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Never ever thought I'd write a post like this... (no seriously. Politics and I are unmixy things!)
About a week-and-a-half ago, Darcy and I watched ‘Recount’. First of all - this is a very good film. Danny Strong definitely knows how to write, and a movie that can hold your attention for 2 hours when you know how it’s going to end is quite something. Of course the reason it’s so compelling brings me to my next point: Dear American friends - your system is completely insane!!!! Just... all of it. What's wrong with writing an X in a box?
Aaaaanyway, I've been sucked into the black hole that is the US presidential election. To explain where I'm coming from I'm going to quote![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
selenak, who (when asked about the enthusiastic Obama reception in Berlin) replied:
it struck [me] as less being about Obama himself - who at this point has no acts affecting the rest of the world either to praise or resent - than a desperate wish to fall in love with America again. Over here, we grow up with American movies, American tv and American music. Of course we romanticise the country. Or demonise it, as the case may be, absolutely, but I think most of us start out with the romanticising and falling in love part, and in addition to horror evoked by the policies of the Bush administration summed up with the name "Abu Ghraib", there is your everyday divorced couple type of bile and bitterness.
Also of course the election will affect the whole world, of which I am a part... Which brings me to Sarah Palin, and the worrying/WTF? bit of the whole thing. I've been trying to work out what she's like - partly she reminds me of Team America (a 'Christian', right-wing Team America of course), and partly Dale from 'King of the Hill'. To explain the latter choice, I still recall a remark he had on an episode that I saw years ago: "If there’s a burglar in your house, and you ain’t got a gun, how are you going to shoot him?" (From memory.) I remember it specifically, because Darcy and I thought it was very funny - that smalltown gun-loving American POV summed up in a single line. (Only if that person is a heart beat away from being president it's no longer funny, but scary.)
Now, why does this attitude go over so well? Watching 'Stephen Fry in America' I was struck with something Harvard’s pastor and Professor of Divinity, Peter Gomes, said:
"One of the many things you can say about this country is that we dislike complexity. So we will make simple solutions to everything that we possibly can - even when the complex answer is obviously the correct answer, or the more intriguing answer. We want a simple yes or no, or flat-out this, or absuoltely certain that. And the notion that God could have two thoughts simultaneously, and people are dear to him who don’t look or talk like us - is just hard for many Americans to believe."
Sure Sarah Palin apparently can't open her mouth without lying, but she gives simple answers. (All this stuff about Palin is obviously just my opinion. Except the lying part, of course. I REALLY don't want to start any arguments!)
But - it's late and I'm tired. You can find all the stuff I've bookmarked here (some of it's funny, some of it's serious), but I just want to highlight two articles. They're by AA Gill who was at both party conventions, and I found his thoughts v. interesting - he's probably my favourite journalist, because he is very observant; so if you're wanting a European perspective, here it is:
Barack Obama's Army. They can see that right here is the dividing line between left and right. It is the aspiration of Democrats to make a land that doesn’t need a metal detector in every public door. What the Republicans want is better iris recognition technology and more arms-out pat-downs and cavity searches without a warrant. I particularly enjoy the security oxymorons who wear flak jackets with Secret Service printed on them in large white letters.
Outside in the beating heat a few special interest groups circle like abandoned pets. Extreme libertarians, or social democrats as we call them in Europe, complain sulkily about freedom of speech, when what they really mean is the failure of anyone to listen. There’s a group of Iraqi veterans who patrol up and down the restaurant and shopping malls using their fingers as guns like nine-year-olds. “This is street theatre,” one of them bellows, just in case.
Sarah Palin: lipstick pitbull. There was one thing that I quite liked. It was a T-shirt among the otherwise dull McCain memorabilia. On it was the face of Barack Obama superimposed on Mr Spock. The similarity’s quite spooky, what with the predominant ears. Obama Vulcan is giving the Star Trek salute and saying, “Live long and prosper”, which could be a quote from one of his speeches.
You see what they’ve done there? It underlines, exaggerates and emphasises his otherness. He’s clever, but he’s alien. Only half-human. Half-extraterrestrial. And the thing that stopped Obama being just another skinny lawyer from Illinois is his blackness. The symbolism couldn’t have been any clearer if the face had been projected onto Al Jolson.
