Common Sense University

            A longtime friend of ours in Germany gave us his perspective of our Presidential election race by way of e-mail. It is interesting to note that some Germans follow the campaigns indeed closely and have some strong opinions about it. His name is Franz Seifert and he lives in a small town in the Black Forest region of Germany and just recently retired after a long career as a Representative of a major German Pharmaceutical Company. He writes:

            Dear friends, it is with great interest that I am now following political campaigns since I retired earlier this year. Since the political systems in our two countries are different when it comes to choosing a President, I find myself truly fascinated in the way America picks their leader and by proxy, the leader of the free world. Our political campaigns are much shorter here than they are in America, the major parties put up their candidates and the voters then choose in a general election. Since we have several parties vying for votes, I can hardly remember a time when a single party gained an absolute majority to govern. We have therefore ‘coalitions’ and we have had them in all possible arrangements. Currently, the Christian Democrats (CDU) are in a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), a truly vast majority but this is likely to change next year when new general elections will be held.

            In comparison, America has had for a long time two major parties and has therefore made the choices for American voters easier, it is either Democrats or Republicans! I would like to limit my comments on the two recent party conventions. I happened to be visiting friends in Florida and this gave me a chance to see the proceedings at lengths and not just limited to brief sound clips as we get them in Germany. I must say, it was quite an eye opener for me in that I recognized the huge differences between the Democrats and the Republicans.

            All I heard at the Democrat’s convention how bad things were in America as they ran down the Bush administrations record. I had a very hard time believing all this since I have visited America until recently regularly and several times every year in my professional career and have met hundreds of Americans in many States. I have and still read several business magazines on a weekly basis and also have access to general statistics so I believe to have a good understanding about economic conditions in America. But listening to the speakers at the Democratic convention in Denver, America was just about to disappear into the abyss. Everything was truly painted in a very negative way. Their one and only solution and answer to all this misery was “bigger government” and paying for it by taxing the rich.

            In comparison, the Republican convention reflected at least some optimism and while recognizing the current dire conditions in the country realistically in terms of economics, the housing crisis, the energy dilemma and so on, they, the speakers, at least expressed confidence in America’s ‘Can Do’ abilities and held out strong hope for things to get better. They also tried to highlight the differences between the two major parties. As far as highlights are concerned, for the Democrats, it was the final night when candidate Barack Obama accepted his parties nomination at a football stadium in front of eighty thousand people. For the Republicans, it was the speech by McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. This was her formal introduction to America and apparently, she was an instant hit from what I have read since the conventions. She also seems to have accomplished to unite and excite the Republicans in the country who had been rather lukewarm towards John McCain. She brought a totally new dimension to this election.

            If I had to make a summary comparison between Democrats and Republicans, just on the basis of what I saw and heard at the two conventions. I would identify the Democrats with

• Negativity   -    Class Warfare   -   Empty Promises   -   Dreamy Concepts   -   More Socialized Systems by means of  Higher Taxes   -   Bigger Government as sole Solution   -   Victimhood   and   Lofty Rhetoric as in “Hope” and “Change”

The Republicans sounded much more hopeful and they advocated

• A Positive Can-Do attitude   -   A strong sense of Realism   -   Strong Content   -    Smaller Government   -   Lower Taxes

But the most distinct difference between Democrats and Republicans is their demeanor and I can only call them what they are: The Democrats are negative while the Republicans are positive!

            I envy you Americans to have such distinct choices, unfortunately, we do not have that here in Germany. The major parties are deeply anchored in socialism and are only slightly nuanced in their approaches to solving problems. This should also explain that a majority of Germans and for that matter all Europeans openly hope for Barack Obama to win in November in that it would mean more socialism in America and therewith a certain closing of the gap between America and the rest of the world.

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