My dad sent me an interesting link today. The question is: How could Bush win again?
Die Antwort ist eine, die er ohne jede Ironie von sich aus gäbe: mit Gottes Hilfe. Die USA kann nur verstehen, wer die Rolle der Religion in diesem Land genügend hoch veranschlagt: Diese Gesellschaft wurde von Familien begründet, deren religiöse Überzeugungen so fundamental waren, dass sie lieber in die Fremde flohen, als sie aufzugeben.
Und so lange das auch her ist – es lebt ungebrochen fort. Denn anders als in Europa ist der über den Ozean gerettete Glaube nicht zusammen mit verhassten Herrscherhäusern in Misskredit geraten; anders als in Europa ist er nicht durch Marxismus und Sozialismus infrage gestellt oder ersetzt worden; und anders als in Deutschland und Österreich hat ihn nicht auch noch der Nationalsozialismus zersetzt. Die Mehrheit der Amerikaner ist bis heute altmodisch „fromm“. ¹
On the other hand, I read in this weeks’ NZZ am Sonntag ² that we shouldn’t look too far when trying to understand the US vote – here in Switzerland the SVP (Swiss Popular Party) is also oversimplifying issues, gaining votes by agitating against Europe, foreigners, and taxes, and dismantling the state. Here, too, we have a party that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, that doesn’t need sound arguments because people vote for them because their gut feeling tells them so. Budget deficit bad. More responsability for the individual. Swiss first.
Slow slide back to fascist simplifications, that’s what it looks like to me.
As mentioned on this site before, this seems to be a general phenomenon in Europe (and maybe elsewhere as well). The BBC reports about a possible shutting down of the Vlaam’s Blok in Belgium. ³ The would be a welcome change. Unfortunately, as in the US, just replacing one president with another, or replacing one party with another, is not going to replace the population that actually voted for these people. 🙁
The electronic voting machines thing seems to be totally untrustworthy. I can’t understand how somebody can still use them... Heise wrote about the report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ⁴ ⁵ and about Jeff Fisher’s activities ⁶.
I don’t know what to make of it.
#USA
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You follow election results very closely. 😃
We have rather “colorful” elections here in India.... with lotsa rallies and speeches and stuff like that. I like it in Bombay during election times. What the heck, I like it even otherwise.
– V 2004-11-09 10:37 UTC
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Heh. The US foreign policy affects me, because I care about FreeSoftware, because I am against current developments of WIPO (Intellectual Property), because I am against the way Iraq was treated – during sanctions, before the war, during the war, and now during occupation. I’m also against the way international law is being eroded by the USA (Guantánamo). So yes, I do take an interest in the US elections.
India is not really a focus country for me – other people would probably know better. I do remember the massacre of the muslims in Gujarat in the news, however. I also remember reading that one of the key officials supporting this is *still in power*. I have trouble believing that. I also faintly remember reading articles about the religious fundamentalist party in India, and thinking back then that they reminded me a lot of fascist thought... But I don’t remember the details anymore. And I didn’t blog them, either.
I also remember being quite impressed by the fight of Indian NGOs against the dam-building craze. I read a book by Vandana Shiva a year ago or so about the environmental and political issues surrounding dams, and irrigation patterns:
A very interesting book on how draughts and famines are often man-made – precisely because we wanted to fight draughts. Cut down woods, dig deeper wells, improve irrigation, centralize the control over dams and wells, and suddenly those in power can have wonderful irrigation of their water-hungry crops, while ordinary peopple cannot pay for the water. At the same time, the old wells stop working, etc. The book also shows that we can learn a lot from countries such as India. (BookReviews)
– Alex Schroeder 2004-11-09 11:27 UTC
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Religion.
Alex, since the election results, the ’ligious people around here have been getting kinda’... creepy.
I was acosted outside my apartment by a woman who lives nearby. She told me that if I didn’t give her $2.00, that God was going to punish me. It was 10 minutes of talk about how terrible I was for not giving her $2.
I offered to give her food, but no- It HAD to be $2.00.
Just the other day, in the bus, I’ve been listening to POOR bus people talking about how Michael Moore just went too far. When they say “indignation” is the sign of the far right, they’re speaking true. “He just took it TOO far! It’s too much!” Of course, the good bible was on one of their laps, which he tapped over and over again.
Really, I’ve been here years, and it really seems to me that the creepy people are getting bolder.
I KNOW that these people are harmed by Bush. I’m betting the guys in the bus don’t have their own health insurance; That means they’re probably going to the 45th street clinic, or some other low income health clinic. Most of those rely on aid programs, all of which Bush has severely limited.
– LionKimbro 2004-11-09 16:14 UTC