of the land – including Cabinet Ministers and Members of the Supreme Court. These have to be ratified by the Senate – which Trump can now count on even more since it’s largely due to his campaigning that Republicans prevailed. In an effort to counteract “mob rule”, the framers of the US Constitution gave each state – no matter how small, two Senators. So California with 39 million persons has the same two Senators as Wyoming with 579 thousand!!
Ironically, what this does in the modern US is to give the rural-dominated states with small populations – which would’ve been identified as “the mob” in the 18th century – an inordinate amount of power over the urbanised states like California and New York. And it’s in these rural areas that the bulk of Trump supporters live. Derided as “hicks” and “rednecks” and “yahoos” for the longest while, they’re now giving the “city slickers” their comeuppance – with a vengeance!
The Republican party now owes Trump big time on the wave he’s been able to create via xenophobia, nativism and American exceptionalism.
So it’ll be even more of Trump’s brinksmanship politics!!
…or moving backwards in cricket?
OK…your Eyewitness could deal with India defeating us in Test Cricket. With their 1 billion+ population, they have more folks who’re used to the tedium of a game that spans five days – most of it while watching the grass grow. Especially when most of them are given to contemplating their navels for hours on end!!
We West Indians, after all, like our fun to be quickfire – slam, bam, thank-you-maam – affairs, don’t we? Conditioned as slaves and indentured servants for hundreds of years, there was never too much time for leisurely pursuits. So when the ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS series came around, better was expected – after all, it’s only 50 overs per innings, which only took ONE DAY as the name suggests. Surely, your Eyewitness expected, our boys could keep their eyes on the ball for ONE DAY? But it was not to be – and they merely flattered to deceive.
And then came the T20’s!! This was our mettle…our forte…our bake and saltfish!! We practically invented this 4-hour format!
And yet we lost!
Is all lost?
…to the Berbice Bridge
Your Eyewitness is confused. Now that it has chosen nationalisation, will the PNC-Government now subsidise the BCCI to ensure all debts are serviced?
With them being used to “deficit financing” and all that!
