Malaysians Quiz American Professor Plotke on U.S. Midterm Elections

David Plotke fields questions on U.S. midterm elections

At a special hour-long live webchat organized by the Lincoln Resource Center October 8,  Professor Dr. David Plotke, a specialist in U.S. politics at the New School University , spoke to several Malaysians from all over the peninsular, even as far as Kuching, (Sarawak),  and with international participants in Brisbane (Australia), Washington, D.C.,  and New York (in the U.S.), about the forthcoming U.S. midterm elections.  Professor Plotke began the program with an explanation about the differences between parliamentary democracies (present in Malaysia, England and in several commonwealth countries) in which Government leaders and their team are elected every four or five years while in the U.S., the President is elected every four years and Congress (members of the House and Senate) every two years.  He described the composition of seats to be contested, and provided an interesting outline of the complicated U.S. political and electoral process in a manner for laypersons to understand.  Among the key differences, Plotke pointed out, was that in the U.S., the President and members of the legislature may come from different parties, an electoral system unlike Malaysia’s.  Plotke provided participants who logged into the webchat from about twenty locations across the Asia Pacific and Australia with an informed analysis and assessment of the 2010 mid-term elections, and fielded questions from what challenges Obama would face if the Democrats lost control of Congress to how he might follow through with legislation on climate change, immigration reform, a possible economic stimulus again and the closure of Guantanamo Bay, among other topics.