The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Election Watcher
I want to confess to an addiction. It’s been going on for months now, and sometimes I stay up way into the night getting my fix. It sets me apart from my friends and family, who struggle to understand why I am so compelled. I know that my habit is certain to get worse over the next two months, and I don’t think that there are any support groups I can turn to. All that I can do is to go online and visit the specialist websites where my compulsion is understood and shared.
You see, it’s like this: I simply cannot get enough of the US Presidential election.
My habit causes me pain. It reinforces a depressing sense of helplessness in the face of human irrationality and overwhelming power. I can, and do, subscribe to Barack Obama’s e-mailing list
Barack Obama photo by SEIU International
to get the latest updates directly from the candidate I hope to see win; but US electoral law prevents an un-American like me from responding to his frequent appeals for money. I don’t have the funds to commute across the Atlantic to help with canvassing, and I’m sure that even if I could go knocking on doors in a crucial swing state like Ohio or Florida, some voters would tell me that America’s choice of leader was none of my goddamn business as soon as they heard my English accent. But I’m still fascinated by the electoral events – partly, of course, because the choice that American voters make will be so important for the whole planet.
From an environmental point of view, there’s a world of difference between Obama’s enthusiasm for alternative energy sources and John McCain’s loyalty to the oil-centric energy policies that have characterised the Bush administration.
International relations will be strikingly different if American voters reject the neo-conservative demand for US domination of global affairs contained in Republican foreign policy, and instead give Obama the opportunity to repair old alliances and restore his country’s good name in the world.
John McCain photo by Image Editor
McCain voted for the invasion of Iraq and has declared that the USA’s military presence there should last for a century if it furthers America’s aims. Obama opposed the invasion and wishes to withdraw the troops as soon as practically possible, while striving to end the dependence on oil that focuses so much American attention on the Middle East.
These practical policy considerations are reason enough to take an intense interest in the choice of leader for the planet’s dominant nation; but what really fuels my fascination is the drastically different views of human life that are represented by the American right and the American left. It is a clash between faith and reason; between an embrace of diversity and a craving for a simpler time when life had clear rules and authority always prevailed, between an acceptance of progress and equality, and a longing for a mythic past when men and women knew their God-given places and everything was so much more certain. It’s the 21st Century versus The Waltons and John Wayne; and of course religion makes this clash of philosophies so much more passionate. Perhaps the biggest choice before the American electorate is the one between plurality and theocracy: between those who truly accept that there can be more than one valid view of an important issue, and those who see the election as a ‘culture war’ between their God and sinful, un-American depravity. It is this latter group that brings into American elections issues that thankfully do not usually greatly intrude into British party politics.
Abortion may be a minor issue at the next UK General Election; Conservative leader David Cameron supports a reduction in the time limit for late abortions. But we certainly won’t see any mainstream British politician echoing Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s call for a total ban on all terminations, even if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Likewise, the legal rights of British gays and lesbians should stay much the same regardless of who the Prime Minister might be following our next General Election; but the issue of same-sex marriage is more important than the economy for many voters on the American religious right. It was courageous of Obama to demand during his speech to the Democratic Convention that ‘…our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters…’ should not face discrimination; he must have been well aware that for many American voters, supporting anti-gay discrimination is quite literally an article of faith.
Then, of course, there is the American citizen’s ‘right to bear arms’, enshrined in the Constitution and so dear to much of the electorate that even a would-be reformer like Obama dare not threaten it, however strong a case for doing so might be made by US violent crime statistics; even the most tentative moves towards tighter gun regulation must be couched in terms that reassure rural voters that their hunting rifles will not be taken away.
Finally, there is the American addiction to ostentatious, sentimental patriotism that has made a genuine election issue out of the occasions on which Obama has or has not worn a ‘flag pin’ stars and stripes badge on his lapel.
Would I want these things in British politics? Most definitely not. And yet, at the same time, American politics awakes in me a kind of nostalgia for the days when our elections generated such visceral passions. Part of me misses the days of Thatcher versus Old Labour, when our political parties stood for dramatically different outlooks on the world rather than representing subtly different approaches to free-market capitalism, as they do today. It is strangely refreshing to view an election with real partisan zeal, fervently rooting for one side and feeling revulsion towards the appalling attitudes of the other.
