https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdwjL4L5_ZQ

Today is the first Tuesday of November. That makes it Election Day in the United States of America.

„Elections?“ you say, „But they were just two years ago! I thought a presidential term was four years long!“

It is. The current federal administration will continue until 2020. Donald Trump, the 45th president of the U.S., will continue to dominate the sound- and twitter-waves from a position of power for another two years. But, in fact, in the U.S. there are elections every year. The United States of America is a very big country, and has manifestations of government at many levels, so elections are needed every year.  Without going into all the details of how the government works and why it was set up this way (though I do recommend this entertaining but informational video for a brief overview), I will try to give you an idea of why this mid-term election has drawn so much attention, even from outside the country.

The Executive branch, populated by the President and his selected Cabinet and advisors, is the most visible part of the U.S. government, and that post is elected for a four-year term. The two other main parts of government are the Judicial, represented at the federal level by the Supreme Court (9 judges appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate), and Congress.  Congress is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate consists of 100 Senators, two from each state, who are elected for terms of six years. The House of Representatives, in contrast, has a total of 435 elected members, with representation based on the population of each state. Representatives serve only two-year terms. While the post of President is limited to two terms of four years, both Senators and Representatives can be re-elected as many times as voters care to vote for them. Senate elections are staggered, so that approximately one third of states select new Senators every two years, so that more senior Senators can make sure that new Senators don’t destabilize everything too frequently. This is why the elections two years into a presidential term are called ‚mid-terms‘, as they often reflect voters‘ sentiments about how the federal government and their representatives there are doing their job. Yes, Congress plays a big role (it was actually intended to be the biggest) in lawmaking and governing at the federal level.

Perhaps now it is clear why the mid-term elections are so important to so many people in 2018. As you might have picked up from the news in the last two years, the U.S.American people are sharply divided. Citizens are either shocked by the inhumanity of the actions of the Trump administration, or relieved to see it acting on their wishes for protection from those they believe are encroaching upon their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is little room for grey areas or agreement. The propaganda machines of the Democratic and Republican parties are working overtime to show the distinctions in their values, thus sowing further division among citizens. In reaction to the administration’s actions, a vast increase in left-wing activism has emerged, and an astonishing number of new players have come to the table, including a record number of women and people of color, to run for public office for the Democratic party. It remains to be seen how they will fare in their elections, for everything from the most local, district-level representation, to judgeships in some states, all the way up to the federal positions discussed above. Americans at home and all over the world, including these here in Hamburg, are watching closely. See here what some of them have to say about it!