Business and politics are never far apart, so I hope my readers will excuse my bloviating about the political world, both in the US and here.
Two weeks ago 20 Democratic candidates for the Presidency debated over two days in Miami. It was beyond endurance to sit by my TV screen for all four hours, but I saw enough to get the gist. My first reaction: it’s amazing, and kind of wonderful, that so many smart people (and more who have declared) have signed up for this grueling run, since most of them must know they are no-hopers without a chance of being nominated. For months they will be dashing to meet impossible schedules; divorced from family and friends; forced to think up smart answers for repetitive media; pilloried from extremists of left and right, black and white; forever short of sleep or solid meals.
Even the five probable leaders – Biden, Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and current favorite Kamala Harris— have no assurance they will make it to the top. Certainly all the candidates share a good slice of personal ambition in running, with hopes for fame and fortune with a new book or job. But let’s also credit them with idealism, a belief that their ideas are worth a fight for the good of their country, win or lose.
Contrast that with The Bahamas. Here we are less than three years from the next election, and I can see nobody who has stuck his, or her, head up to take shots as a new political leader. Surely there must be rumblings in the FNM that the Prime Minister’s lack of personal charisma will turn away our emotional voters, particularly now that he has lost the support of Brent Symonette, stalwart to a large faction of the party. And surely the PLP cannot contemplate leadership by yesterday’s amiable lap-dog Brave Davis, author of so many mishaps like “privatizing” BEC. Is ambitious, articulate newcomer MP Chester Cooper quietly planning a coup? Is another Branville McCartney out there in the political wilderness, mulling the long shot of creating a third-party like the DNA to challenge the status quo?
All is still quiet, but I predict that in early 2000 the political pot will begin to boil, as Bahamians are not prone to keeping their mouths shut.
First published in The Tribune, Thursday, July 11, 2019, and is posted here with the kind permission of the author.
Mr. Coulson has had a long career in law, investment banking and private banking in New York, London, and Nassau, and now serves as director of several financial concerns and as a corporate financial consultant. He has recently released his autobiography, A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier.
