A late followup, my apologies, but I have to wrest control of the PC from Martin Wisse and this is no easy task...
Yes, I erred in describing the US constitution as mutually agreed, I was insufficently precise. However, its continued existence as a governing instrument for quite some time now implies mutual consent to its contents. It has been amended but not re-written, and those amendements have had to be ratified by the states.
I can empathise with Anna's position: it is difficult, even if leftwing, not to think of US culture as cool when it's continually shoved down your throat by media conglomerates as the only way to be or to live. We are all indoctrinated; this doesn't mean we want to actually be Americans. It just means we are as susceptible to high pressure sales techniques and PR manipulation as a Americans are themselves.
Me, I adhere to both the De Tocqueville and Fanny Trollope points of view: America is a wonderful idea, but the execution is crap. Pass the spitoon please.
James Wolcott ssaid recently that America is "...becoming a meddlesome pain in the ass, a bully in the eyes of our traditional allies." The US always was a meddlesome pain in the ass and we in Yurrp have been saying so very loudly for quite some time. It's just taken y'all a while to notice.
You've noticed because of the bloggers. It's only very recently that the information which plainly shows US meddling abroad and malfeasance at home has been available to the general American public, ditto the tools to use that information to question what you're being told.
The major US media, (no matter how much individual tv, print and radio hacks try to kid themselves they're still journalists) is a corporate ally of the US administration and has acted for a very long time as government's quasi-autonomous mouthpiece. Who owns who? Who can tell? Media and government are so incestuously intertwined it can be difficult to them apart.
It's very disconcerting to those of us on the admittedly far-left in Europe to see even moderate Americans beginning to agree with us on this point. From the perspective of another continent it sometimes can be easier to see the broader trends in US politics, and this trend has intensified since the advent of the newspaper magnates like Hearst.
See, we Yurpeens have such a long history of being fucked over we don't trust anything much. It's axiomatic here that politics is corrupt. "All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". This a lesson we have learned through a long and bitter history.
It's been sad to see Americans lose their political innocence, slowly coming to see just how corrupted a government and political system can become. I feel you are also slowly realising the the mere fact of being American does not entitle you to a happy Hollywoood ending, and that is sad too in a way. It is one of the great American charms, that boundless optimism.
It's going to be truly horrible to be a US resident in a little while, and I'm very sorry for that. I like the idea of a nation with a mutually agreed constitution as the bedrock of a new society. I like the openness, energy and optimism of the American people and I'm thankful to say that many of them blog. If there's ever going to be any political resistance to the status quo, they'll have to lead it: the other media avenues are closed now.
I'm sorry but the US has never been a beacon of democracy to the rest of the world, except in its own mind. Is there something about being physically in the US that seeps into the blood, that fosters this myth of moral superiority?
And why do Democrats keep saying that "they" (Republican voters) say this, or "they" say that: the US are a nation. It's "we". Every US citizen is equally responsible for the state of the nation. You cannot hijack a country without the acquiescence of the populace. If the electorate truly believed that the election had been stolen, there would be millions marching on Washington, and revolutionary fervour to take up arms and overthrow the dictator.
I don't see them. Nope, it's easier to post to blogs and bleat about how its still a wonderful country, despite all the evidence to the contrary,than to take up arms and actually defend your freedom.
I saw these incredible photos outside in the summer in a huge display at the Stadsdeel in Amsterdam, they were wonderful. I did find it a bit ironic, however, that the display was part-sponsored by the Shell oil company...
Looks like we're learning from the US with the total fubarred mess that was postal voting yesterday; imposed upon the electorate despite warnings from the Electoral Commission, pre the vote there have been numerous reports of proxy vote fraud, postmen being offered huge sums to hand over bags of blank ballot papers, and, in Walsall, a full ballot box was found under a table after the count was completed. The votes were counted, then the Returning Officer decided not to include them, as in her opinion 'They wouldn't have made any difference to the outcome'.
In the London Assembly election the antiwar party Respect missed having Lindsey German elected to the Greater London Assembly by half a percent, around 5,000 votes (Respect polled more than 87,000 votes, nearly five percent of the total vote in London), after almost 100,000 votes were disqualified mostly for double checking the candidate box: the form was marked at the top ''Make two votes'' ( first and second preference). Many if not most of Respect's London voters were non-English speaking Moslems, did not understand the overly complex system, and were thus effectively disenfranchised.
It's all one with the general culture of personality,impunity and the blinkered view of the true believer: their cause is right, they are right, therefore anything they do is right, therefore we must accept it, from manipulation of the polls to waging illegal wars, up to and including the setting aside of domestic and international law (not to mention basic humanity) at Presidential or Prime Ministerial fiat.
A supplementary to the 3 original questions: What do we do about the illegal actions of our government when the polls are manipulated - when the ballot bocx has no power, where do we go?
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| 2004 | 6 |
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