An Ally's Perspective of the Election and of Us

[CurtainUp2]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 3:20pm

Mirror.co.uk

Nov 5 2004

GOD HELP AMERICA

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN..

THEY say that in life you get what you deserve. Well, today America has deservedly got a lawless cowboy to lead them further into carnage and isolation and the unreserved contempt of most of the rest of the world.

This once-great country has pulled up its drawbridge for another four years and stuck a finger up to the billions of us forced to share the same air. And in doing so, it has shown itself to be a fearful, backward-looking and very small nation.

This should have been the day when Americans finally answered their critics by raising their eyes from their own sidewalks and looking outward towards the rest of humanity.

And for a few hours early yesterday, when the exit polls predicted a John Kerry victory, it seemed they had.

But then the horrible, inevitable truth hit home. They had somehow managed to re-elect the most devious, blinkered and reckless leader ever put before them. The Yellow Rogue of Texas.

A self-serving, dim-witted, draft-dodging, gung-ho little rich boy, whose idea of courage is to yell: "I feel good," as he unleashes an awesome fury which slaughters 100,000 innocents for no other reason than greed and vanity.

A dangerous chameleon, his charming exterior provides cover for a power-crazed clique of Doctor Strangeloves whose goal is to increase America's grip on the world's economies and natural resources.

And in foolishly backing him, Americans have given the go-ahead for more unilateral pre-emptive strikes, more world instability and most probably another 9/11.

Why else do you think bin Laden was so happy to scare them to the polls, then made no attempt to scupper the outcome?

There's only one headline in town today, folks: "It Was Osama Wot Won It."

And soon he'll expect pay-back. Well, he can't allow Bush to have his folks whoopin' and a-hollerin' without his own getting a share of the fun, can he?

Heck, guys, I hope you're feeling proud today.

To the tens of millions who voted for John Kerry, my commiserations.

To the overwhelming majority of you who didn't, I simply ask: Have you learnt nothing? Do you despise your own image that much?

Do you care so little about the world beyond your shores? How could you do this to yourselves?

How appalling must one man's record at home and abroad be for you to reject him?

Kerry wasn't the best presidential candidate the Democrats have ever fielded (and he did deserve a kicking for that "reporting for doo-dee" moment), but at least he understood the complexity of the world outside America, and domestic disgraces like the 45 million of his fellow citizens without health cover.

He would have done something to make that country fairer and re-connected it with the wider world.

Instead America chose a man without morals or vision. An economic incompetent who inherited a $2billion surplus from Clinton, gave it in tax cuts to the rich and turned the US into the world's largest debtor nation.

A man who sneers at the rights of other nations. Who has withdrawn from international treaties on the environment and chemical weapons.

A man who flattens sovereign states then hands the rebuilding contracts to his own billionaire party backers.

A man who promotes trade protectionism and backs an Israeli government which continually flouts UN resolutions.

America has chosen a menacingly immature buffoon who likened the pursuit of the 9/11 terrorists to a Wild West, Wanted Dead or Alive man-hunt and, during the Afghanistan war, kept a baseball scorecard in his drawer, notching up hits when news came through of enemy deaths.

A RADICAL Christian fanatic who decided the world was made up of the forces of good and evil, who invented a war on terror, and thus as author of it, believed he had the right to set the rules of engagement.

Which translates to telling his troops to do what the hell they want to the bad guys. As he has at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and countless towns across Iraq.

You have to feel sorry for the millions of Yanks in the big cities like New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco who voted to kick him out.

These are the sophisticated side of the electorate who recognise a gibbon when they see one.

As for the ones who put him in, across the Bible Belt and the South, us outsiders can only feel pity.

Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets.

The self-righteous, gun-totin', military lovin', sister marryin', abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', non-passport ownin' red-necks, who believe God gave America the biggest dick in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land "free and strong".

You probably won't be surprised to learn of would-be Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn who, on Tuesday, promised to ban abortion and execute any doctors who carried them out.

He also told voters that lesbianism is so rampant in the state's schools that girls were being sent to toilets on their own. Not that any principal could be found to back him up.

These are the people who hijack the word patriot and liken compassion to child-molesting. And they are unknowingly bin Laden's chief recruiting officers.

Al-Qaeda's existence is fuelled by the outpourings of America's Christian right. Bush is its commander-in-chief. And he and bin Laden need each other to survive.

Both need to play Lex Luther to each others' Superman with their own fanatical people. Maybe that's why the mightiest military machine ever assembled has failed to catch the world's most wanted man.

Or is the reason simply that America is incompetent? That behind the bluff they are frightened and clueless, which is why they've stayed with the devil they know.

VISITORS from another planet watching this election would surely not credit the amateurism.

The queues for hours to register a tick; the 17,000 lawyers needed to ensure there was no cheating; the $1.2bn wasted by parties trying to discredit the enemy; the allegations of fraud, intimidation and dirty tricks; the exit polls which were so wildly inaccurate; an Electoral College voting system that makes the Eurovision Song Contest look like a beacon of democracy and efficiency; and the delays and the legal wrangles in announcing the victor.

Yet America would have us believe theirs is the finest democracy in the world. Well, that fine democracy has got the man it deserved. George W Bush.

