Clive Bibby: For whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee

There have been multiple interpretations of this famous Hemingway line - I choose to use it as a characterisation of the US political situation as it uncovers the corruption during the period of hegemony in the years 2021 and 2022 when the Presidency and the House of Representatives were controlled by the Democrats. 

Yes, there have been times when multiple control has occurred during Republican administrations but it is hard to remember a time when one party has spent so much of its energies trying to destroy an ex President and his political legacy. 

It has been a vendetta, the likes of which we are unlikely to see again because the consequences of that obsessive behaviour will have repercussions that no one envisaged when this witch-hunt began. 

Ron Smith: Some thoughts on democracy

One of the riveting features of the US Presidential election just finished, is the billions of dollars spent in advertising on behalf of the contending parties.  The little girl who was filmed in floods of tears, spoke for many in expressing the sentiment that it was all too much (though she might not have been thinking purely of the cost).  On the other hand, it seems clear that it was effective, in the ‘swing states’ and particularly in the early stages, when attitudes were being formed.  It looks as if this, together with superior long-term organisation, was key to the Democratic victory. 

Of course, there is nothing wrong with planning ahead and deploying appropriate forces for the task in hand, and an incumbent president can do this in a way that a candidate who emerges from the protracted primary process, cannot.  But there is something wrong with the vast amounts being spent on television material and the careless negativity of its content.