Comments on: My 3rd National Election Across the Pond http://www.heiserhollow.net/2008/10/election/ I have an opinion, and I'm not afraid to use it Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:52:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Nick S http://www.heiserhollow.net/2008/10/election/comment-page-1/#comment-247 Nick S Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:57:47 +0000 http://www.heiserhollow.net/2008/10/election/#comment-247 In some ways the massive attention to the US election over here is a result of there being just so much material for the European media to play with - even something has significant as the Zimbabwean elections had a shelf life based on the limited amount of new footage, quotations and insider accounts flowing out. With the US, each day brings a mass of new videos, angles, talking heads by the hundred - a degree of openness and display that makes it far easier and cheaper to regurgitate the US election ad nauseam. Maybe there is a shameful degree of snobbishness too over here - in amidst the sneering at the 'ugly American' and the 'circus', there's little reflection on the tedium of most European elections, on the way US citizens genuinely hav a say in their representatives from the local sheriff / attorney right up to the leader of the country (gosh! Democracy?), or on the borderline or actual criminal accusations lodged against a range of recent European leaders... Meanwhile on the thrills front we really can't compete when it comes to crazies. Beautiful stuff... http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2008/10/great-moments-in-election-year-blogging.html In some ways the massive attention to the US election over here is a result of there being just so much material for the European media to play with – even something has significant as the Zimbabwean elections had a shelf life based on the limited amount of new footage, quotations and insider accounts flowing out. With the US, each day brings a mass of new videos, angles, talking heads by the hundred – a degree of openness and display that makes it far easier and cheaper to regurgitate the US election ad nauseam.

Maybe there is a shameful degree of snobbishness too over here – in amidst the sneering at the ‘ugly American’ and the ‘circus’, there’s little reflection on the tedium of most European elections, on the way US citizens genuinely hav a say in their representatives from the local sheriff / attorney right up to the leader of the country (gosh! Democracy?), or on the borderline or actual criminal accusations lodged against a range of recent European leaders…

Meanwhile on the thrills front we really can’t compete when it comes to crazies. Beautiful stuff…
http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2008/10/great-moments-in-election-year-blogging.html

]]> By: Steve http://www.heiserhollow.net/2008/10/election/comment-page-1/#comment-246 Steve Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:19:04 +0000 http://www.heiserhollow.net/2008/10/election/#comment-246 Jay, I enjoyed your perspective. I would make two comments. 1) The 2000 election was determined by the US Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote. The Court preempted the Florida Supreme Court's role in deciding Florida election law and the dispute about hanging chad, and put Bush in office. 2) The discussion about Obama not being an Arab illustrates the vast ignorance of the US polity regarding the rest of the world. The people (including McCain) throwing around the term "Arab" don't understand that it refers to an ethnic group from northern Africa and parts of the Middle East (western Asia), and not a religious identifier. What they were trying to say but couldn't was to suggest that Obama was a Muslim. But what can you expect from a culture that learns about the rest of the world from World Wrestling Federation-employed stereotypes. It also connects to McCain's confusing Sunni and Shiite sects and what has been driving the Iraqi civil war. Jay, I enjoyed your perspective. I would make two comments. 1) The 2000 election was determined by the US Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote. The Court preempted the Florida Supreme Court’s role in deciding Florida election law and the dispute about hanging chad, and put Bush in office. 2) The discussion about Obama not being an Arab illustrates the vast ignorance of the US polity regarding the rest of the world. The people (including McCain) throwing around the term “Arab” don’t understand that it refers to an ethnic group from northern Africa and parts of the Middle East (western Asia), and not a religious identifier. What they were trying to say but couldn’t was to suggest that Obama was a Muslim. But what can you expect from a culture that learns about the rest of the world from World Wrestling Federation-employed stereotypes. It also connects to McCain’s confusing Sunni and Shiite sects and what has been driving the Iraqi civil war.

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