But is America safer today without Kerry in charge? A man who overnight would have given back to the UN some credibility and authority. Who would have worked out the best way to undo the Iraq mess without fear of losing face.

Instead, the questions facing America today are - how many more thousands of their sons will die as Iraq descends into a new Vietnam? And how many more Vietnams are on the horizon now they have given Bush the mandate to go after Iran, Syria, North Korea or Cuba...?

Today is a sad day for the world, but it's even sadder for the millions of intelligent Americans embarrassed by a gung-ho leader and backed by a banal electorate, half of whom still believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.

Yanks had the chance to show the world a better way this week, instead they made a thuggish cowboy ride off into the sunset bathed in glory.

And in doing so it brought Armageddon that little bit closer and re-christened their beloved nation The Home Of The Knave and the Land Of The Freak.

God Help America.

Updated On: 11/6/04 at 03:20 PM

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 5:20pm

Thanks for posting that. Unfortunately most of the people who need this kind of reality check will never see it.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 5:35pm

Was this actually written by a Briton? I think the Daily Mirror was the one with the post-election headline: "How could 59 Million Americans be so dumb?"

Hopefully he/she speaks for the British people and don't re-elect Blair, to show their dismay at his "Ally" stance!

[CurtainUp2]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 6:55pm

"Unfortunately most of the people who need this kind of reality check will never see it."

... or understand it, or give a sh*t.

Ain't it the sad truth.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 7:03pm

tragic

[Westopher]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 8:46pm

"... or understand it, or give a sh*t.

Ain't it the sad truth."
That's because some of us read it as an extreme interpretation of events rather than dogma.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 8:54pm

Oh, please. Yes, things aren't exactly the greatest in the U.S. nowadays, but I'm getting a little tired of Britain (and France, and Germany, and everyone else) waving their little superiority flags. They aren't such hotshots themselves. Look homewards, England, at your own chief executive. Then get back to me. And do I really need to recall the debacle that was France's last Prime Ministerial election?

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:11pm

I don't agree, Plum. When Austria elected an ex-Nazi as its leader, the world had a right and a duty to protest. Every country's leadership (and especially ours) can affect every other country, so it's very much everyone's concern. I don't think many people in America have a clue as to how the rest of the world thinks about us right now, and shutting our ears isn't going to help us.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:22pm

Bush isn't Hitler or anything close by any stretch of the imagination, and he isn't even the first American President to go into a questionable foreign war. And the way that article wrote about our election made us sound like some kind of banana republic. We need a little perspective here.

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:33pm

"We need a little perspective here."

I agree - but not the perspective you're talking about. I also agree that the article above is intemperate at times, but the point is not how correct it is, but what it indicates about what others are thinking about us. I think this country has shown itself to be ignorant and narrow-minded in this election. Admitting there's a problem is the first step towards solving it.

And of course I wasn't comparing Bush to Hitler, I was comparing him to an ex-Nazi.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:37pm

I think this country has shown itself to be ignorant and narrow-minded in this election.

Once again, lack of perspective. One of the really magnificent things about a democracy is the fact that, unlike in a kingdom or other form of tyranny, the country is not synonymous with the leader. America is not George W. Bush, and you know what? Most of the country didn't vote for him. We don't know the opinions of those apathetic (or disenfranchised) millions who didn't vote, but we can't assume that they all supported Bush.

Also, assuming that every Bush voter is an ignoramus is being pretty darn ignorant yourself. I hate the fact the Bush won, but I'm tired of hearing about how it's the end of the world. We're better and stronger than that.

[Princess MimiChica]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:47pm

Plum, youh it the nail on the head. Thank you for being a voice of reason amongst the insanity

[Westopher]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:50pm

"America is not George W. Bush"
Just to embelish that point a bit more if you don't mind (not that you have a choice really...), just because Bush is in control doesn't mean you lost your voice. Those who aren't Republicans can still make a difference.

[SmrtAss]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 9:55pm

Dear World: http://www.sorryeverybody.com/gallery/1/

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 10:11pm

"Those who aren't Republicans can still make a difference."

Not if the Bushies can help it. And that's the problem.

Plum, I can see your point, and I really hope that we are better and stronger, but I'm afraid that if we sit back and assume everything will turn out all right in the end, it won't. The right wing has taken over our government because they spent years being very alarmist about the deep moral pit this country was supposedly falling into, what with abortion, divorce, homosexuality, etc. Unless we get alarmed about the losses of freedom, destruction to the environment, and ever greater division between rich and poor that this government is actively working towards, in four years we might have only a choice between Mr. Quite Right Wing and Mr. Extreme Right Wing.

What was that quote about the worst having a frightening intensity, while others do nothing?

[Plum]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 10:17pm

People have gotten alarmed- I think even the Democratic party was surprised by how well they got organized at the grass roots level. I'm pretty proud of the small part I played in voter turnout efforts in Pennsylvania. So I look at this election as a beginning rather than an ending. It's the beginning of the end for this conservative political cycle we've been having since Reagan. It'll take a while, but it'll happen. Count on it.

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 11:04pm

I'm glad you feel that way. And bravo for helping to get out the vote.

[Westopher]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 11:06pm

"Not if the Bushies can help it. And that's the problem."
Wrong. You might not get what you want but you'll sure as hell make a difference.