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The US election as seen from the UK...
Last night's Have I Got News For You:
(From 2 minutes in until approx the 10 minute mark. The guests are Harry Shearer (from The Simpsons) and a UKIP [UK Independent Party] member. Hosted by Damian Lewis.)
A brief transcript of the bit that explains why we laugh our heads off every time people talk about Obama being 'a socialist':
UKIP bloke: "He's on Obama's side, isn't he [David Cameron]? The Tory Party now supports the left wing party. Is that right?"
Ian: "Mmmmnnm, but they're only left by... no one's terms, aren't they?"
Harry Shearer: "Obama's domestic policy is severely to the right of Richard Nixon."
Ian: "The Americans have a Conservative Party and a veeeery Conservative Party. And then they have a Tea Party which... you just don't want to know."
ETA:
From The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
Romney/Tea Party supporters think the lizards are the best thing that ever happened.
(Mind you, I think that Obama is one of the few actual people to have run successfully against the lizards, which is why we're so astonished that so many Americans dislike him. We would give our right arm for a proper PERSON instead of just lizards. But lizards is what we've got... Bring on the gin!)
(From 2 minutes in until approx the 10 minute mark. The guests are Harry Shearer (from The Simpsons) and a UKIP [UK Independent Party] member. Hosted by Damian Lewis.)
A brief transcript of the bit that explains why we laugh our heads off every time people talk about Obama being 'a socialist':
UKIP bloke: "He's on Obama's side, isn't he [David Cameron]? The Tory Party now supports the left wing party. Is that right?"
Ian: "Mmmmnnm, but they're only left by... no one's terms, aren't they?"
Harry Shearer: "Obama's domestic policy is severely to the right of Richard Nixon."
Ian: "The Americans have a Conservative Party and a veeeery Conservative Party. And then they have a Tea Party which... you just don't want to know."
ETA:
From The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
[An extraterrestrial robot and spaceship has just landed on earth. The robot steps out of the spaceship...]
"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."
Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
Romney/Tea Party supporters think the lizards are the best thing that ever happened.
(Mind you, I think that Obama is one of the few actual people to have run successfully against the lizards, which is why we're so astonished that so many Americans dislike him. We would give our right arm for a proper PERSON instead of just lizards. But lizards is what we've got... Bring on the gin!)
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Pretty much sums it up!
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(Also, Americans aren't as cynical as we are. Although they are more paranoid. Funny that.)
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It's a bit uncomfortable, actually, watching Brits make fun of American politics. YOU GUYS KNOW NOTHING YOU HAVEN'T MET MY NEIGHBORS
*eye twitch*
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I was more thinking about all the Birther stuff, and the way Americans seem to have this underlying fear of some kind of conspiracy, where the world is being controlled by a secret elite or similar. Over here, we have no illusions that anyone in our government is really capable of something that intricate - mostly they're just incompetent, corrupt bastards. (That thing about the lizards in the Hitchhikers Guide is truly the most apt thing ever written about UK politics.)
It's a bit uncomfortable, actually, watching Brits make fun of American politics. YOU GUYS KNOW NOTHING YOU HAVEN'T MET MY NEIGHBORS
Come over here. Our politicians are crap (oh god, what we wouldn't give for an Obama), but people are less crazy.
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That's how I often feel about American politics as well. And not just the right wing - I was just trying to read a book by Michael Moore and I had to stop after twenty pages because even though I agreed with him, I couldn't take the paranoia.
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We're an entire nation of rugged individualists, which means we all know, deep down in our souls, that there are bigger things out there, waiting to get us.
Heck, we built our government to NOT WORK, just to protect against the possibility of it ever falling into the hands of somebody effective : P
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M-hm. The US is such a very YOUNG nation... *points to A Town Called Mercy* We have parliaments and governments stretching back millennia, you have wagon trains in the wilderness. It's fascinating, really. :)
Heck, we built our government to NOT WORK, just to protect against the possibility of it ever falling into the hands of somebody effective : P
Fair enough!
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Think the funniest (and most horrifying thing) was that voting machine that was rigged. There were likely plenty. Tis why we still do 'paper votes' here in Ky. And also likely the reason we got ousted as one of the primary states. We're hard to control like that.
Either way. Fucker still lost, lol!!
*HUGS*
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Totally my pleasure! :)
Think the funniest (and most horrifying thing) was that voting machine that was rigged. There were likely plenty.
The Simpsons did a scene like that 4 years ago... Disconcerting to see it come true.
Tis why we still do 'paper votes' here in Ky. And also likely the reason we got ousted as one of the primary states. We're hard to control like that.
We're also paper all the way. An X in the box, nice and simple.
Either way. Fucker still lost, lol!!
*cheers*
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My pleasure! :)
and Damien Lewis is British? Didn't know that!
VERY British. *nods*
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I thought it'd provide some amusement. :)
I had to google UKIP, but worth it.
Sorry about that. UKIP... We try not to think about them much.
Actually worth it just for the Donald Trump "Keep your hair on" line!
I'm sure they could spend DAYS making fun of Donald Trump. *g*
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I've said this before, but if Obama is a socialist, then I'm a card-carrying member of the communist party, and I'm only barely on the left on Finnish standards.
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LOL. And yeah, I'm not surprised. Their politics are... well.
I've said this before, but if Obama is a socialist, then I'm a card-carrying member of the communist party, and I'm only barely on the left on Finnish standards.
I don't know what planet the American Right Wing lives on, but it's not ours.
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