political foo: you'd think they'd learned from the last time

[alpharaposa]

The Guardian tells us which candidate Americans should elect so the world will like them.

At least they're not calling voters in Ohio to lecture us about why we should vote for their choice, but there's still time before the election.

I get why the world is concerned about who's in charge of America. America does a lot in the world. We send aid to places hit by typhoons, and we have the biggest available military. We are (still) willing to use it from time to time.

But the elites in Europe don't seem to understand that, for most Americans, American elections are not about the world. They're about our own country. We have domestic issues, too. And maybe, just maybe, we'd like to have a President who thinks about our country and what's good for it first before other nations.

Let's get this clear: America began as a nation of immigrants, and still has more than most countries. In other words, the US is made of people and descendants of people who wanted to get away from Europe (and other places), for one reason or another. Many of them were still fond of the country they left, but they had good reasons for leaving.

Europeans who can't bring themselves to care about people who die in heat waves because they're on vacation or who measure their own people's garbage and fine them for it shouldn't wonder why Americans might not want their input. We're not just a bunch of serfs to be ordered about. We're a free people. Treat with us as free people, and we can be the nicest folks you've ever met. Treat us like peasants, and you'll get the finger. That's why our ancestors left in the first place.

Our government begins with the axiom that all humans have an intrinsic value and dignity to them that no government is allowed to take away. Our rights don't come from some contract or the good grace of the State. They are part of us, of how God made us. You can't take that away; you can only try to make people forget it.

Comments

[collinsmom.livejournal.com]

Forgive me if I am wrong, but wasn't the anti-terrorist policy in the US enacted by an act of Congress? It was also continued by an act of Congress within the past 4 years. (I forget what the act is called...Short memory span.) Now who is the majority of Congress? Oh, yeah, I remember, it is the Democrats. They are the ones voting for funding for this policy that the left is decrying is a Bush/Cheney policy that McCain is going to keep doing. If I am wrong, please show me evidence that I am wrong.

[elusivetiger.livejournal.com]

This makes me want to vote for McCain - twice. Apparently the faded-jaded Europeans like to vote solely on the basis of their minds, ignoring such base and unsophisticated aspects as character.

When will the "rest of the world" that this guy claims to speak for figure out that we're not their Atlas, that we're going to do as we feel is best, and don't give a damn about their popularity contest on the deceptively vaporous issues they fixate on, even as they ignore far more immediate threats in the world? Maybe we've spoiled them with our protection - now they're whining like teens whose mom won't buy them a new 'vette and dig their music with them.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

IMAO had a good solution (http://www.imao.us/archives/010432.html).

Some other folks have pointed out that Europe has had some recent shake ups in their own elections, which makes this twice as ridiculous. If you can't persuade your own people, what makes you think you'll have any influence on us?

[drewtiggy.livejournal.com]

Metallica had a song, specifically (snrk!) Holier Than Thou, that has a line tailor-made for that type of thinking:

You lie so much you believe yourself,
Judge not
lest ye be judged yourself!