Fellow Dems -Please look at how Europe sees us now

[ciaobox]

And take heed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1342920,00.html

SNIP

Once it looked like an aberration. Now it is an era. George W Bush's tenure of the White House was born in 2000 to an electoral quirk, the fruit of a Florida fiasco, the arcane algebra of the US electoral system, and a split decision of the supreme court.
It seemed to be the accidental presidency, one that would stand out in the history books as a freak event.

Yesterday that changed, changed utterly. President Bush and his Republican army recorded a famous victory, one that may come to be seen as more than a mere election triumph - rather, a turning point in American life, a realignment.

For 12 hours that fact was obscured by the fate of Ohio, and the desperate Democratic desire to see if that pivotal state might be wrested from Republican hands. By late morning the challenger John Kerry realised it was a vain hope. This was no Florida 2000.

[fujiyama]

1. I can't even read the article

It's too disturbing to comprehend what this nation has done.

[leftyandproud]

12. If we don't understand our problems, we will never be able to solve them.

gotta confront the ugly truth...America has pulled to the right.

[NoodleBoy]

2. sigh

America is becoming the China of the West-- guarding itself against foreign ideas, trying to kickstart its economy with ideology rather then practicality, jealous of its own power in the world and how it can't use it.

[sushi]

3. Now that there are two Americas

what is going to happen? One side can't impose its will on the other side. Maybe divide the country?

[TorchTheWitch]

6. huh?

One side can't impose its will on the other side.

Oh, it can't? Indeed, it can... it will. That's precisely what every single fascist government has done throughout history. We were just too stupid, too lazy and too complacent to think it could ever happen here. Well, it's happening... it's BEEN happening. Slowly, subtly, it's been happening for years and years, and we've only just gotten to the point where SOME people are beginning to realize it. The big question is... is it already too late?

Americans are about to be tested as we've never been tested before.

[sushi]

9. Imposing their will

on opponents who are the total opposite will only produce rebellion, not unity. Besides, you are not a minoriy but roughly half of the (voting) population. You do have power. You need a leader who shouldn't have to worry about upsetting either the far left or the moderates.

[DuaneBidoux]

14. This is one reason why I said the rest of the world needs to boycott

American products now...business will understand and once they understand it will be communicated to Shrub. You can't fuck the world over forever and not get a response. I'm boycotting American products. Beginning anew to live frugally. Will spend very little for Xmas.

It took a Depression to bring down Hoover and bring in FDR. It may take the same thing again to get rid of BushCo (and the thugs that will follow him once he is gone on our current course).

[ballcap1776]

15. Welcome to Chimpy's Nazi era

... and I don't say that lightly. My family escaped Germany before WW2, I'm assuming they were Jewish or had Jewish blood somewhere. The facts have been lost. It's ironic that my husband and I are making contingency plans to move to the UK if things don't change in 2008 -- or we do drop into a Nazi police state. Or more of a Nazi police state, rather.

[lawladyprof]

20. Me too, Ballcap--eom

I have dual nationality.

[blurp]

19. That's what government is for: imposing it's will.

what is going to happen? One side can't impose its will on the other side. Maybe divide the country?

Remember, government's power doesn't come from giving advice -- it comes from threatening people with jail.

Every law has that threat behind it somewhere. It doesn't matter how benign you think the law might be.

[strategery blunder]

4. .

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[Zhade]

5. Jesus. We're, uh, fucked.

NT!

[ProudDad]

7. FYI

Bush - 29% of eligible voters (Osama Bin Laden's pick for Prez)

Kerry - 27% of eligible voters

None of the above - 44% of eligible voters

When there's an election in this country that actually produces a majority of the voters going for a candidate, we may have a "democracy".


:nuke: bush

[forgethell]

17. Here's an even worse way of looking at it.

None of the above, 44%, are so happy that they don't care who is in charge. But we do have a democracy, at least nobody forces them to vote.

[Blaq Dem]

8. America becoming dumber and dumber...

And the CONservatives like it that way. That's why they want to abolish the entire Dept. of Education.

Hell, Al Qaeda just as well crawl back into the cages from whence they came from. There is no need for any terrorist attack. We got 4 more years of stoopid Bush to f... this country up.

[cassiepriam]

10. You are right, OBL has won,

The sheeple fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
ANd yes, I wonder about the intellenge of the american
people. Not the brightest bunch are we>

[malaise]

11. What disturbs me

is that people in the US did not see this coming. I do not get the impression that progressive people in the US understand the link between geo-politics and domestic politics.
Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall, those of us in developing countries have seen the introduction of structural adjustment policies pushed by US interests in the multilateral institutions. All the rights of workers and citizens that served as a buffer to socialism are being removed gradually. There is no real reason for those with power to pretend that they are democracies because there is no current alternative worldview. The mask has been removed.

Governments across the globe are mere puppets of transnational corporations and make decisions to facilitate them and not citizens.
It is only logical that if they have succeeded overseas, they will try the same thing in the US.

Sadly, until progressive Americans study what their plutocratic government has done across the world, they will not know what to expect at home.

There will be no meaningful change until people understand the real meaning of neoliberalism and globalization for all of humanity. Everywhere there is an unbelievable gap between rich and poor and corporations and governments have become less accountable to citizens. We are all staring fascism in the eye.
What's more, as an ex catholic for decades, I have long abandoned the idea that anyone can look to that institution for any help. I abandoned all religion when I realized that the catholic church is the oldest multinational corporation in the business. They have always been closely aligned to fascists.

Air America and DU are great but both will have to deepen the debate.
The Democratic parties in the US and elsewhere will have to remember their own raison d'etre and stop trying to be all things to all people.

Sadly Nader is correct - the Democratic party in the US and democratic parties in developing countries are all in bed with big business and no longer represent the working people on the planet.

They have all hung out with dogs and caught the fleas and sadly the plague of fascism looms large across the planet.

[DuaneBidoux]

13. Bush to world: FU, Nov. 2 America joins in message to the world: FU

[RafterMan]

16. A counterpoint

"Many Europeans will conclude from this result that George Bush is the true face of America. That would be a huge mistake. In fact, this election has shown that America is more divided than ever over essentials of politics and faith. It's one country, but two nations. On the map, it's the blue states of the west and north-east coasts against the red (meaning, confusingly to a European eye, conservative) states of the centre and south. In real life, it's at least 50 million individual American voters who have values and attitudes often very similar to ours, and just slightly more Americans who have different, or, at the evangelical edge, alien ones."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1343014,00.html

[Blaq Dem]

18. Don't forget that urban areas are blue too. n/t