Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Election
Today is a historic election day here in my country of origin.
I spoke with an unnamed close relative yesterday evening, a former Reagan supporter and recovering southern Baptist, who in more recent years has become remarkably and impressively radicalized in her interpretations of American politics and history. She predicted a surprise victory for McCain, not on the strength of his actual support among voters, but as a result of election fraud, supported by brainwashing from the mainstream media with all their recent smoke & mirrors about how the race is tightening, and was always closer than it looked, thanks to the so-called "Bradley effect," where racist people are ashamed to admit that they'll never really vote for the "black guy."
In my own polling of the men and women on the street, I have encountered one group with a surprisingly strong reluctance to vote for a half-African-American candidate: Mexicans. How ironic is that? I tell them their thinking seems hypocritical and misguided. They shrug it off, not inclined to disagree, but seemingly not much interested in re-evaluating their positions either.
I am more optimistic. I think this election is not actually going to be close enough to steal. Polls have shown some apparent tightening in recent days, but not enough to change the results. The most recent polling data (which I get from electoral-vote.com) shows Obama leading in enough states to add up to 353 electoral votes, well above the 270 needed to win, and even if we only count the states where he is polling 5% or more ahead, the total is still 278.
That said, there could still be surprises, and there has been propaganda pumping through the airwaves which can be interpreted as softening the populace for a poll-defying upset. John McCain offered a personal guarantee sometime in the past week that he would win the election. Does he know something we don't know? It's possible. I think if we get a screwy result in this election, there may be riots. But if so, maybe "they" want riots? It does seem possible.
If you find yourself wanting to riot in protest of anything that happens in this country in the next few months, don't. If there are riots, it will only be used as an excuse to take away more civil liberties, and to haul a lot of people away to prisons under the Patriot Act. If people really want to oppose a corrupt American regime, the most fundamental way that I see to do it would be to stop paying taxes, and stop dealing in US dollars in general. Short of that, we're all supporting a corrupt and violent machine. Unfortunately, the economic system is so entrenched now, it's hard to imagine how we could find food, clothing and shelter for ourselves without dealing in currencies or generating tax revenue somewhere.
In any case, the next year will be dicey. Joe Biden has prophesied that Obama will win the presidency, but then be sorely tested within his first year. These are curious times. We will see.
In other news, I went with a friend to see Appaloosa. Another film I wanted to like but didn't, at least not the first 35 minutes or so that I watched with my friend Helene before we both agreed to spare ourselves the rest. We walked out. Featuring some good actors, and interesting sets, the film began as a gritty, sparse vignette about some remarkably tough American fronteirsmen, and then with the introduction of a female lead (Renee Zellweger) it quickly morphed into trite, narcissistic, neurotic, domesticated, anachronistic melodrama. A lot of people seem to be liking this film; See it at your own risk.
Next we tried Body of Lies at the next door down. We lasted about 25 or 30 minutes in that film before walking out again. Too much violence for Helene, and too much American propaganda for me. After that we just went home.
But back to the elections. All the Europeans I talk to say something along the lines of: Please, please don't let another American election go the wrong way. We want to like you. Stop making it so hard!
Good luck, America.
I spoke with an unnamed close relative yesterday evening, a former Reagan supporter and recovering southern Baptist, who in more recent years has become remarkably and impressively radicalized in her interpretations of American politics and history. She predicted a surprise victory for McCain, not on the strength of his actual support among voters, but as a result of election fraud, supported by brainwashing from the mainstream media with all their recent smoke & mirrors about how the race is tightening, and was always closer than it looked, thanks to the so-called "Bradley effect," where racist people are ashamed to admit that they'll never really vote for the "black guy."
In my own polling of the men and women on the street, I have encountered one group with a surprisingly strong reluctance to vote for a half-African-American candidate: Mexicans. How ironic is that? I tell them their thinking seems hypocritical and misguided. They shrug it off, not inclined to disagree, but seemingly not much interested in re-evaluating their positions either.
I am more optimistic. I think this election is not actually going to be close enough to steal. Polls have shown some apparent tightening in recent days, but not enough to change the results. The most recent polling data (which I get from electoral-vote.com) shows Obama leading in enough states to add up to 353 electoral votes, well above the 270 needed to win, and even if we only count the states where he is polling 5% or more ahead, the total is still 278.
That said, there could still be surprises, and there has been propaganda pumping through the airwaves which can be interpreted as softening the populace for a poll-defying upset. John McCain offered a personal guarantee sometime in the past week that he would win the election. Does he know something we don't know? It's possible. I think if we get a screwy result in this election, there may be riots. But if so, maybe "they" want riots? It does seem possible.
If you find yourself wanting to riot in protest of anything that happens in this country in the next few months, don't. If there are riots, it will only be used as an excuse to take away more civil liberties, and to haul a lot of people away to prisons under the Patriot Act. If people really want to oppose a corrupt American regime, the most fundamental way that I see to do it would be to stop paying taxes, and stop dealing in US dollars in general. Short of that, we're all supporting a corrupt and violent machine. Unfortunately, the economic system is so entrenched now, it's hard to imagine how we could find food, clothing and shelter for ourselves without dealing in currencies or generating tax revenue somewhere.
In any case, the next year will be dicey. Joe Biden has prophesied that Obama will win the presidency, but then be sorely tested within his first year. These are curious times. We will see.
In other news, I went with a friend to see Appaloosa. Another film I wanted to like but didn't, at least not the first 35 minutes or so that I watched with my friend Helene before we both agreed to spare ourselves the rest. We walked out. Featuring some good actors, and interesting sets, the film began as a gritty, sparse vignette about some remarkably tough American fronteirsmen, and then with the introduction of a female lead (Renee Zellweger) it quickly morphed into trite, narcissistic, neurotic, domesticated, anachronistic melodrama. A lot of people seem to be liking this film; See it at your own risk.
Next we tried Body of Lies at the next door down. We lasted about 25 or 30 minutes in that film before walking out again. Too much violence for Helene, and too much American propaganda for me. After that we just went home.
But back to the elections. All the Europeans I talk to say something along the lines of: Please, please don't let another American election go the wrong way. We want to like you. Stop making it so hard!
Good luck, America.
