Seniority and Factional Fights
I went to bed last night after a TV news program informed Japanese audiences that they were still unsure if Mr. McCain would venture into an open debate with Mr. Obama, even ten hours before the schedule.
This morning, I have found they are holding it in Saint Louis.
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Now I am checking the debate between Mr. Barack Obama and Mr. John McCain.
Apparently Mr. Obama is far younger than Mr. McCain.
Though ability and popularity are important, respect for an older and experienced person is more important in most cases.
For example, two years ago, current Japan’s Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso was Foreign Minister subject to the then Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe who was almost 15 years younger.
Mr. Taro Aso must have felt very uncomfortable or unhappy if not humiliated.
But, the political situation and interests forced Mr. Aso to serve Mr. Shinzo Abe until Mr. Abe quit his job due to illness, though Mr. Aso moved from the cabinet minister to the LDP Secretary-General in the last days of the Abe Administration.
This time Mr. Aso has been elected as prime minister of Japan with support from a faction Mr. Abe belongs to. But, it is former Prime Minister Mr. Yoshiro Mori who virtually controls the faction Mr. Abe belongs to.
So, when Mr. Aso was elected as prime minister early this week, he took some reprisals. Mr. Aso called Mr. Mori, the virtual boss of Mr. Shinzo Abe, to support the Aso Administration.
Specifically, Mr. Aso asked former Prime Minister Mr. Mori to take up a post as LDP Secretary-General.
It is extraordinary. The LDP Secretary-General is subject to the President of LDP who is also Prime Minister of Japan, as long as the Liberal Democratic Party holds power.
It is tantamount to humiliation if you ask a former prime minister to work again as LDP Secretary-General. But why did Mr. Aso say so to Mr. Mori?
So, it is a kind of revenge.
Mr. Aso must have felt being humiliated while serving Prime Minister Mr. Abe, 15 years younger.
So, this time, Mr. Aso asked Mr. Mori, there years older, to work under him.
It is a simple psychological game. Mr. Aso must know from the beginning that Mr. Mori would never accept the offer, since it was tantamount to humiliation.
But, this is a kind of harmless fight. By posing such a rude offer to the boss of the largest faction of LDP, new Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso has actually declared that he is the head of all the politicians who belong to LDP; and Mr. Mori is not an exception.
Yet, in fact, Mr. Aso has taken some reprisals against Mr. Shinzo Abe who used Mr. Aso as his minister while Mr. Abe was 15 years younger, since Mr. Mori, the de facto boss of Mr. Abe, is three years older than Mr. Aso.
The same is true of Mr. Jyunichiro Koizumi who actually belongs to the same political faction as Mr. Mori and Mr. Abe.
In his case, the enemy was the then largest faction in LDP called Heisei-Kenkyukai.
What is worse, an economic policy Mr. Koizumi had been committed to was a kind of opposition to the economic policy the Heisei-Kenkyukai group was attached to.
So, in the case of former Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi, his pursuit of his economic policy meant not only a polemic over economic theories but also a factional fight.
Accordingly, some influential economists who were against the Mr. Koizumi’s economic idea were regarded not only as unfriendly third-party economists but also as political enemies.
As the faction Mr. Koizumi belonged to had been treated very badly by the then most powerful Heisei-Kenkyukai faction, he must have even held a personal grudge against LDP politicians who belonged to Heisei-Kenkyukai with some exceptions.
So, his grudge was reflected in the personnel assignment in Mr. Koizumi’s cabinet. He appointed an economist most disliked by Heisei-Kenkyukai to be minister in his cabinet.
For economists it is just a controversy on economic policies; but for Mr. Koizumi it must have been a matter of life and death in his political career, probably, with a bitter memory in his 30-year political life under dominance of rival Heisei-Kenkyukai until he assumed the office of Japan’s prime minister.
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This kind of issues are a matter of commonsense.
But, as some Japanese politicians were born and raised in a very rich family or an upper-class family, they lack this kind of commonsense.
Even some critics and pundits have enjoyed a privileged professional life too long, they have come to lose this kind of commonsense.
This is what I have felt recently while observing the political situation in Japan.
But, this can apply to the U.S. political community.
It is because now Mr. McCain is referring to Mr. George Shultz, Mr. Henry Kissinger, and Ronald Reagan as well as KGB, while Mr. Obama is relying on some political principles and detailed data domestic and international.
Yet, people sometimes find humiliation or discover their enemies in a public or political arena from a very human point of view or human emotion including pride.
So, if not a fight between the poor and the rich, a true state of a political situation can be sometimes an acute private war accompanied by personal grudges, instead of controversy in economic theories, political principles, social value systems, or even judgement on ability or popularity of politicians.
Therefore, it would be wiser for Mr. Barack Obama, though with excellent ability and popularity, to eventually concede to Mr. McCain rather than prevail his senior rival, if Mr. Obama wants to have a safe and comfortable life after retirement from politics.
(Mr. McCain has proven ability and popularity; but he belongs to the Republican Party that is at least technically responsible for the max. two-trillion dollar wrongdoing case in Wall Street.)
Having recommended so referring to the recent cases in Japan, if somebody with more authority than simple seniority or dominance requests American voters to elect Mr. Barack Obama as U.S. President, he should be elected so.
That somebody can be the poorest man or the most pious man in the U.S. society, according to the teaching of the Gospel.
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That is all for today as their debate is coming to the end with a discussion over missile defense and respect for veterans as being heard through the Internet in Japan.
Joh 9:26 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?
Joh 9:27 He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?