Having said that, I’m very well aware that Obama is not actually the Messiah, even if that is the sneering nickname that some Republicans have given him, For all his charisma and charm, he can be a ruthless political operator when necessary; and after the barrage of attacks he faced at a relentlessly negative and fear-fuelled Republican Convention, that’s just as well. Obama’s election as President would only begin a process of change in America and across the planet over which the USA holds so much sway. Indeed, one of the most endearing things about Obama’s style is the way that he stresses empowerment: his slogan is ‘Yes, we can’, not ‘Yes, I can’. Popular opinion at home would render him unable to change some of the things that appal outsiders about America; the gun culture would remain, as would the death penalty. Even so, the choice before the US electorate is stark.
The Democrats offer a plan to withdraw from Iraq and repair America’s relationships with the outside world, a programme of taxing the richest to help the poorest, policies aimed at making health care affordable for all Americans, broad-minded social attitudes, an appreciation of eloquent intelligence and plans for huge investment in alternative energy.
The Republicans stand for war and conquest, religious intolerance, entrenched privilege, narrow national self-interest, support for the free market at its most merciless, disdain for welfare, a mistrust of intellect and an attitude to environmental protection summed up by the chants of ‘DRILL! DRILL!!’ at their Convention, demanding that nothing must get in the way of the search for American oil. For a liberal European like me, it looks like the closest thing I’m ever likely to see to an election between good and evil.
The US Presidential Election 2008 is a story with most of the elements that make for great dramatic entertainment. There’s a dashing hero to cheer on, loathsome villains to despise, the future of the planet at stake, a plot with plenty of startling twists, and now the certainty of history being made one way or another: either the first African-American President, or the first female Vice-President.
If a screenwriter had come up with the story of Sarah Palin,
Sarah Palin photo by Thomas Roche
the obscure woman from the backwoods suddenly transformed into a serious contender for the most powerful position on earth, then surely the script would have been rejected as absurdly far-fetched. Come to that, rarely in even the most lurid of soaps can so many skeletons have come clattering out of a single character’s closet in so short a space of time; yet it seems that a lot of Americans love Palin no matter what powers she’s abused or how many lies she’s told. It’s a bit like what happened when Jade Goody first stomped into the British Big Brother house; some viewers were appalled by her behaviour, but she became a star because many others were thrilled to see someone a bit like them become famous and important.
So I’ll keep missing sleep waiting for the latest developments, anxiously scanning the opinion polls and scouring American political blogs for the background detail. Some good friends of mine follow their favourite soaps or TV talent contests with comparable intensity, yet cannot understand how I can find politics so compelling. All I can say to them is that this US election is anything but boring. Bizarre, yes; frightening, frequently – tedious, never. Our own domestic politics may have become pretty dull; but for better or for worse, they do things differently over there.
Written by Dave Jennings · Filed Under US Politics
The photo of Obama you happened to choose is unfortunate. Not sure if it’s the colour balance or what, but it looks almost more like a Spitting Image puppet than the real guy!
But I like Spitting Image…
I love hearing opinions about the American presidential campaign from someone who is not from the U.S. I am so close to the situation (being an Illinois resident who voted for Obama as my senator), that I need a broader world view to help put it in perspective sometimes. This holds true not just for the presidential race, but for most other pertinent news items as well.
Hi Lisa,
I guess you’re one of the minoritiy of US citizens that actually has a passport then! lol.
Welcome to Europe.
I guess you and Dave have similar political views.
Thanks, Lisa! I must say that the more I read about Sarah Palin’s views, the more convinced I become that having her in a position of power would make America much more politically isolated from most of the rest of the world. I read today that she is now believed to have been involved in picketing aimed at blocking access to clinics providing abortions. I really wonder how many American voters realise just how extreme some of her views are. But then, if those views haven’t had enough publicity, then it’s the Obama-Biden campaign’s job to get the word out, and I certainly hope they’ll do that job well.
