Will nostalgia define the next four years in American politics? - Maclean's | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Politics

Will nostalgia define the next four years in American politics? – Maclean's

Published

 on


Adnan R. Khan: President-elect Joe Biden’s emerging cabinet suggests he is more interested in reset than reform. Is that what America really needs?

As president-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet takes shape, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: we shouldn’t expect any major surprises. That, in itself, is no surprise. In his 48-year career in politics, Biden hasn’t developed a particularly risk-taker reputation, despite those edgy aviators. He is the steady ship, predictable and palatable. It’s why the Democratic establishment chose him as their candidate in the first place.

The question though is if a steady ship is what America needs in this moment of disorder and upheaval. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s what the world is expecting at a time of pandemic and a rupturing international order. A reset feels right: a return to something more familiar, to a centre of gravity from which to observe the devastation at a distance, and then decide what to do next.

First, of course, will come the pandemic fight, but that looks promising. With two vaccines lined up for approval in the coming days and weeks, there is an end in sight to this nightmare, even if “normalcy” is still up to a year away. What comes next, though, evokes a persistent feeling of unease. Perhaps it’s the trauma talking: After four years of a Trump White House, that lurking sense of impending doom will not go away quickly.

That’s maybe why Biden’s cabinet choices feel so comforting: they hark back to a time when things made more sense, and if there is one thing Trump has demolished, it is the feeling that our world makes sense.

But this may be simply pining for a mythical past. Was the Time Before ever so warm and fuzzy? We had Barack Obama, but we also had rising right wing extremism around the world; we had birtherism (led by Donald Trump); and we had a global economic collapse precipitated by American financial greed and hubris. Before that, we had Sarah Palin and the proto-Trumpian Tea Party; we had George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the War on Terror.

So yeah, in the spirit of John Oliver, it’s not 2017 to 2020 that need to be blown up, it’s the entire 21st century.

When you think of it that way, looking back is rather a cautionary tale than a place of refuge. American democracy is in crisis, and has been for many years. The fact that Trump and the Republican Party have tried—are still trying—to overthrow the results of the November election should come as no surprise. As Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist and cultural commentator, recently pointed out, mistrust in the American election system has existed since 2008. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to weaponize it.

And yet, the contours of Biden’s emerging team feel all-too familiar. Antony Blinken, the choice for Secretary of State, has all the credentials and the experience for the job. He is clearly qualified, which is of course a refreshing change from the coterie of hacks who made up Trump’s cabinet.

But Blinken was also one of the key architects behind the Obama administration’s failed strategy in the Middle East and, in 2001, argued in favour of NATO enlargement into the Baltics, a move some Russia experts at the time warned would undermine Vladimir Putin’s tentative steps toward normalization with the West.

These may only be missteps. The world is complicated, and even the smartest people sometimes get things wrong, or are proven wrong by history. But the pattern of Blinken’s mistakes suggest something more than mere miscalculation. He, like others appointed to Biden’s cabinet, subscribes to a strategic worldview operating on the foundation of American exceptionalism, where America not only leads the world into the light, but is the light.

What the last three decades since the Cold War have demonstrated is that American exceptionalism has always been a myth, at best aspirational, at worst delusional. What America needs more than anything now is some self-reflection, to stop pretending it is the shining beacon that it really never was.

That’s a tall order, particularly in a nation where the political gears are greased by establishment elites who have rarely demonstrated self-awareness. Indeed, American popular culture celebrates those who demonstrate a wanton disregard for self-awareness and humility.

Many of those elites were sidelined during the Trump presidency. Now, they’re angling for a return to the good old days of influence peddling and favouritism, the kind of insider access that got the U.S. into this mess in the first place. In 2016, and again in 2020, tens of millions of Americans, feeling disconnected from democracy, voted for an outsider, a disruptor who would shake up the establishment.

As horrifying as the Trump presidency has been, it is not an anomaly. There is no way to separate it from the fact that politics in America is fundamentally broken. Rolling back Trump’s damage will only be a first step. From there, Democrats will have to lead their country in a new direction; they will need to embrace new ideas and dismantle some of the old structures that have turned American democracy into a plaything for a tiny sliver of the population.

