Significance of 2012 General Election

By A. Duttaahmed, Ph.D.

Principal significance: More than a billion dollars of Big Corporate Money could not buy the election their way — neither the principal target of presidential choice nor many of the propositions all around the country, California included. American electorate cannot be bought. They expressed their own opinion — the way the democracy should work.

Some big corporations, and some people, too, think money is people, which has now been proven that it is not. Yes, candidates have collected contributions from voters, but the two monies are not the same, similar to the difference between a crime and organized crime are not the same.

Lesson #2: American electorate is divided for whatever reason — they are divided whether it is the ideology, economic class, level of education, variously acquired values, religion, prejudice, bigotry, level of gathered information, or something else.

Lesson #3: These divided group(s) will have to learn to talk to each other, not at each other, and talk in such a way that the other group will listen, not merely take a position on an issue, rather try to find out what the other group is saying, not switch off.

Lesson #4: An old age, and age old, wisdom: Remember what your first English language teacher told you — while writing, and talking, too, do not use superlative languages so that the reader or listener is reflecting on what is written or said rather than take an unbending position. Understanding and compassion must be part of our social, and personal as well, discourses.

Lesson #5: The other group will not disappear, particularly in a democracy like ours. There is no “cleansing” of other group, like some ethnic groups tried unsuccessfully to get rid of another ethnic group, like Hitler’s Germany, like Bosnia, like Rwanda, like some Islamists and sectarian groups today, and so on.

I am not asking to give away one’s right to convince others to your viewpoints, but, please, do it without alienating. Americans holding a viewpoint other than yours are not your enemies!

A. Duttaahmed, Ph.D., is a Ramona resident.