Chris – Yes, even my daughters got their passports before they each were six weeks old. Americans should really travel more, and not just to Europe but to Asia and other continents as well. At the very least, we should be teaching more world history, politics, and languages in our schools. Sadly, we’re a very egocentric society.
Dave – It’s true, Palin is one scary arch-conservative. As a woman, I find it shocking that any other female could share her views, but unfortunately, the U.S. is still far behind much of the western world when it comes to women’s rights. The most frightening part is that if (God forbid) the Republicans are elected to the White House again, Palin would be just one (very weak) heartbeat away from the presidency. It gives me nightmares!
Lisa, I hope you and your husband have a great cruise.
“I become that having her in a position of power would make America much more politically isolated from most of the rest of the world.”
Judging from what the UK has allowed itself to become, I don’t see that as a negative outcome.
Why are libs so oriented toward collectivism? Why do you think its so damn important to “go along to get along”?
Why does America need to be the world’s good buddy, given that the rest of the world seems to be cowering before the agents of terrorism, primarily Europe?
David, it seems to have escaped your understanding that people are naturally programmed towards collectivism. It’s not a lib thing, it’s a human thing.
Our very bodies wouldn’t function without co-operation between different types of cells and organisms; we live, for the most part, in families and larger groups such as friends, villages, towns, cities and nations.
Furthermore, we are just one species and so far we humans only have one planet to live on. Therefore there is a very real sense in which we all have a vested interest in the actions of others.
The last great nation I can think of off the top of my head that tried isolationism was Japan and it didn’t work out too well for them back in the day.
I think, because of your prior involvement in Israel (I should explain that David Black and I have previously “communicated” through the comments space over at Blogcritics), you place too large an emphasis on terrorism, which is not really one of the most important issues facing the world right now.
Just so you know, we Europeans aren’t remotely “cowering before the agents of terrorism”…
Christopher’ Rose’s excellent remarks say everything that I would wish to say regarding ‘collectivism’. Eventually, even the most rugged of individualists needs other people, and isolationist nationalism is increasingly foolish and futile in the modern world of global communication.
As Christopher suggests, the threat from terrorism is often overstated, and sometimes the supposed cure can be worse than the disease. I’m not sure what David Black means by ‘…what the UK has allowed itself to become…’ but I do think that it’s a bitter irony that we’re discussing allegedly weak European responses to the threat of terror while the legal inquest continues into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead by police in London after being wrongly identified as a would-be bomber.
I must say that the more I read about Sarah Palin’s views, the more convinced I become that having her in a position of power would make America much more politically isolated from most of the rest of the world.
When the rest of the world has gone mad and is bent on self-destruction, isolation from it may be seen by many in the US as the only way of surviving. That’s an increasingly strong trend in American politics at the grassroots and it is inevitably going to filter into the mainstream in the form of someone like Palin who is a spokesperson for that perspective.
As for the possibility that she protested at abortion clinics, I find it an interesting claim. It’s not circulating significantly here in the US, which is surprising. I’ll go see if it can be verified when I get a chance. But what troubles me about it even being brought up, is that it’s another example of this totally misdirected mindset that abortion should be a determining issue one way or another. Whether you are pro or anti abortion really ought to just be a footnote on your political resume. It should not be elevated to the ridiculous level of importance that those on the right and left are inclined to assign to it.
That anyone can think that abortion policy is more important than education or the economy or foreign policy is just bizarre. American politics would be 100% more rational if the issue were put in perspective, somewhere down in the 2nd or 3rd tier of marginally relevant issues.
Dave
“I think, because of your prior involvement in Israel (I should explain that David Black and I have previously “communicated” through the comments space over at Blogcritics), you place too large an emphasis on terrorism, which is not really one of the most important issues facing the world right now.”
Of course you would say that Christopher, because the very race of people causing the terrorism currently overrun your country blaring prayers over PA speakers in some neighborhoods, as I understand.
