WHEN Faith Harding rejected the current leadership of the PNC, she began a series of community developmental projects geared towards the enhancement of lives and livelihoods of the vulnerable and young people in various parts of the country.She showed, through example, that leadership is not about destruction and unpatriotic acts that could ultimately eventuate in national developmental retrogression, but about growth and development of constituents; and she displayed her willingness to work with all stakeholders for the common good, displaying political and personal maturity beyond her Party’s parameters, and out of the confines of the egos of the collective opposition leadership.
On November 6, Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney with 50.3 per cent of the popular vote, and a surprising 303 electoral votes. Following are a few of the multiplicity of reasons analysts proffer for Romney’s defeat.
“The hundreds of millions of billionaires’ money didn’t work. The politics of division didn’t work. The Tea Party revolution of 2010 failed.”
“Unlimited dark money doesn’t necessarily buy votes. The Karl Rove and other such Super PACs poured hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, much from anonymous sources, into key races to win Congressional seats, Senate seats, and the presidency.”
“Romney pandered to his super-rich sponsors. Then a tape was uncovered where Romney told donors, ‘47 per cent of the people were victims… My job is not to worry about those people.’”
“ During the campaign, the candidate, or his surrogates, accused the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Congressional Research Service, the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget of “cooking the books” whenever any of these non-partisan agencies issued reports with which they disagreed.
“They engaged in free character assassination of every analyst, blogger, or pundit with whom they disagreed. Nate Silver of the New York Times 538 blog, who is a well-respected statistician, was openly attacked for his conclusions, even though he has a spotless track record in calling races (and baseball).
“Their other dimension existence was put on full public display last night after Fox News statisticians called Ohio for Obama when Karl Rove, a paid flack for the GOP and Romney, demanded to be put on the air to retract the call, making a fool of himself and his network in front of millions of viewers.
“I believe Rove’s attempt to alter the results caused the awkward hour-and-a-half delay before Romney finally conceded.
“Lying doesn’t work. The most shocking strategy of the Romney campaign was a conscious decision made by the candidate that winning was more important than truth. He freely lied about the president, the economy, welfare reform, the auto bailout, major companies, history, and even Americans themselves. He flipped on every single social issue that he had advocated as governor of Massachusetts and stridently concealed his own tax records.
“Almost without exception, he doubled down on his lies and shifting positions when publicly called out. In the end, he badly damaged his reputation by the freeform lying, reducing confidence in his candidacy. Many other Republicans followed suit.
“Pandering to an immoral base doesn’t work in a general election. The GOP, driven to the extremist fringes of our society by screwballs who have taken over the party, carries a cost when you have to appeal to normal people in a general election.”
“I’m not naive enough to think that the Republicans are suddenly going to become more compassionate, kind, caring, less white, less racist, less strident, and more female overnight. However, if they don’t embrace these truths, they will imperil their own future relevance or even existence.”
Does any of the foregoing ring a bell, in the context of the political landscape in Guyana?
In the wake of Romney’s defeat, did any of Romney’s supporters burn tyres and other debris to impede commuters on the public highways? Did they set public infrastructure afire, or destroy them by any other means? Did they attack, rob, beat, sexually molest or interfere in any way with the rights of Obama supporters?
No! They did none of those things! They are not part of the American culture.
And America has serious problems with large pockets of poverty. It is in recession, with many people losing jobs and homes, among other implications consequenced by a distressed economy. But do Romney’s supporters decide that to rectify these ills in their society, they have to divide the nation and/or destroy its developmental path?
Instead Romney, despite his faults, graciously (even if unwillingly) conceded electoral victory to Obama, and adjured all Americans to work together for the national good. Sounds familiar?
And President Obama did not offer a basket of charity, but an assurance of hope for a restoration of greatness in the USA, where all things are achievable by anyone; with the emphasis, in effect, that such hope is a hope that comes with working hard and making sacrifices, and not by sitting on the sidelines and expecting to be rewarded for lack of effort toward personal development and national progress.
The greatness that the USA once had, and which the President had assured will once again achieve, will only be realised, he warned, with the involvement of all its citizens in a common endeavour toward attainment of its former glory.  He gave the assurance that he will call on the defeated Republican candidate, Governor Mitt Romney, to work together for the good of America and the American people. Again, sounds familiar?
Guyana’s opposition collective need to take heed of the foregoing, and join with President Donald Ramotar, whose invitation to the opposition for tripartite discussions on national issues was rejected time and again for confrontational and destructive strategies meant to wrest power at any cost.
It is not too late for them to attempt to heal those breaches they have caused in the nation, and join the Government to promote the developmental initiatives in the country for the general good of the Guyanese people.
Guyana’s opposition collective have shown that they are prepared to destroy their country and the people, whom they refer to as “collateral damage,” in their ruthless drive for back-entry power.
As President Obama said, the USA will rise again, because, above all, all Americans are prepared to join forces and work towards that eventuality.
When will Guyanese achieve that political maturity? Leaders like Faith Harding are a promise that Guyana’s leaders are not all about power – across the divides – and are prepared to work toward the general good, even if such positive attitudes alienate them from the party that they, in principle, support, but because of those very principles, reject anti-developmental paths taken by their own party leadership.