America will vote in the 'world's most powerful person' in November. George Bush has become a hate figure for the big money and world-conquering ambitions of the US. But will the world be a better place when he's gone?
The Republican candidate, John McCain, promises more of the same, but with an older, friendlier face.
This week, both the Republican and Democratic candidates have pledged to shelve their political differences to save capitalism from its own inbuilt crisis. American politics is dominated by big money parties, who do not represent working class people.
People see hope in the Democratic Party candidate, Barak Obamma, whose election to President will bring the liberation the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King fought for. But oppression of black people is built into the structures of American society. Black unemployment is double white unemployment, black people are twice as likely not to have health insurance as white people and they work for less money. In 2006, only 8.2 percent of whites were in poverty, compared to the 24.2 percent of African Americans. Can a President pledged to run the capitalist system efficiently through crisis eradicate the problems faced by working class black Americans?
If we think the American elections don't matter to people in Britain, then we need to look at the warning signs. The same choice that they have in America between two big money parties will soon confront us here. New Labour is now structured an the same way as the American Democrat party; trade unions fund the party but do not have a say in its policies. With no public healthcare, with an enormous gap between rich and poor, America is a sign of what happens when working-class people have no voice in politics.