Brits have become a nation of cowards who will put up with unchecked immigration form the Mid East because you need the cheap labor.
Londonstan is a future reality, Christopher, remove your head from the sand and stop being so tolerant and politically correct.
Perhaps I’d be less preoccupied with terrorism if innocent Israelis weren’t killed every day by islamo-fascists who live to hate Jews and anyone who isn’t Muslim.
But through your rose colored glasses, Christopher, such unpleasantries are best ignored, hmm?
Dave Nalle, I hope you’ve enjoyed your first visit here.
As to your points, personally I believe political isolationism to be pretty much always a bad idea and, in the case of the USA, I tend to think it needs greater contact with the world not less.
Finally, abortion, like religion, ought not to be in the political arena at all. The trend towards interfering in other people’s private lives is a really bad one.
Dave Black, you have your personal soapbox for your ideas and, as you are so clearly absolutely fixated in your fearful views, I see little point in trying to reason with you. I recommend you stick to your own…
Unlike you and your liberal pals, Christopher, I see the world for the foul and festering sty that it is, not for what I hope it could be like in a very idealistic sense.
That’s the difference between conservatives and liberals.
Dave Nalle, I hope you’ve enjoyed your first visit here.
Not traumatized yet. Still, not as fun as actually going to Europe.
As to your points, personally I believe political isolationism to be pretty much always a bad idea and, in the case of the USA, I tend to think it needs greater contact with the world not less.
I agree. For the rest of the world to understand the US and for the US to understand the rest of the world they need to have substantial and ongoing contact. This is one reason why I find Ron Paul and his isolationist followers so irksome. The US cannot benefit from the good the rest of the world has to offer and cannot promote the values of freedom and capitalism effectively if it just sits alone in the corner and sulks.
Finally, abortion, like religion, ought not to be in the political arena at all. The trend towards interfering in other people’s private lives is a really bad one.
Yep. Whether it comes from left or right politically, telling people how to live and what their morals should be is always a bad idea.
Dave
“The US cannot benefit from the good the rest of the world has to offer ”
What it has to offer now is only an invitation to a one-world collective that would highly discourage unilateral action of behalf of US foreign policy.
Sorry, the using word “consensus” when considering France, Germany, and Russia makes me ill, especially now that Russia is returning to enemy status with its recent cozying up to Venezuela.
By the way, Dave, the USA should and can very well tell others how to live because the American way, despite its flaws, still is the superior way.
If you can cite a superior culture, please let me know.
As an American, Dave, you should already understand the above, but then, I’ve always questioned your patriotism.
I think you are more concerned with “going along to get along” than being resolute and unilateral.
David Black, a hate-filled cynic, questions the patriotism of America’s champion, Dave Nalle. Hilarious!!
Cynic? Absolutely!
Hate-filled? For America’s enemies? Most assuredly. Any real American would be.
Tell me, Christopher, do you love your country’s enemies? If you do, you’re a fool.
Dave Nalle seems to me more interested in being a respected blogger than a conservative attack dog who trashes lib losers the way they deserve to be trashed.
David, rage on old man, rage on…
It’s preferable to being a passive wimp.
It’s what happens when your people have been persecuted, enslaved, and murdered for five thousand years.
Of course, you wouldn’t know about that.
Your “people” haven’t been “persecuted, enslaved and murdered” for five thousand years so your point is irrelevant and untrue.
The truth is that you are just bitter, full of resentment and seem incapable of moving on. That kind of thing happens to some people as they get older and it is always sad to see.
As an American, Dave, you should already understand the above, but then, I’ve always questioned your patriotism.
I think you are more concerned with “going along to get along” than being resolute and unilateral.
Quite right, David. I’m not a nutjob bent on world conquest. Feel free to share this with all the lefties who keep calling me a neocon.
Dave
“I’m not a nutjob bent on world conquest.”
Oh, please!
Conquer or be conquered, Dave. That’s the rule of the jungle. Anyone with any sense of self-preservation would choose the former.
Think the world isn’t a jungle? Think again.
