November 13, 2002

Why I miss Germany

"By European standards, the Democrats and the Republicans are remarkably similar in their ideologies – or lack of ideologies." That's not me speaking – that's the venerable BBC, commenting on this fall's U.S. campaigns.

Go ahead – take the Pepsi challenge. Read quotes from U.S. politicians without looking at their party affiliations. Can you tell the difference?

Never had I missed Germany as much as I did on election night, when all the failures of the American political system became painfully apparent to me.

For a start, the American system is ultimately rigged in favor of the status quo. By having both the Senate and the House of Representatives elected on the basis of direct-candidate votes, the system makes sure that:

1. only the two major parties are able to compete with each other;

2. the loser's supporters will stay unrepresented (even if they make up as much as 49 percent of the respective voting district).

Germany's system is based on a representational democracy. That's why the Green Party is part of the government right now. In the last parliamentary elections in September, the Greens got close to 10 percent of the votes – and thus got 10 percent of the allocated seats in parliament. Even in Germany, no Green candidate for federal office would ever be able to get more than 50 percent of the votes.

Campaign finance reform is also a big issue in America at the moment. German parties are financed through a proportionate allocation of state money, depending on their percentage of votes. Any party that achieves over 0.5 percent in federal races is eligible for state funding. Parties are allowed to accept donations, but very tight regulations govern these.

People in the United States are treated as ignorant and are being kept ignorant by the corporate media. Americans are addressed primarily as consumers. The U.S. media follows its own interests – not those of the general public. In Germany, the media addresses people primarily as citizens or simply as people.

When television was first invented, for example, European countries regarded it as too powerful a tool to leave to market forces; TV was considered a medium to educate and inform the public. Up until the mid 1980s, there was no such thing as private broadcasting in Europe. In the United States, TV was just seen as a way to make a lot of money and was commercialized from the very start, without giving much thought to political consequences.

Also, ideological TV advertising is illegal in Germany; the only exception is allocated ad slots for political parties during election season. No private person or corporation can purchase ad space to express political or religious worldviews. That means it would be absolutely impossible for a German equivalent of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign to defeat a ballot measure.

The United States, it seems, is structured more like a business than a country. It's not run for the benefit of its people. The citizens/employees are not treated very well by their government/employers. The absence of universal health care, free education, and adequate maternity leave are just a few signs of this state of affairs.

Paradoxically, Germany would not be where it is today if not for the United States. The United States liberated Germany from the Nazi regime and supervised and mentored the emerging Federal Republic of Germany on its path toward democracy. I would even go so far as to say Germany is the United States' biggest achievement to date. However, almost 60 years after World War II, it seems as though Germany has come closer to the American idea of democracy than America has itself.