At least this time the election has been more or less regular and undisputed.
This permits two interesting conclusions, a positive and a negative one:
The positive one is that this time there is no doubt about electoral fraud and other unpleasant circumstances.
The negative one is that this time nobody can say that Bush hadn't been elected if it weren't for the manipulations committed by his cronies - this time it's without doubt a clear majority of Americans (3 miillion votes advantage for Bush, I heard) that actually and truly
wanted Bush.
It proves once more that starting a war to distract from domestic politics is a strategy that works if there is either auch an efficient censorship that any criticism is suppressed (see Russia - Putin - Chechnya), or such a lack of critical thinking, knowledge and interest that criticism doesn't arise at all and the population just swallows everything (USA - Bush - Iraq).
Keep people in constant fear of existing threats, exaggerate all kinds of threats, invent, and in case of need,
create some new ones (see current situation in Iraq), and the people will flock together in fear and swear allegiance to a strong leader.
The Communists of the McCarthy era that served as The Ultimate Threat have been replaced by global terrorism. Nowadays evertyhing is terrorism, and terrorism justifies just about anything. I could vomit when I hear comments in the news like "After 9/11, terrorism has become..." wtf?? As if terrorism hadn't existed before! In Germany, we had more terrorism during the 70's (R.A.F. etc.) than nowadays. And yet, nobody thought of sacrificing all civil rights and freedom of speech on the altar of the oh-so-holy war on terrorism.
Well, back to topic: 4 more years with Bush will bring more of that crap for sure, and knowing that there won't be four more years, he might drag his country even further to the ultra-conservative, religiously fundamentalist right...there won't be any progress in global protection of the environment or prosecution of crimes against human rights, either. And if he continues to lower taxes for the rich and increase his country's financial deficit, he will also continue the catastrophic economic policies... His undiplomatic attitude will certainly not help to close the gaps both between the US and the rest of the world and between the two main political orientations in the US.
In these things, however, there lies some hope, as strange as it may sound. All these factors might create the pressure that's necessary to achieve a
real political change, and not just a change of names (which would have been the case if Kerry had won, I suspect). Besides, Bush's person won't play a role in the next election, and it remains to be seen whether the Republicans have a good successor for him. And if the Democrats succeed in nominating someone convincing, they may have better chances than ever... maybe with Hillary Clinton?
[Btw: I guess on Nukebox they'll be celebrating Redneck day now, huh?
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