But perhaps you would prefer serving others you may not like? Like islamo-fascists? UN collectivists? One world government creeps?
So what if lefties call you a neocon? Tell them to stuff it where the sun doesn’t shine if they mischaracterize you.
Who cares what they think? Only what YOU, the individual, thinks ultimately matters.
Christopher;
Perhaps you should read more history about the Jews instead of your koran.
There you go with the leaping to mistaken conclusions again, David. Not having much time for ancient myths and legends, I don’t know a whole lot about either Jews or Muslims, although far more about the former than the latter.
I guess you’re going to tell me that the Diaspora of 600BC and 70Ad, plus the pogroms against Jews since the Middle Ages and the Holocaust were “myths and legends” as well.
I can smell a latent anti-Semite a mile away, Christopher.
I, the individual, think that David Black is a reactionary kook who only sees the world in bizarre shades of black and white, and will never be effective in fighting real threats like transnational progressivism because he’s incapable of drawing any distinction between the various kinds of interest groups and instead just rages at everything he doesn’t understand.
Dave
I agree with you Dave. Mr Black is clearly some kind of damaged goods, as his latest comment, wherein he confuses my depiction of Judaism and Islam as myths with anti-semitism, so amply displays. Sad, really, but what can you do?
The moment you fail, Dave Nalle, is the moment a lib like Christopher Rose agrees with you and welcomes you into his fold.
The moment you co-opt bogus lib phraseology like “progressivism” is another moment you fail.
You’ll never get anywhere trying to be pals with libs. They are vermin and must be treated as such.
Christopher: only an anti-Semite would regard the history of the Jewish race as myth.
“I don’t know a whole lot about either Jews or Muslims,”
And apparently, not much else, either.
Because the rest of the world wants a “rock star” like Martin Luther Kennedy as President is reason enough to vote for McCain/Palin
I love the way some people just never know when it is time to stop digging…
Sorry, libs invite abuse. It’s what proper conservatives are supposed to do.
Oh, I’m sorry, I thought it was about a political process, but it’s about abusing people. I apologise for the misunderstanding…
It’s to avenge the leaders of my country from all the abuse that people like you have heaped on them for the last eight years.
Did you actually think that your unrelenting Bush/Cheney bashing would go unchecked?
Well, I don’t follow the ins and outs of US politics in great detail, but the one thing about which I have been critical of the Bush2 administration has been the invasion of Iraq. If that counts as “unrelenting Bush/Cheney bashing”, then hands up, I’m guilty.
Nice work presuming to know the facts of the matter though…
Right, and I’m sure you’ve sat by idly on the sidelines at blogcritics.org (or any other blog) while the lib losers called Bush a nazi or a chimp with nary a word of protest from you.
Yes, I have. Mind you, I’ve also sat idly by whilst other people insult Obama or Kennedy. It’s called freedom of speech, which doesn’t seem to be something you value particularly highly.
I don’t support party politics as, whether in the UK or the USA, none of the mainstream parties have what I would consider a coherent set of policies. The left are correct on some issues and the right on others, but there isn’t a party that I would support unreservedly.
” It’s called freedom of speech, which doesn’t seem to be something you value particularly highly.”
This is funny coming from someone like you who lives in a county where people who speak the truth about Muslims are prosecuted.
I don’t see any advantage to aligning with wacko fringe political parties that have little if any chance of winning high office.
Uh, Christopher, don’t lecture anyone on free speech.
Remember that you were the one censoring my comment on Euros and their poor hygiene habits.
David, I have decided to curtail our chat as I think it has outlived its usefulness. Your prejudices have made you quite blind to reality and there is nothing to be said to you. That happens a lot when you get old, so I don’t blame you…
“David, I have decided to curtail our chat as I think it has outlived its usefulness.”
TRANSLATION: I have failed in battle.
By the way, dear boy, everyone has prejudices. It’s just that some of us choose not be dishonest about them.
Dave Nalle, thank you for reading my article. I absolutely agree with your comments regarding the politicization of people’s reproductive choices and the foolishness of isolationism. Unfortunately, as you say, Sarah Palin speaks for a large constituency of fearful, hateful people who despise anyone who isn’t just like them. People like David Black.