Are Biden and his team of establishment figures up to the task?

Let’s block ads! (Why?)



Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Here is the latest on the New Brunswick election

Published

 on

 

The New Brunswick Liberal Party has won a majority government, and Susan Holt will become the first woman to lead the province.

Here’s the latest from election night. All times are ADT.

10:15 p.m.

The results of the New Brunswick election are in, and with virtually all of the ballots counted, the Liberals won 31 seats out of 49.

The Progressive Conservatives won 16 seats.

The Green Party won two.

Voter turnout was about 66 per cent.

10 p.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has congratulated New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt for her party’s victory in the provincial election.

Trudeau says on the X platform he’s looking forward to working with Holt to build more homes, protect the country’s two official languages, and improve health care.

9:48 p.m.

During her victory speech tonight in Fredericton, New Brunswick premier-designate Susan Holt thanked all the women who came before her.

Holt will become the first woman to lead the province after her party won a majority government in the New Brunswick election.

The Liberals are elected or leading in 31 of 49 ridings.

9:30 p.m.

Blaine Higgs says he will begin a transition to replace him as leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

After being in power for six years, the Tories lost the election to the Liberals.

Higgs, who lost his seat of Quispamsis, says, “My leadership days are over.”

9:17 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting that Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick since 2016, has lost in the riding of Quispamsis.

Higgs, 70, has been premier of New Brunswick since 2018, and was first elected to the legislature in 2010.

8:45 p.m.

When asked about the election results, Progressive Conservative chief of staff Paul D’Astous says that over the last 18 months the party has had to contend with a number of caucus members who disagreed with its policy.

D’Astous says the Tories have also had to own what happened over the last six years, since they came to power in 2018, adding that the voters have spoken.

8:39 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting that David Coon, leader of the New Brunswick Green Party, has won the riding of Fredericton Lincoln.

Coon, 67, has been leader of the party since 2014, the year he was first elected to the legislature.

8:36 p.m.

The Canadian Press is projecting that the New Brunswick Liberal Party has won a majority government in the provincial election.

Party leader Susan Holt will become the first woman premier in the province’s history.

8:20 p.m.

Early returns show a number of close races across the province, with the Liberals off to an early lead.

Liberal campaign manager Katie Davey says the results will show whether party leader Susan Holt, a relative newcomer, was able to capture the attention and trust of the people of New Brunswick.

Davey says she believes voters have welcomed Holt and her message, which focused on pocketbook issues, especially health care.

8 p.m.

Polls have closed.

Eyes will be on a number of key ridings including Fredericton South-Silverwood, where Liberal Leader Susan Holt is vying for a seat; Saint John Harbour, which has been competitive between the Tories and Liberals in recent elections; and Moncton East, a redrawn Tory-held riding that the Liberals have targeted.

At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three, there was one Independent and there were four vacancies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

A look at Susan Holt, Liberal premier-designate of New Brunswick

Published

 on

 

FREDERICTON – A look at Susan Holt, premier-designate and leader of the New Brunswick Liberal party.

Born: April 22, 1977.

Early years: Raised in Fredericton, she attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and then spent a year in Toronto before moving abroad for three years, spending time in Australia and India.

Education: Earned a bachelor of arts in economics and a bachelor of science in chemistry from Queen’s University.

Family: Lives in Fredericton with her husband, Jon Holt, and three young daughters.

Hobbies: Running, visiting the farmers market in Fredericton with her family every Saturday.

Before politics: CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, CEO of the New Brunswick Business Council, civil servant, business lobbyist, advocate, consultant and executive with an IT service company that trains and employs Indigenous people.

Politics: Worked as an adviser to former Liberal premier Brian Gallant. Won the leadership of the provincial Liberal party in August 2022 and was elected to the legislature in an April 2023 byelection.

