Elections

I've been following as best I can the current Maltese drama with the government. It's a convenient situation for me as a professor--I'm teaching comparative politics this semester and Malta may end up illustrating a variety of what seem very odd and exotic political processes: a parliament, a vote of no confidence, the leader of a country possibly changing through an internal party decision...or none of these things and a portfolio shuffle.

But, the American electoral system is even odder, I think. I'm also teaching American government and I think it will be a challenge this election year and not merely entertaining or mildly annoying. One of the big differences in the current electoral cycle (which in the US seem to have started long ago and will not end until Nov has been caused by the Supreme Court Decision: Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. The "Supremes" decided that rules against money going to independent Political Action Committee violated free speech. In effect, it says that corporations and non-profits are people even in the right to free speech. So, now we have SUPER PACS, which can take money in very large quantities from individuals and then these entities can spend to make their own independent TV ads and so forth. They aren't supposed to coordinate with any of the candidates' organizations. So we are getting ads that are rife with exaggerations and hyperbole. Why, one from a Super Pac that supports Gingrich, attacked Romney by showing him speaking a bit of French (while at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee!). Why it would be bad for a potential president to speak even a little of another language eludes me. I suppose it's supposed to show how unAmerican it is. He's also being attacked for the buying and selling of firms by Bain Capital. I truly dread the ads once the Republicans are done tearing each other up and the Democrats and Republicans go after each other for real.

One thing I'm starting to think is that these PACs, with all their private money and their new-found right to free speech, may be illustrating a lot about the character of business in America--even more than when our financial and banking institutions utterly failed us and the world in common sense. The new PAC show how little they respect their country or their fellow citizens. It's even worse that we already thought. They really have zero ethics and zero belief in the public or respect for democracy or the republic.

Now, getting 'free speech' (as opposed to the quiet and influential conversations they already could have with elected officials) is probably a heady thing. It's new and they are not behaving themselves at all. It's confusing the candidates and the older parties: who is in charge? The electorate is often baffled, from what little we can now see. It might be effective in small ways, but it might also cause a major backlash (perhaps Americans will have to talk to each other more as the ads have to be heavily discounted). How do you control your message as a candidate (in the US, unlike in Malta, individual candidates mostly have to control the message, not the party)? In the 1790s when my country was new, leaders and their friends engaged in all kinds of dastardly attacks on each other through the media of the times, newspapers. But at least they knew each other and worked with each other everyday and actually believed in the idea of a united United States; that is probably not the case with the new PACs. Eventually the founders of the new republic toned it down some--because parties formed, as Ellis says in his book, Founding Brothers. I wonder in this current craziness, if the unregulated superPACs will learn. Will billionaires really want to bankroll this sort of nonsense for decades to come? Will counterveiling social responses arise?

So, it's a challenge to teach my intro to American govt class with all this brand new behavior. It's interesting for me as a teacher, but a challenge. As a citizen, I rather imagine I'll be wanting to weep for my country this year.

Meanwhile, my Maltese friends, good luck with your own politics!

Madurodam, in The Hague #2

Here are some more photos. One has my umbrella in it to show size. There's a pair--one with a big white foot in it and then another very near the spot where my foot was.

Madurodam, in The Hague

There's a remarkable site in The Hague, Madurodam. It has many important Dutch sights and buildings and industrial/waterworks all at 1/25th scale. It was really quite something. If you ever find yourself with time on your hands in Amsterdam and in the mood for something rather less exciting than Amsterdam, then hop the train to the Hague and visit this place. Some photos.

Gardens of the Peace Palace

One of the joys of taking all this intensive international law work at the Hague Academy of International Law is that the gardens at the Peace Palace are marvelous. Herewith, a few photos.

WWI cemeteries and memorials, Ypres

With hundreds of thousands dead in a very small area, there are many, many cemeteries and memorials to units. The tall statue of a soldier is a memorial to Canadians, there's a memorial to a group of Americans who served here, the one with many crosses is British. Then there are two from a German site: the sign saying about 25,000 of them are buried in the plot (they used mass burials at the time) and then the plot, that looks like a square with plants in it. There were other Germans buried there, not just these 25,000. Among the Germans are the cadets who, a few weeks into the war, marched in their best uniforms to finish off the British and Belgians who had taken extraordinary fire trying to prevent the Germans from cutting them off from the sea (Dunkirk of WWII memory was not far from where I was) and were mostly decimated. Their officers thought the Belgians and few remaining English (from the start of the war) would be too disorganized and exhausted to fight. The Germans were very wrong and the men/boys who had rushed out of school to enlist were slaughtered. Later Hitler would glorify them as an use them as exemplars of outstanding behavior. But, in reality it was simple arrogance and poor military leadership.

WWI Remains near Ypres, Belgium

WWI began nearly a century ago. They expected a very fast war. They got horrifying attritional warfare. Here are some of the remains (people still find ammunition and those shells still take lives to this day). Pictures of trenches, a fortified machine gun position, what looks like a big pond but is what's left of a major detonation of underground explosives (both sides had their miners dig and then they blew men up by the hundreds from below). Similarly, the pretty, bumpy field is actually bumpy from all the shelling. At the end the war, no trees, no buildings, pretty much nothing was left in this area.

Scenes from Bruges, Belgium