Mr. Black: what must it be like to be you? To have to carry all that hate and fear around everywhere you go, every day? To view all the richness and diversity of this world as a ‘foul and festering sty’ and a ‘jungle’, in which there are no strangers, only enemies you haven’t fought with yet?
Given the bitter divisions in American society that have been so vividly highlighted by this election, it seems absurd to talk about an American culture as if there were no cultural differences between New York and Utah, or between Hollywood and the Bible Belt. Nevertheless, you tell us that ‘…the USA should and can very well tell others how to live…’ because its culture ‘…is the superior way.’ You view immigration as a form of contamination and see international co-operation and reconciliation as signs of weakness, believing that nations must ‘…conquer or be conquered.’ If you substituted ‘Germany’ for ‘the USA’, much of your rhetoric would fit perfectly into Mein Kampf. Jews (and many other ethnic groups) have most certainly been horribly oppressed over the centuries because of xenophobia, bigotry and intolerance. Your response to this is to be openly and proudly xenophobic, bigoted and intolerant. Those historical racist oppressors have defeated you in the most complete way: they have invaded your mind and made you think like them.
Finally, I agree with you that ‘…everyone has prejudices.’ The difference, however, is that some of us celebrate, cultivate and wallow in our prejudices, while some of us try to recognize and overcome the irrational beliefs and antipathies we find in ourselves. The latter course tends to lead to a much happier and more interesting life.
“If you substituted ‘Germany’ for ‘the USA’, much of your rhetoric would fit perfectly into Mein Kampf. Jews (and many other ethnic groups) have most certainly been horribly oppressed over the centuries because of xenophobia, bigotry and intolerance.”
There’s an axiom out there about how one can tell how desperate a liberal’s argument is by how quickly they cite Nazi Germany.
I unfortunately had to witness innocent Israeli women and children being killed by islamo-fascists during the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. I grew up with Holocaust survivors and heard their tales on a daily basis.
I know what the score is in world we live in, Mr. Jennings. No amount of idealism can change my mind.
I’ve had all the happiness and interesting experiences I can stand, thank you very much. As long as my own flesh and blood is safe and secure, no matter what the cost, I am satisfied.
By the way, Mr. Jennings, as an Austrian Jew born and raised in America, there is part of me that is predisposed to nationalism. I would have been fine with the Nazi party if he hadn’t scapegoated and slaughtered Jews. The Germanic people are proud and industrious and are among the greatest warriors of all time.
It never made logical sense to scapegoat and murder Jews because of our inherent talent and ability to be successful at the arts, commerce, and the sciences. We comprise less than 1% of the world’s population and we dominate all the aforementioned areas.
So it’s not logical to kill those who are the best and who make the greatest contributions.
Not much to say these days, lads?
What’s wrong? Hey, your Savior Obama was elected!
Not being faithist, I don’t have a saviour personally.
Of course you look for them, of the non-secular sort, of course.
Barry O. is your darling and the darling of the rest of the guilt ridden white liberals who feel that blacks in America have finally received adequate recompense for the whole slavery issue.
Funny how they forget the hundreds of billions of dollars spent since 1964 on the War on Poverty, which was another guilty conscience motivated piece of legislation which has yet to provide any tangible results (only symbolic ones).
I guess I should ask descendants of the citizens of the Roman Empire to compensate me for enslaving my ancestors two thousand years ago as well.
I love the way you just make stuff up, David; it must be so nice to be able to make reality into whatever you want it to be at the drop of a hat.
For the record, futile as it might be to a magical thinker like you, I don’t look for saviours, indeed, tend to mistrust anybody who even thinks in those terms.
I do think Obama is a big improvement on the last US president, who always struck me as a bit thick. I can’t speak to how guilty US citizens feel, but as to myself, I’ve never felt a shred of guilt about slavery.
If you are intent on asking anybody for anything, I’d ask for a course in logic and reason if I was you, because your thinking processes are seriously messed up.