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Study on Change & Culture - The US Elections

This is a macro view on the culture and change in a context of the elections in the US. The ingredients are limited to the importance of change and culture on a high level and the background of the candidate, not the message they carry.

When I read that the Dutch selected Hillary Clinton as the favorite candidate I realized that this seems quite logical from a cultural viewpoint. The Dutch culture has more feminine traits than masculine and therefore a female president is thought to be quite normal. But for the US this would be quite different; there a female president would be a seen as a significant change.

In the area of change, you might wonder whether Barack Obama contributes more to it than Clinton. Obama has used change in his slogan “change we can believe in,” whereas Clinton has focused her message on experience - “start from day # 1.” Experience and Change are like water and oil. And this reflects somehow their campaigns. People already notice that the internal discussion in the Democratic Party favor the Republicans. Change versus Experience on itself would show that the biggest impact would come from (choosing) Barack. But this is without looking at the inherent change that either candidate bring with them: being a “woman” on one hand versus a representative of a “minority group” on the other hand.

The question is then, “how much change is the US willing to accept?”

In “Best Reason Why Hillary Shouldn’t Be Elected,” the ezinearticles autor Robert Flessas stresses that Hillary shouldn’t be elected because it would mean that only two dynasties would rule the US for the last 20 years.

The question is whether that qualifies as a reason not to vote for her, or it would qualify much better as an indication of the culture. Recently, Argentina voted their first female president being the wife of the previous president. Is that a big change, you might ask? No, it is not… it’s all in the family, which offers confidence for people, better than electing someone they don’t know at all.

So normally Clinton should bring a natural advantage being “known”, but it turns out quite differently. The fact that there is a action group - http://www.americanwomenpresidents.org/ shows that (after 135 years after the previous female candidate) the women need some extra support on this. Perhaps a change to the first female president is bigger than that of having the first black president. The US is first in many things, but not on this topic. Many female presidents have proceeded the US already (Argentina, Chile, Germany) it is not a big deal, but it might be for the US.

I have been wondering why Hillary put an emphasis on “experience.” “Who would you like to pickup the phone …,” is one of the latest campaign ad’s. And I think that the American people in the end would like a man to answer the phone in state of emergency. That is what fits the culture best; a strong leader. Strength provokes male images and fits less with a female president.

Experience is somehow a bit boring as an attribute, more for women, than for men. But the alternative, something in the area of change is worse in her case, because she knows that a woman for president is already a big change.

So if you look at it (like this) than, Hillary for president would mean more of change than Obama for president.

The only thing not taken into account is that people will not only observe Hillary but will vote for or against Bill as the First “lady.” Perhaps that is more of a challenge to accept than Hillary being the first woman president.

McCain is obviously in a better position because he is the only republican in the race. Where two dogs strive for a bone, a third runs away with it…

http://www.nu.nl/news/1421436/2030/Hillary_Clinton_favoriet_bij_Nederlanders.html

© 2008 Hans Bool

Hans Bool writes articles about management, culture and change. If you are interested to read or experience more about these topics have a look at: Astor White Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hans_Bool

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