It always amazes me how Americans get carried away with their election campaigns. What is worrying is that they actually seem to believe the advertising and the rhetoric.
In Australia we recognise that our politicians are human, that most of the time they are play-acting and that they will only ever achieve about a tenth of what they promise- and if they over-achieve we can always throw them out and put the other lot in to redress the balance. While we occasionally might have a beer to celebrate a political victory, I don't think we would ever take politics seriously enough to have mass hysteria or weeping on election night.
I think the U.S. needs to understand that it is not the Kingdom of God and that Obama is not the Messiah (or the anti-Christ if you are a Republican). George Bush is still in the White House until January and then Obama will have to start wrestling with problems that are greater then mere rhetoric.
After months of reading political blogs from the U.S. I'm still not clear about what his policies are except that he is in favour of Change, whatever that means. From the news reports I've seen most people voted for him because he was black/ young/ charismatic/ not George Bush/ attractive. Hell of a way to run a system of government.
Although Americans think they have the world's best democracy, I think that the system we inherited from Britain actually produces better government. We have a Prime Minister elected by the Parliament which means that every voter is really voting for a local representative, usually a member of a political party. The result is that we have to vote on issues more than on personality or appearance.
We also have a non-political public service. All of our officials are supposedly loyal to the crown not to a political patronage. The public servants traditionally gave independent and honest advice- although the Howard Government really destroyed that system by rewarding those who uncritically supported their policies. I hope that we can return to a system where the public service is again independent and free from political interference.
What is great about the election in the United States is this: the U.S. and the western democracies, together with a handful of countries such as India, have this robust system where the mass of people get to remove governments which fail to meet their expectations. It is remarkable when you think about it that those who hold enormous power willingly relinquish it- without bloodshed, without tantrums, without threats- handing the reins of power to those who have a very different agenda to their own.
I think that's worth a little excitement!
I have have absolutely nothing against his race or color, which seems to have been a subject of discussion here, but taking profits from small business owners who have worked so hard to make their business a success and redistributing it to a lot of people who are too lazy to work at all seems like a disaster. And that's something that affects everyone in a negative way. Personally, it bothers me a lot that he voted to let babies die that had managed to survive an abortion. Currently, the law states that if such a baby is born alive in spite of an abortion, the hosptial must do everything they can to save the child. Many years ago, I talked to a German man in the grocery store and we got talking about abortion. He said it started that way where he lived, then late term abortions were legal, then letting "substandard" infants die or be euthanized, then allowing people to dispose of children up until the age of 2 if they had severe problems. After that came the holocost. I wonder if this is just the start of such a progression in this country too. And if it is, then it doesn't matter if a person is for or against abortion, we're heading for something that is going to be horrible for everyone anyway.I hope I'm just being negative and these things don't happen, but right now it does seem awfully dismal.
ReplyDeleteThe new president's religious values are far from anything Jesus would condone. Obama was touted as the man to save this country and his followers blindly voted for him. They did not do their research, they just knew he was not McCain or Bush.
ReplyDeleteI do worry about the abortion issue. It's a struggle we face here also. You start chipping away at the rights of unborn children and there is no telling how far it will go.
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