The police force, beef and chicken
Perhaps the very final and conclusive results of this Tuesday’s American mid-term elections are not yet fully computed and completed as yet. (Some of the states have some relatively convoluted methods of counting.)
But, like the vast Brazil and numerous other societies, American democracy surely would have revealed definitive victories – and losses – by now. I’m mentioning the American mid-terms because, as an old-time “elections activist”, I was intrigued by how the primary issues to influence votes were made to vary, to seize attention and, eventually, to dominate. Issues versus candidate quality attracted significant voter attention, besides ideological or partisan loyalties. For the usually-tranquil mid-term elections, Americans made these polls a robust electoral joust for control of their two “Houses” of “Parliament” – the Congress and the equally powerful Senate.
