SA at risk of repeating America’s error

ANOTHER VOICE

- LORENZO DAVIDS Davids is the Executive Director of Urban Issues Consulting.

FROM 1945 to 2026, a period of 81 years, the US had 15 presidents who served a total of 24 terms, some of them being partial terms.

They all came from only two parties: Republican or Democrat. The post-Second World War presidents had three major constituencies: the largely conservative Christian evangelical group, the military and finance corporations and the lobby groups. Collectively, they were called ‘the American people; a euphemism that collapses profound inequalities, disparities and prejudice into a fiction of unity. The latter constituency comprises a diverse array of pro-Israel, American foreign policy, defence, security, environmental, and gun rights lobbyists, as well as some 50 other lobby groups. And behind these lobby groups are the people with the money: the political paymasters.

The power of the paymasters came from two centres: voters and access to money. They had the power to influence who voters should vote for, and they had the money to amplify, diminish, or outrightly thrash the presence and message of any candidate seeking elected office. They controlled elections. Despite our best fantasies about our preferred candidate and free and fair elections, all elected officials are bought and paid for by lobbyists and their bankers. A candidate’ position on any of the 50-plus lobby group issues could make or break them.

Despite its inherent corruption and money-influenced elections, American democracy was held up worldwide as free and fair. But it never was. All it really was was a peaceful transfer of power, despite the corruption and manipulation. That system, which the world lauded for more than 81 years, gave us the bravery of a John F. Kennedy, the eloquence of a Barack Obama, and the demagogic corruption of a Donald Trump.