Quote: “We don’t take it lightly that you have put your trust in myself and my team, and you have hope for a brighter future. But that hope I know is short-lived and it will be on us to deliver authentically, on the ground, and openly and transparently.” — Susan Holt, in her speech to supporters in Fredericton after the Liberals won a majority government on Oct. 21, 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

New Brunswick Liberals win majority, Susan Holt first woman to lead province

Published

 on

 

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick voters have elected a Liberal majority government, tossing out the incumbent Progressive Conservatives after six years in power and handing the reins to the first woman ever to lead the province.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt is a relative newcomer to the province’s political scene, having won a byelection last year, eight months after she became the first woman to win the leadership of the party.

The Liberals appeared poised to take 31 of 49 seats to the Conservatives’ 16 and the Greens two.

Holt, 47, led the Liberals to victory after a 33-day campaign, thwarting Blaine Higgs’s bid to secure a third term as Tory premier.

The Liberal win marks a strong repudiation of Higgs’s pronounced shift to more socially conservative policies.

Higgs, meanwhile, lost in his riding of Quispamsis. In a speech to supporters in the riding, he confirmed that he would begin a leadership transition process.

As the Liberals secured their majority, Green Party Leader David Coon thanked his supporters and pledged to continue building the party, but he then turned his sights on the premier. “One thing is for sure,” he told a crowd gathered at Dolan’s Pub in Fredericton, “we know that Blaine Higgs is no longer the premier of this province.”

The election race was largely focused on health care and affordability but was notable for the remarkably dissimilar campaign styles of Holt and Higgs. Holt repeatedly promised to bring a balanced approach to governing, pledging a sharp contrast to Higgs’s “one-man show taking New Brunswick to the far right.”

“We need a government that acts as a partner and not as a dictator from one office in Fredericton,” she said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

Higgs focused on the high cost of living, promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent — a pledge that will cost the province about $450 million annually.

Holt spent much of the campaign rolling out proposed fixes for a health-care system racked by a doctor shortage, overcrowded emergency rooms and long wait-times. A former business advocate and public servant, she promised to open 30 community health clinics across the province by 2028; remove the provincial sales tax from electricity bills; overhaul mental health services; and impose a three per cent cap on rent increases by 2025.

The 70-year-old Tory leader, a mechanical engineer and former Irving Oil executive, led a low-key campaign, during which he didn’t have any scheduled public events on at least 10 days — and was absent from the second leaders debate on Oct. 9.

Holt missed only two days of campaigning and submitted a 30-page platform with 100 promises, a far heftier document than the Tories’ two-page platform that includes 11 pledges.

When the election was called on Sept. 19, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Green Party had three, there was one Independent and four vacancies. At least 25 seats are needed for a majority.

Higgs was hoping to become the first New Brunswick premier to win three consecutive elections since Liberal Frank McKenna won his third straight majority in 1995. But it was clear from the start that Higgs would have to overcome some big obstacles.

On the first day of the campaign, a national survey showed he had the lowest approval rating of any premier in the country. That same morning, Higgs openly mused about how he was perceived by the public, suggesting people had the wrong idea about who he really is.

“I really wish that people could know me outside of politics,” he said, adding that a sunnier disposition might increase his popularity. “I don’t know whether I’ve got to do comedy hour or I’ve got to smile more.”

Still, Higgs had plenty to boast about, including six consecutive balanced budgets, a significant reduction in the province’s debt, income tax cuts and a booming population.

Higgs’s party was elected to govern in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in almost 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — marking the first province to go to the polls during the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a slim majority.

Since then, 14 Tory caucus members have stepped down after clashing with the premier, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on conservative policies that represented a hard shift to the right.

A caucus revolt erupted last year after Higgs announced changes to the gender identity policy in schools. When several Tory lawmakers voted for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from cabinet. A bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.

Higgs has also said a Tory government would reject all new applications for supervised drug-consumption sites, renew a legal challenge against the federal carbon pricing scheme and force people into drug treatment if authorities deem they “pose a threat to themselves or others.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version