And that's all from this Catholic, pro-life, left-wing, UK-resident viking. :) Oh - except one thing...
Outside the cut, because it's too funny to miss - Michael Palin for President:
Aaaaanyway, I've been sucked into the black hole that is the US presidential election. To explain where I'm coming from I'm going to quote
selenak, who (when asked about the enthusiastic Obama reception in Berlin) replied: it struck [me] as less being about Obama himself - who at this point has no acts affecting the rest of the world either to praise or resent - than a desperate wish to fall in love with America again. Over here, we grow up with American movies, American tv and American music. Of course we romanticise the country. Or demonise it, as the case may be, absolutely, but I think most of us start out with the romanticising and falling in love part, and in addition to horror evoked by the policies of the Bush administration summed up with the name "Abu Ghraib", there is your everyday divorced couple type of bile and bitterness.
Also of course the election will affect the whole world, of which I am a part... Which brings me to Sarah Palin, and the worrying/WTF? bit of the whole thing. I've been trying to work out what she's like - partly she reminds me of Team America (a 'Christian', right-wing Team America of course), and partly Dale from 'King of the Hill'. To explain the latter choice, I still recall a remark he had on an episode that I saw years ago: "If there’s a burglar in your house, and you ain’t got a gun, how are you going to shoot him?" (From memory.) I remember it specifically, because Darcy and I thought it was very funny - that smalltown gun-loving American POV summed up in a single line. (Only if that person is a heart beat away from being president it's no longer funny, but scary.)
Now, why does this attitude go over so well? Watching 'Stephen Fry in America' I was struck with something Harvard’s pastor and Professor of Divinity, Peter Gomes, said:
"One of the many things you can say about this country is that we dislike complexity. So we will make simple solutions to everything that we possibly can - even when the complex answer is obviously the correct answer, or the more intriguing answer. We want a simple yes or no, or flat-out this, or absuoltely certain that. And the notion that God could have two thoughts simultaneously, and people are dear to him who don’t look or talk like us - is just hard for many Americans to believe."
Sure Sarah Palin apparently can't open her mouth without lying, but she gives simple answers. (All this stuff about Palin is obviously just my opinion. Except the lying part, of course. I REALLY don't want to start any arguments!)
But - it's late and I'm tired. You can find all the stuff I've bookmarked here (some of it's funny, some of it's serious), but I just want to highlight two articles. They're by AA Gill who was at both party conventions, and I found his thoughts v. interesting - he's probably my favourite journalist, because he is very observant; so if you're wanting a European perspective, here it is:
Barack Obama's Army. They can see that right here is the dividing line between left and right. It is the aspiration of Democrats to make a land that doesn’t need a metal detector in every public door. What the Republicans want is better iris recognition technology and more arms-out pat-downs and cavity searches without a warrant. I particularly enjoy the security oxymorons who wear flak jackets with Secret Service printed on them in large white letters.
Outside in the beating heat a few special interest groups circle like abandoned pets. Extreme libertarians, or social democrats as we call them in Europe, complain sulkily about freedom of speech, when what they really mean is the failure of anyone to listen. There’s a group of Iraqi veterans who patrol up and down the restaurant and shopping malls using their fingers as guns like nine-year-olds. “This is street theatre,” one of them bellows, just in case.
Sarah Palin: lipstick pitbull. There was one thing that I quite liked. It was a T-shirt among the otherwise dull McCain memorabilia. On it was the face of Barack Obama superimposed on Mr Spock. The similarity’s quite spooky, what with the predominant ears. Obama Vulcan is giving the Star Trek salute and saying, “Live long and prosper”, which could be a quote from one of his speeches.
You see what they’ve done there? It underlines, exaggerates and emphasises his otherness. He’s clever, but he’s alien. Only half-human. Half-extraterrestrial. And the thing that stopped Obama being just another skinny lawyer from Illinois is his blackness. The symbolism couldn’t have been any clearer if the face had been projected onto Al Jolson.
And that's all from this Catholic, pro-life, left-wing, UK-resident viking. :) Oh - except one thing...
Outside the cut, because it's too funny to miss - Michael Palin for President:
no subject
Well, Canada's is worse.
That's all I've got.
no subject
no subject
Really? And here I thought Canada was the home of everything good and great in the world... (Now I'm beginning to hum 'Blame Canada'... South Park has ruined me.)