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Presidential election and the inheritance of values

By Wei Hongxia: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, September 14, 2012

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U.S. President Barack Obama waves to his supporters during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte Sept. 6, 2012. [Zhang Jun/Xinhua]

The American presidential election gives the strong impression that every presidential candidate aims to set himself apart from his predecessors or opponents by laying out distinctive election strategies in order to attract voters. Barack Obama's 2004 election campaign upgraded the concept to the largest extent by adopting "Change!" as its slogan. After 300 years of changes, voters may be tempted to ask themselves how much of tradition is still there nowadays? How do traditional values carry on in the process of change?

Over the past two weeks, various members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties delivered speeches at their respective national conventions. In these speeches, we are able to detect the remainders of traditional American social values. Analyzing key words may help us come to more specific, telling conclusions.

According to a survey conducted by the US Federal News Service, the two most frequently used words at the two Parties' national conventions apart from "Obama" and "Romney," were "job" and "family. The Democrats mentioned the word "job" a total of 88 times, whereas the Republicans dropped the term 80 times. This might be an indicator and reflection of what the American people currently need most.

As far as the word "family" goes, the Democrats mentioned it 66 times and the Republicans 55. It is noteworthy that the two Parties showed no big difference in their frequency of using the words.

Looking more closely at both words, we can see that the candidates of both Parties pay great attention to economy and family. Corporate growth can create job opportunities, but for all people, with or without a job, they want a loving family. Therefore, focusing on these two key words does not only capture the voters' hearts, but also reflects America's social reality. Hollywood movies usually give us the impression that American people tend to put much more emphasis on self-expression and individuality, than they do on family. In fact, this is a great misgiving. Family harmony and happiness mean a great deal to the American people. Some studies even show that family matters more to the current young people than to their baby boomer parents. The two Parties hold onto the key word "family" not only to attract voters, but also to remind society of the valuable things in life.

Two other terms, namely "American dream" and "hope," also reflect the values that the both Parties pursue. The ratios of the frequencies of the two Parties mentioning them were respectively 17:19 and 17:20. Starting from the colonial period, the American dream has been telling people that they can make a better life for themselves through unrelenting effort and hard work. This belief is in no way connected to religion or ideology, and encourages people to strive for their dreams with diligence, courage, innovation and determination. The American dream has influenced Americans generation after generation and possesses a mythical magnetic power to people across the world. But since the financial meltdown of 2008, the American economy has declined without showing any apparent turnaround in spite of the reforms that Obama has pursued. Meanwhile, there are other factors emerging across the world that challenge America's economic development. The grim situation disappoints people who may sigh that the "American dream" is no more. The two parties, while pursuing votes, are sensitive enough to capture this wounded nerve, this sore spot in society. Thus, the candidates and their partners are calling for the return of this mythical dream and try to raise people's hopes of a better future.

Compared to the other key words, they were quite moderate in frequency and provocation. Despite allegations that they were used for preaching, they showed a common ground for the two Parties' values and reflected the inheritance of American traditional values.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://m.formacion-profesional-a-distancia.com/opinion/weihongxia.htm

(This post was written in Chinese and translated by Pang Li)

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