Via Prague

PRAGUE -- What’s the difference between presidential elections in America and the Czech Republic?
The easy, cynical answer -- no one cares about Czech elections.
But there's another key difference: Here there is no race whatsoever.
Next month’s presidential election, between incumbent Vaclav Klaus and Jan Svejnar, will be decided not by popular vote, but as is custom here, by a vote of Parliament. So while there is coverage in the newspapers, commentary, issues, there really isn’t a campaign. There haven’t been any debates (though Klaus reportedly has declined challenges by Svejnar, a Czech who lives in America and teaches at the University of Michigan). There aren’t even any TV or radio ads (can you imagine in America a presidential race without ads?)
So while Czechs are aware of the election, they view it with a certain air of resignation. It's up to guys in Parliament. They have no voice. Most expect Klaus, who has been president since 2004 following the retirement of Velvet Revolution hero and first Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, to win a second term.
Given this scenario, you can imagine how it’s been with my students this past week, as we pulled out a laptop and went to CNN to tune into the U.S. presidential primaries.
They were glued to the screen with curiosity, straining with their still developing English listening skills to catch the soundbytes of Hillary and Obama, following their victories in New Hampshire and Iowa, respectively.
'It’s like a big show!‘ exclaimed Daniel, an attorney who works for the government on EU affairs. Daniel is most impressed by Obama. 'I think he would be a real change for America. Clinton is part of the same old system.' You could see he was overwhelmed by the hoopla surrounding the primaries, the streams of balloons, flashing cameras on mobile phones, the great cheers, the high adrenaline and hype.
Other students were as well, like my girls at Oriflame, a Swedish cosmetics company.
Jitka, an accountant, for the moment is still loyal to Hillary (she, like many Czechs, has a special place in her heart for Bill; it’s funny, but Czechs have a much more tolerant view of his supposed infidelities, but maybe that’s no surprise given the country’s prime minister recently had a baby with his mistress). Jitka watched and listened closely while Hillary thanked New Hampshire voters. But she and her colleague, Marketa, also were curious about Obama, who people in this part of the world are just beginning to know.
'There are those who said –' Obama said, in his Iowa victory speech, ‘There are those who said this day would never come.’
I paused the video.
‘What do you think he means?’ I asked.
‘That a black man could be president,’ they suggested.
My students had questions. Hillary and Obama are from the same party, right? Right. So how are they different?
I went to Youtube and found a Hillary-Obama debate on health care. We listened for a few minutes.
‘So you see,’ I tried to explain, not quite sure I was clear on it. ‘Essentially they both agree there should be universal health care. But they disagree on details, such as should people be required to have health care, or should legislators instead focus on making health care more affordable.’
Later we also tuned in to some of the coverage on the Republican candidates, mostly John McCain and Mitt Romney, the two current front-runners.
‘And they are from Bush’s party?’ Marketa asked. ‘So are they criticizing Bush?’
We watched a video of Romney in Michigan castigating Washington politicians for not delivering on years of promises. ‘They promised to leave no child behind! They haven’t’’ And on down a list of failed promises, capped by the mantra-like phrase, ‘No, they haven’t!’ which Romney supporters echoed with spirit.
‘It sounds like church!’ said Jirina, Oriflame’s showroom manager. Jirina, who is in her fifties, has vivid memories of the Soviet invasion here in 1968 and the years of living under a Communist regime, when voting was compulsory but citizens were required to vote for the Communist Party candidate.
‘So if (Romney) is from Bush’s party,’ Marketa goes on. ‘Why is he criticizing Washington? His party is in power.’
‘It’s because everyone – Democrats and Republicans – agree that we need change,’ I managed to say, ‘but of course, they all have different ideas on what that change needs to be.’
‘Don’t worry,’ I said later, trying to be reassuring. ‘This is just the beginning. We’ll have eleven more months.’
Daniel, the lawyer, meanwhile, had this to say after listening to the candidates.
‘Wow. James, let me just say first that here our politicians are horrible!’
He sighed. I think what Daniel meant really is that he was a bit awed by all the glitter, the spirit, the theater surrounding the elections, the almost-larger than life sheen to the candidates, especially given the fact that here elections are a somewhat remote, dry affair left to the grey suits in Parliament.
‘Our politicians,’ Daniel remarked bitterly. ‘They do not have this –‘ He reached for the word. ‘These ideas, this …’ He broke off.
Others asked about third parties. I did another Youtube search and found a debate among Green candidates held recently in San Francisco. We watched it for a while.
‘There are candidates,’ I said afterward. ‘The thing is they don’t have a lot support.’
‘Are there any elected Greens?’ Marketa asked. Greens hold a small number of seats in the Czech parliament. Actually along with the two major parties, the Civic Democrats and Social Democrats, the Czech parliament also has Christian Democrats and Communists, so that makes four parties in elected positions.
‘Yeah, there are some,’ I said. ‘Especially in California, San Francisco, up north.’
Czechs, historically at least, feel an affinity for America . Czechoslovakia’s first president after the first World War, Thomas G. Masaryk, had an American wife, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has Czech roots. Czechs in general have affection also for the Clintons, who invited Havel to the White House in the giddy post-revolution days of the Nineties.
These feelings of connection and affinity – Czechs have small contingents of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan -- have been tested the past decade, with the war and the shaky American eeconomy, as well as the Bush Administration’s controversial proposal to build a missile defense shield here and in Poland. As one student told me this week, for a long time America has had incredible influence in the world, and now more than a few people are beginning to question whether that influence is good, or whether the world should begin to look for other leadership.
It was reassuring, to me and I hope to Czechs who are tuning in to the election, to see that perhaps there is real hope, and that the questions and disillusionment that have filtered into the Czechs (and European) perspective toward America might be – at least for a moment – getting back on track.
Is it a game show? Yes. Is it like church? Yes. But this time around, perhaps it’s something more, a defining moment, akin to the Lincoln-Douglas debates, or the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Real discussion on the most pressing issues of our time, issues that reverberate around the world. For now anyway, Czechs can only watch and listen from afar, watch through the looking glass.
'Maybe someday we will have something like this,' Jirina mused, not without some melancholy.
Something like what? A spectacle? A show? Glitter and flashing mobile phones?
No, I think what she meant was a real election, real choices, and a chance to choose. At least I think so.