NationStates Jolt Archive

For those of you who don't know I am British and as such can only provide an external (and perhaps under informed) view of these 'elections'.

The thing that has really struck me is the huge division in American society that seems to have burst open. It really appears that you are a divided nation, so great is your politcal antagonism. Democrats already seem to be crying out cheat, even though it would a politcally wiser move just to graciously accept the result and wait until next time. Equally the Republicans seem to want to rub their noses in this defeat, hardly the attitude of a magnaminous victor. Watching the various TV documentaries and reading newspaper articles, it does appear that America is at the brink of tearing itself in two. The levels of hate between the two parties seem unprecedented - dislike I can understand but hatred seems to be counter to the workings of democracy. People like Michael Moore seem to want to exploit this divide to their own, rather cynical end.

Such a closely divided society is never good. In less stable countries, such division could lead to civil war. I refer to late 17th Century Britain where Whigs and Tories (those names in themselves are actually insults) were so passionate about their politics, that real hatred existed between the two. A second civil war was very likely. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) a system of corruption was introduced into politics so MPs became more interested in the size of their wallets rather than their politics.

In Britain, most elections and politics are relatively cordial. Even the opposition leaders will make the pretense of parliamentary comradeship.

Also the way in which your TV channels seemed to adopt which politcal party to support and then constantly advertise them seems quite outrageous. British TV channels rarely take sides (directly at any rate) and do seem to remain unbiased.

Comment.

In Britain, most elections and politics are relatively cordial. Even the opposition leaders will make the pretense of parliamentary comradeship.


Have you ever seen a debate in the House of Commons???

Have you ever seen a debate in the House of Commons???

Yes. We can't pretend they like each other, but they (generally) remain more amiable toward each other.

It's really not that bad. My family is split, my roomates are split, and we have plenty of spirited debates...but there is no hatred for one another. Except for people from Maryland, but that's a whole different issue altogether.

It seemed to me that the republicans have all the adavntages that they could possibly want. They always win if its a tie, they cant lose any of the midwest small town states....

Well don't worry too much about our American Partisan rhetoric... it has a long tradition going back to Jefferson vs Adams (our 3rd Presidential election and the first election with more or less defined parties)....apparently it is the American way.

The divide is worrisome, probably has a lot to do with social tensions caused by the ever changing nature of todays society and seems to be a global trend.

We (the US) simply failed to nominate a political figure in the last two election cycles who had enough charisma to unify the moderates on each side enough to establish some kind of consensus... hopefully next time.

When the chips are down, Americans mostly come together though, and I suspect there will be occasions over the next four years when that will happen. In the meantime, we will continue to bicker about whether we are a Christian (in this case, as defined by the Conservative Right) Nation or not.

I think the long term trends will show that we are not what the Christian right thinks. They will overreact, and annoy enough people so that they get repudiated if they go to far. I have every confidence that they will go to far. People who are certain that they have the only answers generally do.

For those of you who don't know I am British and as such can only provide an external (and perhaps under informed) view of these 'elections'.

The thing that has really struck me is the huge division in American society that seems to have burst open. It really appears that you are a divided nation, so great is your politcal antagonism. Democrats already seem to be crying out cheat, even though it would a politcally wiser move just to graciously accept the result and wait until next time. Equally the Republicans seem to want to rub their noses in this defeat, hardly the attitude of a magnaminous victor.
Comment.
No Democrats Yelled "Cheat!" In fact Kerry is making his defeat speech right now. The Democrats appected the victory of George Bush before they last ballots were even done being counted.
Bush is a horrible president, but I do appect him as out president. Hopefully Edwards/Obama will win in 08
There is a MASSIVE wound in the american poltical scene from this race.
The Republicans are in total control of the american goverment also.

Make Any sense?

It's not really that bad over here. For one, politics are often separated from personal lives. Most of my friends and family are Democrats, and they still love me. For another, such political mudslingling has been an American tradition. The dirtiest campaigns were probably in the 19th century, and the civil war that happened then was more for economic and moral reasons than political ones.

You see, a fundamental thing about us Americans is that we get pissed off fairly easily, but that's where it ends, we are loud and obnoxious a lot, but the body-politic wouldn't ever get up to the point of civil war. Hell, I'm a student at Uni and my roommate is a noted Kerry voter, whilst I am a Bush voter (although a skeptical one) and we get along just fine. We cracked jokes about all sorts of things that had nothing to do with politics today. Last night, when watching the returns got boring (ie after ten minutes of watching) we started playing San Andreas, whilst taking turns.

And anyways, there's only one thing we yanks riot over, Baseball and American Football. Only thing, oh yeah, and cops randomly shooting black people, but that's only an occasional thing. Sports riots are guaranteed.

(Believe me, I go to Ohio State, and in two weeks (before the Michigan Game) I will see a hell of a lot more emotion and violence (burning the Michigan in Effigy, riots, riot cops, car tipping, drunk people) then than today. hell, the only cop I've seen all day is a Uni Traffic Cop ticketing cars that were parked without permits.

*Busts out a big letter M and some dynamite*

Ready for game day!

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In Britain, most elections and politics are relatively cordial. Even the opposition leaders will make the pretense of parliamentary comradeship.

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That's not how I remember the seventies and eighties. I saw mutual contempt being expressed between the two sides in the US elections, but not the outright emnity and hatred between left and right that I saw in the UK then.

Politics is not life.