Approaching US Midterm Elections: Debate Policy Without Conflict

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/WA/2014/09/07/approaching-us-midterm-elections-debate-policy-without-conflict/

Approaching US Midterm Elections: Debate Policy Without Conflict
Published in Sanin Chuo News (Japan) on 23 August 2014 [link to original]
Translated from Japanese by Stephanie Sanders.
Edited by Sean Feely.
Posted on September 7, 2014.

The U.S. midterm elections are approaching in two and a half months. With President Obama’s popularity in a slump, the ruling Democratic Party is struggling, and the Republican opposition party is showing the momentum to win a majority in both houses. The fact that the Obama administration’s unifying force has weakened all at once and that both parties, scrutinizing the presidential election two years prior, spend all their time feuding with each other is cause for concern.

Now, in addition to immigration reform and racial harmony, domestic and foreign issues such as Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, the Middle East and Asia diplomacy are piling up in the United States. I hope that voters will spend a lot of time discussing policy and show up to the polls on Nov. 4.

~snip~

Although tea party candidates pulled ahead of Republicans in the Senate primaries two years ago, independent voters disliked the tea party's argument for a ban on abortions, and Democrats were allowed to maintain a majority in the general election.

Also, because disputes between conservatives and party leadership intensified in fall 2013, completion of the provisional budget was delayed and it caused government agencies to temporarily shut down for a span of 16 days. As a result, there was a surge in "Republican hate" among Americans, and the leadership has been struggling to restore party unity.