man, I haven't felt this stirred up about politics in a long time... and it's not even my own country - George W. winning over there is kinda what I expected, and to be frank I'm not sure how much good Kerry could have done... I guess we might have had a President (and as much as I'd like to think that the President of the US is just their business, it's not - they are the only superpower, and it affects us all) who didn't come across as so self-righteous and blind to other people's opinions and interests.
However the US has sucked us all in to such a mess in Iraq, the environment is getting more and more screwed up and yet there's no sign of anybody really seriously putting long term self interest before short term profit, the poor get poorer and the rich more screwed up... what can any one person, even the President of US really change, in any major way, about any of that?
What really breaks my heart tho' is what a massive divide this election has shown up, and there doesn't seem to be anyway of talking across it - both sides are so convinced they are right, that they are on the side of good and the other side are short sighted ignorant so-and-so's that there's no way of things changing. This is especially painful in the Christian world where 'evangelicals' in this country would also include in their major concerns the environment, justice for the poor and so on... whereas American 'evangelicals' seem obsessed with personal moral issues (which are, in my opinion, much more difficult to ask civil legislation to rule on) such as abortion, gay marriage and so on, over and above everything else - this includes American friends who live here - I find it so hard to talk to them about it, cos we don't even seem to be talking the same language!
I was going to say more, but I'm not sure I trust myself not to splutter with incoherent, misdirected rage at the way the world seems to be going...
Lord have mercy on us all!
2 comments:
Hey Naomi! am totally with you! if we were still living together we would have had some fun shouting at the telly together! Thanks for articulating a load of stuff that i've been thinking too.....
yep - i agree with all that too - i've found it so hard with the US elections - harder than i find our elections definitely!
when we were in Texas, it really did seem the all important issue over there, "the moral issue", and (unsuprisingly) Texans were very anti-Clinton for that very reason. the fact he was an amazing ambassador to the rest of the world, when the US really need it, didnt really mean anything.
i was never completely taken with Kerry, but was just not happy with Bush winning again. and Bush really does seem to be the evangelicals favourite, over there and over here, it only made me even more embarressed to be labelled a Christian. i mean we can point to the muslims and say they blow skyscrapers up, but Christianity of course does have its own bloody past in the crusades. and if that wasnt enough, its all happening over again right now. not the kind of thing i want to be associated with at all.
its all so confusing, although sometimes i wonder why i am confused about it at all.
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