Tuesday Nov 2, 2004 9:25 pm

Seeing red

SNAFU central: Alternet is posting a myriad of voter supression incidents.

The initial phase of the polls closing is almost over. The maps are trending red red red. I hope this is only phase I, with provisional and absentee ballots TBC (to be counted).

Commentators starting to cede it to Bush.

Can't give up; must persevere.

17 comments ·

DM,

I never trusted Blair and stopped voting Labour even though my entire family had been Labour voters for generations.

He shifted the political arena to the right, that is how he got in!

Kerry didn’t, which is probably why he lost.

Is that good, or bad? Who knows.

As for the British press - you just have to be careful and read around. It is obvious which ones support which ‘side’, and they do tend to report stuff which does not get into the US press.

I don’t understand that, though. The US press has always had a reputation here for great investigative reporting - where are the Woodwards and Bernsteins (sp?) now?

All that ‘imbedded’ reporting from Iraq, for example. What on earth was that about?

The army’s very own PR machine.

Too much of the US media is controlled by huge corporations which are sympathetic to the current administration.

How long before we follow suit in the UK?

-----
Posted by AJ on 2004-11-05 02:59:02

you,
Stereotyping is very bad, I know. Blah, blah, blah. Forgive me Jesus for I have sinned. The FACT is that the Republican base is still the haves and the have mores but they are not the ones who gave Bush the election. There are not enough haves so the Republicans have latched on to the ‘common guy’ by appealing to his hate and fears. God, guns and gays. The FACT is that white rural less-educated evangelicals gave Bush the elections as the Republicans planned (for they stereotype a hell of a lot too). And no I don’t have to value diversity to such a degree that I learn to live with bigots and idiots who don’t even know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Their right to their religious beliefs stops at my nose. In other words, I should not be forced to live by someone else’s religious beliefs.

Instead of city folk being more ‘socialistic’, maybe it just has to do with the fact that they have had to learn to live with whites and yellows and pinks and blacks and gays and atheists because there is just no escaping them. Unlike the still segregated South or the lilly-white Midwest, maybe city whites have worked and lived and played with people who aren’t EXACTLY like themselves and thus, learn that the Other really aren’t that scary and some on them might actually be friends.

Posted by DM on 2004-11-04 23:11:57

AJ,
My condolences on Blair. I have no idea what happened to that guy. I agree that the US administration has an incredible propaganda machine in Karl Rove et al and they have been very successful in misleading the public. The media has crumbled and scary to say, I have often had to relay on Brit newspapers to give me the truth about what is happening in the US! We have more liberal papers here but none of them seemingly want to be painted as ‘the liberal media’ so they take great pains to be ‘fair’ at the expense of being truthful. Maybe the US can be redeemed but how can any country so divided, stand? We have no common good, no common ideals and no common causes.

Posted by DM on 2004-11-04 22:51:05

Hi DM -

While it might comfort you to believe that Bush supporters are poorly educated fural folks that hate gays, it is a terrible misconception. To stereotype half of the US population that way is as foolish as to stereotype Kerry supporters, blacks or Hispanics.

That said, it is true that some issues tend to be split depending on whether you live in a mega urban center versus living in a more rural town or small city. Mass transit makes very good sense in large cities where population density is high, but works poorly in areas where population density is low.

At the risk of stereotyping, I think that the urban areas are more socialistic than the rural areas, where people take pride in being independent. Urban people are more interdependent, precisely due to the larger population densities. I think these values - pride of being independenvt vs needing to be interdependent - that is causig much of the political split you are seeing today.

But just as we may have family members who honer different values than ourselves, we as a country have to deal with the fact that these different values are held by various members of our population. In other words, rather than just giving lip service to the word diversity, we need to really embrace it.

Posted by youAreMistaken on 2004-11-04 07:26:21

Hi DM -

Posted by youAreMistaken on 2004-11-04 07:26:21

DM,

Same in the UK. However, we could end up with Blair in for a hell of a lot longer than you get Bush!!

What is wrong in the US, I feel, is the amount of ignorance due to the misrepresentations, lies and obfuscations generously promoted in the media.
(Similar to what happens in the UK - read The Sun or the Daily Mail!!)

America is great - though very tarnished currently on the world stage. (And the UK is looking pretty shoddy).

It is redeemable.

Any nation which can produce men who come up with the Bill of Rights (ok its been under attack but it can be fixed), the Constitution and even the Gettysburg Address, cannot be dismissed as a lost cause.

Posted by AJ on 2004-11-03 19:36:30

DM,

Same in the UK. However, we could end up with Blair in for a hell of a lot longer than you get Bush!!

What is wrong in the US, I feel, is the amount of ignorance due to the misrepresentations, lies and obfuscations generously promoted in the media.

(Similar to what happens in the UK - read The Sun or the Daily Mail!!)

America is great - though very tarnished currently on the world stage. (And the UK is looking pretty shoddy).

It is redeemable.

Posted by AJ on 2004-11-03 19:36:30

Well, we are such a divided nation that we will NEVER be one nation again. The problem is a difference in core values. The poorly-educated rural ‘folks’ in those red states that gave Bushie the election hate gays and we are gay so we either have to die or they have to change their minds. They hate and fear people of color and we are people of color. They want a Christian nation and we are atheists, and Muslims and other. These positions are diametrically opposed. Think of it, is there anything that Blues share with Reds? Besides maybe a love of consumer products? We would have been much better off if we had let the union die instead of having a bloody civil war to keep the yahoos in!

Posted by DM on 2004-11-03 19:29:46

In war, more die - and they are usually women and children.

Bush’s next war front?

Iran or Syria.

More deaths, more lies, more fear, more likelihood that the Republicans will get in again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by AJ on 2004-11-03 19:03:42

In war, more die - and they are usually women and children.

Bush’s next war front?

Iran or Syria.

More deaths, more lies, more fear, more likelihood that the Republicans will get in again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by AJ on 2004-11-03 19:03:42

In politics, people die.

Posted by Julian Fondren on 2004-11-03 16:45:52

In politics, people die.

Posted by Julian Fondren on 2004-11-03 16:45:52

If you think rebuilding will go on in either the US or Iraq you are deluded.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Posted by AJ on 2004-11-03 15:29:04

If you think rebuilding will go on in either the US or Iraq you are deluded.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Posted by AJ on 2004-11-03 15:29:04

Bush won, Kerry conceded. Now time to move on.

Politics is no diferent from sports. Everyone gets all excited, pretends that it is “their” team, that who wins is vitally important. A few days later it is over and forgotten, unless it is very close. Worst case is when a controversial call is made that determines the game - the fanatics can be embittered fro years in cases like that.

We are one country. Time to begin rebuilding.

Posted by itsOver on 2004-11-03 09:05:08

Bush won, Kerry conceded. Now time to move on.

We are one country. Time to begin rebuilding.

Posted by itsOver on 2004-11-03 09:05:08

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