sundaymorningstaple wrote:
Strangely, Americans tend to vote on bread & butter issues and domestic problems first. Their foreign policy views are completely absent, as they don't have a clue where any country is outside of Cuba, Canada & Mexico. Insular? not really. It's just most aren't interested as it doesn't affect the directly.
I'm sometimes a bit relieved that it is like that. God forbid we should kowtow to foreign opinions. Most foreign opinions are also coloured to what THEY would like to see in somebody else's country, not caring how it may impact the citizens of that country.
You know, kinda like locals here react to us telling them that they shouldn't do this and shouldn't do that. Outsiders always seem to think they know best.
I'm am curious though, is it the GOP you don't like, or GWB? Both Parties are the same frankly, and with the ability to not have to vote the party line (unlike here), it's possible for either party to gets things done even when an opposition party is in power per se.
I tend to not agree in this instance as I wonder if Obama may be too inexperienced and like lots of Americans, I also do no like Hillary. Hillary will hurt the local American citizen with increased taxes and give the damned illegal immigrants more and more rights instead of deporting them, which is bloody stupid.
Yes, we know McCain is pro-military but there is always the house & senate to keep him in check should it be necessary. Of the three, he's only one who really has the background & experience to do the job.
I would like to know what Obama is really capable of doing though..
Any woman who would publicly be cuckolded by her husband while he holds the highest office in the land, and doesn't leave him immediately is not gonna ever get my vote, because it shows she will do anything and say anything to further her power chase. I don't trust her as far as I could throw her.
I believe there are lot's just like me back home as well. If Obama wins the Dem nomination, it will be a fight. If Hillary wins the nomination, McCain will be the next pres.
SMS, I do not like the GOP particularly and definitely am of the opinion that Bush with his arrogance and ignorance has done irreparable damage to the US, a view, of course, I don't share alone.
Whilst you say and I quote ["with the ability to not have to vote the party line (unlike here), it's possible for either party to gets things done even when an opposition party is in power per se."] I don't agree entirely with you on this.
McCain will run the same mandate as Bush on the war issue and has gone on record to say this. He is not for universal healthcare and given the stats and shocking costs of hospitalisation in the US, this means many Americans will be denied healthcare in their own country, a sad fact and a bitter pill to swallow for many when you consider this is a first world nation, a global superpower and one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
I also don't respect a government that has to resort to scare tactics and fear mongering to instigate loyalty and patriotism whenever the popularity polls take a dive.
I don't like their very conservative outlook and pro Evangelical Christian values stance (smacks of hypocrisy) when you consider how many have come out of the closet and the archaic views still upheld by many Republicans on matters governing a woman's body and her right to choose what's best for her.
As for Americans not really caring about foreign policies, what can I say except that maybe it's time they started instead of burying their heads in the sand. If taxpayers money is going toward funding a war that most never wanted in the first place, (next month marks 5 years of this neverending war) and a huge defence budget that runs to billions of dollars and then some, contributes to a triggering recession, the US$ declining in value, defaulted mortgages, rising oil prices, money spent on the war which could have been channelled into education, infrastructure, healthcare, not to mention thousands of innocent lives lost, then it's hightime Americans started to pay attention. Read this.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar ... 2003403735
If the US's foreign policies may have directly or indirectly contributed to terrorism attacks as many speculate and the Republican government's response to counterterrorism as usual is a kneejerk one which constitutes illegal wiretapping across the board, then it's also time they started paying attention.
Quote: [ GOP lawmakers have been releasing a blizzard of public statements and organizing multiple news conferences to pressure the House to adopt a Senate bill renewing and expanding a temporary surveillance law called the Protect America Act. The measure would grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies over their cooperation in warrantless wiretapping done after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.]
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/2 ... 88885.html
It is in every American's interest to know that they have the power to change things to a certain extent by voting for the right candidate whose stand on policies, both domestic and foreign will impact their lives whether they realise it or not. A candidate who'll do the right thing by the people and for the people even if it means voting for a woman or a black man. (hard to fathom that this is even an issue in this day and age in the liberated United States of America )
PS. S2B has posted an excellent link on the other board.
One man's meat is another's poison.
but not Vermont 
You are as naive as Superglide is arrogant. 
