Thanks to the Lunar nature of Eastertide, this week will have to suffice for my two-year anniversary of writing for the paper. But having done several panoramic analyses of everything wrong with the right and everything hypocritical in the left in this country, and given that Stephen Harper is no longer our prime minister, the subject of my inaugural and one year anniversary columns, it may be time for a brief glance south at our cousins and their primaries.
At this point it is clear that President Obama's tenure has been an abysmal failure. On the home front, his flagship policy, Obamacare, has made healthcare more expensive for many Americans, and his wasteful spending on green tech has failed to create any growth.
On foreign policy, Obama appears outflanked by everyone from Putin to little masked evil doers with Kalashnikovs. His greatest achievement is giving Iran a blank cheque for nuclear armament.
Into this hellish situation have stepped a truly diverse slate of candidates on both the right and the left, and thanks to the American primary system, ordinary citizens can influence the result still more than nine months away by choosing which party candidate they believe to be the best.
Competing for the Democratic nomination are Bernie Sanders, a senator for Vermont, and Hillary Clinton, Obama's former Secretary of State who was previously both the first lady of the United States as well as a senator for New York.
Sanders is a social democrat, well left of even Obama on several issues, while Clinton is the economic centrist and foreign policy "realist."
As of this writing, Bernie and Clinton are still in a virtual tie in Iowa. Thus, it is fair to say many of the Democratic caucus goers are sending a message to the party establishment: there is an appetite among many Democrats, especially younger ones, for innovative, even radical changes to the social contract that they have yet to see fulfilled by Obama. It is also clear that Clinton's brand is losing some of its luster as it is being plagued by her own and her husband's past.
For the Republicans, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio, and outsider Donald Trump are the current main contenders. While Trump polls the highest nationally, he walked away in Iowa three points behind Cruz who was polling low going into the primary; this and Rubio's strong showing is definitely its own kind of message to the Trump camp: true conservatism and widening the tent to include immigrant communities makes sense to Republicans both young and old.
Addressing the Trump issue for a moment, it needs to be said that I do believe he has been a necessary addition to the political discourse of the United States. The fact is that Trump's appeal isn't really his own to claim; it exists because of the lack of leadership shown from the White House for two presidencies and the inability of Congress and the executive to work together for the good of Americans.
Trump is a populist with a simple message: our government sucks.
The short answer is he's right about that. And really, Sanders is his mirror image from the left to a certain extent.
Americans feel like their taxes aren't coming back to them in services they actually need or in the help they actually want; they also believe their reputation around the world is worse than it was in the 1990s and that their safety is at risk from enemies without borders.
The presidential race of 2016 is proving to be a much greater pivot in its history than the election of its first black president was.
With strong contenders from all sides of the spectrum within the two parties, a serious ideological, even existential battle is being waged all over one question: where does America go from here?
That question will be answered in the ensuing months. And all the while, average voters will have incredible influence over the race for the White House, thanks to the primary system.
