I guess I should show some enthusiasm about last night’s
Presidential election result. At least the
country didn’t take three steps backwards (and threaten to drag the rest of the
world with it). Of course I was enthused
when Obama first won the Presidency (for symbolic as well as policy reasons) -
in the same way that I was when Blair finally overthrew a generation of Tory (mis)rule
in my country-of-birth. But (contradict me if I am wrong!) Obama doesn’t seem
to have made much difference to ‘The State of The Union’. Large swathes of the US population still lack access to health care, a
growing proportion of US
citizens experience homelessness and it’s still more likely that a black youth
will go to prison than to university. Average life expectancy in Cuba is still higher than it is in the US . I
appreciate tht none of this is due to Obama’s lack of personal convictions – more due to
systemic inertia. It’s hard to change
things
Two things struck me about the US presidential
election. The first was how all the polls, even on the eve of the election,
said it was neck and neck. In reality Obama strolled home in all the states
that mattered. How did they get it so wrong? The second is how US politics is
shaped by issues that are completely ‘off the radar’ as far as Europeans are
concerned: the right to ‘bear arms’, the death penalty, a woman’s right to
choose about abortion and the teaching of ‘creationism’ in schools as a valid
theory of how ‘we got to where we are today’. All these are non-issues in European
society. And they seem so conflicting – if human life has 100% sanctity then
what gives the state the right to take it away – or allow its citizens to equip themselves with the
most convenient means to do so in a moment of rage or desperation? From a European perspective
US
political discourse seems rooted in a long distant past (I was
tempted to say in the Planet of the Apes – but would get flamed too much for
that). There are so many ironies from this side of the Atlantic: the US, engaged in its
‘war’ against fundamental Islamism also has its own fundamental religious
beliefs that drive policy and politics; and (as Joanna Lumley so prosaically pointed out) you can carry a gun but not light up a cigarette.
And this isn't intended to demonize America or Americans. Many of the ideas / literature / music / movies/ poetry that have shaped and influenced my life came from the US. I just wish they had more sway over US political discourses.
2 comments:
I liked most of what you have observed but I would remind those who don't know their history. Let's not forget where the conservative right or how the various bible belts were born. They were born from the intolerance of Europeans that to believe something other than the religion of the day meant having your head lobbed off or burned in oil or tethered and made into something resembling pasta. Freedom of religion came at a heavy price as these people have every right to vote as everyone else in the free world. Maybe there's some irony here.
fair comment (and I like getting comments!). Indeed it is ironic that religion plays in society - sometimes a force for good, at others tyrannical. While many Europeans (including the Founding Fathers) did go to America to escape religious oppression, others went for economic reasons (to esacpe poverty and starvation.
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