The State of America, not the United States of America
Supporters listen to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during a campaign event at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo: AFP
America has been a strange and interesting place in 2016: the most divisive, alarming and downright bizarre primaries and presidential race in recent history, one of the country’s worst mass shootings highlighting the continued battle over gun control, problems with racism and deep social inequality.
Three American speakers – historian Peter S. Field, political scientist Amy Fletcher and TV writer and novelist Steve Hely – discuss what’s happening in the world’s largest democracy, and whether the White House is ready for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
This discussion, chaired by Paula Penfold, was recorded at the WORD Christchurch Writers Festival in August, and it’s remarkable that the themes identified by the speakers just after the USA’s election primaries have remained current throughout the General Election months which have followed.
In the aftermath of the final of the three presidential candidate debates, Paula Penfold’s observation that it’s hard to think of the United States of America rings true for the session’s panellists.
During the discussion Assoc. Prof Field sets out the case that President Obama, and the elite system he represents to many, played a significant role in creating Trump.
“In the United States since the Second World War,” he says, “you’ve got 40/40 rule. 40% Democrat and 40% Republican and fighting over the middle. A kind of basic consensus. And I think that’s been shifted a great deal by this present administration in a whole number of ways.”
He sees an analogy between the current state of the USA and the United Kingdom, noting that the average person in Britain voted for Brexit much to the surprise of the pundits and the political classes. He suggests that Americans are expressing a kind of similar anger about the political elite, but particularly this political elite and this President.
“I think there’s a great sense in America that the educated Princeton-Harvard-Yale political elite are really throwing them under the bus. And so people really want this person to go to Washington and if not fix things, at least tell the people who have permanent jobs in Washington ‘You’re fired!’”
About the participants
Paula Penfold - Moderator
Paula Penfold is an investigative journalist who has worked mostly in television and radio, though this year she’s taken a new direction with long-form journalism for Fairfax, in the investigative and special projects team, Circuit. Her most notable recent story is a four-year investigation into the wrongful imprisonment of Teina Pora.
Peter S. Field
Peter S. Field is Associate Professor of American History at the University of Canterbury. After graduating from Columbia University, he held research posts at Yale, Princeton and the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History. The most recent of his several books is The Promise and Paradox of American Freedom.
Amy Fletcher
Amy Fletcher is an Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Canterbury. Born in Huntsville, Alabama, she came to Christchurch in July 2000 as a Lecturer. She specialises in contemporary U.S. Government and science, technology and environmental policy. She knows several people who intend to vote for Trump.
Steve Hely
Steve Hely was a writer for the television classics 30 Rock, Late Show with David Letterman, The Office and the acclaimed animated comedy, American Dad!. He also wrote the Thurber Prize-winning novel, How I Became a Famous Novelist, and the 2016 travel memoir, The Wonder Trail.
