Tit for tat, McCain tabs a woman, Obama an foreign policy expert

There is a bit of tit for tat in the U.S. presidential race. When the liberal afro-american candidate Barack Obama named Joseph Biden for his vice-presidential candidate, he was responding to conservative criticism that he had no experience in foreign affairs; when Republican John McCain fired back by naming a woman, Sarah Palin, as his second there was no doubt that he had in mind a plan to neutralize liberal criticism that he  lacked interest in the situation of women. This politics of response rather than generation of genuine options is a result of the tradition of duality in the U.S. political system.

In high school children are taught that a two party system makes democracy healthy and efficient, while a multiple party system makes it awkward and confusing; Hollywood expressed it in terms of the (good) cowboys versus the (bad) indians; in the churches it becomes good against evil, God versus the devil; during the Cold War it was Communism versus democracy (capitalism);other dualities: big business versus workers, tax reduction versus tax increases, preventive wars versus bring the troops back home.

This heads versus tails vision of the world is augmented by the role of the mass media: most cities and towns in the U.S. are lucky to have two major newspapers and one usually leans towards the Democrats, one towards the Republicans, but frequently both are in the hands of the same owner. TV and radio stations reflect a similar but more complex pattern. Those who do not acceept this duality are outsiders or "independents" whose opinions are taken into account mainly at election times.

(to be continued)