I find it fascinating to observe the frustration that clearly is building within the minds of the voting population. It seems that the mantra, if verbally expressed, is simply give me a new name and face with original ideas for when I enter that voting machine. Oh and they also want to make sure there are no hanging chads! Well, for awhile it seemed that the frustrated voters were mainly concentrated in the U.S. But while I was on vacation it became abundantly clear to me, on those occasions when I tried to stay in touch with the real world, that there is voter unrest on a global level.
British voters last week produced what has been referred to as a “hung parliament.” That is basically analogous to what we refer to in the U.S. as a hung jury, meaning that it was impossible to achieve a required majority for a decision. As for Britain, this was the first time that it has found itself in this situation since 1974. It wasn’t too long ago that the Conservative Party was expected to have a landslide victory forcing the Labour party out of control. However, while the new Prime Minister comes from the Conservative Party, his task will be to form a working coalition among these major political groups in order to get anything accomplished. In other words….good luck!
Then there was Germany this past week. In one of its most populated regions voters went to the polls and rejected what is called the national center-right coalition for their state government. The consequence of this is that it shifts the balance of power in the German Bundesrat which is the upper house of the federal parliament that makes up the composition of the country’s state governments. Remember that Chancellor Merkel was voted back in to her leadership position in September of last year with her own coalition majority. The game plan was to pursue an agenda for tax cuts. With the shift in power in the Bundesrat she now has her own hung parliament to deal with on the tax, as well as other key political issues.
Does any of this stuff sound familiar? Let me throw out a term we use here in the U.S. to describe our political dilemma. It’s called gridlock. It sounds like Europe has the same situation. We had our chance to break free from the chains of gridlock with what appeared to be a decisive Democratic victory in the 2008 election. However, with what has proven to be an inept majority leadership and a focused determination by the Republican Party to stand their ground, we have achieved what appears to be the worst case of political gridlock ever in our country.
So now it looks like the world is following our lead….global gridlock!
