The Daily Novel

Democracy has been restored in America, without a bomb being dropped or a shot being fired. The people of America have filed quietly into the polling booths and told the bible punching cowboy from Texas and his posse of Christian fundamentalist money makers that they want democracy in the United States. They have had enough of a President who imposed his policies on the country although half of the country voted against him (more than half if those Florida votes actually were fraudulent).

The Democratic Party has swept the House of Representatives and secured a majority of state governorships, which have enormous local power in a country which is much more de-centralised than Britain. As I write it seems possible that they might even win the Senate as well, where only one third of the senators were up for re-election. It all depends on the voters of Montana and Virginia (one of my favourite states. It’s where they make my Camel cigarettes. And as all smokers know Camels are a unique multi-cultural cigarette, with that touch of Turkish which gives them their distinctive flavour).

Yes, I do know that the American President has all the executive power. But a President who halfway through his last term loses control of Congress is crippled in both legs. He cannot just plough on regardless with his wars because he needs Congress to vote the money. And, if Congress is so inclined, it can set up those devastating Congressional committees to investigate things like the conduct of the Iraq war and corruption on the part of some Bush supporters. The other leg is crippled because Republicans everywhere want to be in a position to win back all those seats in Congress and, above all, to try and win the Presidency.

So for the next two years Bush will have little time to spend on his knees asking God to tell him to do the things he wants to do. He will have to learn how to do the always difficult job of being the leader of a real democracy. Which means listening to other human beings who don’t agree him, and who pray to different Gods or no Gods at all.

It is great news for the planet, which is threatened because of terror and the war on terror, the war in Iraq and climate change. None of these threats are easy to deal with. But from now on the way they are approached will have to be different. Bush will have to listen to ‘liberal’ Americans, to internationally minded Americans, and to traditionalist Americans who never wanted America to follow the Brits and get themselves an Empire.

Not only that, although he will continue to make a lot of speeches he will no longer be THE voice of America. From now on it will be voices of America.

One of the most feisty is likely to be Nancy Pelosi, who is the first woman ever to take the key role of Speaker of the House of Representatives. (British feminists please note, America still does better than us in putting women in top positions in government and business.) She hails from San Francisco (another of my favourite American places). Hilary, fresh from a resounding election victory, will be bidding for the Presidency, with Bill tagging along, and looking more and more the wise elder statesman, compared with the Bush brigade. And Al Gore, too, is likely to win respect and an international audience now that he has made it clear he is no longer running for political office but is concerned to help save the planet.

Much further down the pecking order there is another interesting voice. The new senator for Vermont is the first Senator ever who is a socialist. Bernie Saunders is no chicken. He has got his big chance at 65, when most men are content to dig their gardens. He hails from Brooklyn, across the river from Manhattan, and started work as a carpenter. Somehow or other he ended up as a teacher at Harvard. He has persuaded the voters of Vermont in New England, another most beautiful spot, inhabited by many of descendents of the original Anglo-Saxon lot who first settled in America to vote for him. He stood as an independent but is a committed individual socialist. For all of my lifetime socialists in American politics have been regarded as little better than Communists. Senator Macarthy must be hammering on the lid of his grave, demanding to be let out to come and denounce Bernie Saunders.

I felt relaxed today as I walked down multi-cultural Kentish Town High Street to do a bit of shopping. The world is I think a somewhat safer place than it was yesterday. In the supermarket a woman helped me when I was struggling to pull out one those filmy plastic bags to put my bread in. I turned and she was standing there dressed head to toe in the burka. Her face was entirely visible. And on it was the most beautiful smile.