"It is difficult to think of anywhere else in the western world where these debates would have any credibility outside of a fringe party (even if the fringes in Europe are now spreading). Far from indicating America's exceptionalism, it looks more like an awful parody of the stereotypes most outsiders already believed about American politics at its most bizarre. 'Those who follow this race daily may have long since lost perspective on how absurd it is,' said the German magazine Der Spiegel last week."
—If you have talked to any foreigners over the last two months*, you may have noticed they are wide-eyed in horror over the people running for president, whereas we natural-born citizens are too busy with capitalism to really think about just how bonkers all this is. (*Except for religious extremists who live under "sharia law"! They are probably totally down with all this stuff.)
Monday, January 30, 2012
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We have not lost perspective. We have just decided moon bases are worth it.
Foreigners: better at socialism AND perspective.
@Clarence Rosario "better"
@deepomega At least they get some medicine for their troubles. All I have to show for our deficit is an exorbitant health insurance bill and a train that doesn't run on time.
@boyofdestiny You just teed up my favorite fact about Greece's economic meltdown! It would be cheaper to pay everyone who uses their trains to take a cab than to fund the train system.
@deepomega On the one hand, that. On the other, the yogurt is pretty good.
@boyofdestiny - I'd be leery of a candidate who promised to make the trains run on time.
You'd think it'd be easier to explain to the inventors of reality teevee that the primary debates are less than meaningless.
@deepomega also, all the action is taking place within the Crazy Party. The Sane Party has more-or-less already settled on its nominee. Now, if them foreigners are wondering why we're seriously choosing between Crazy and Sane, I don't have a good answer.
The key line in this piece is "would have any credibility outside of a fringe party (even if the fringes in Europe are now spreading)." Most European countries have proportional representation in their parliaments, which means that the extremists don't have to hold their nose and vote for Mitt Romney after he spends six months pandering to them when he's really only planning on doing about a quarter of what he promised them. They can just vote for Ron Paul instead. For the past 30-40 years, Europe's Ron Paul equivalents have had smallish parliamentary factions that have been largely ineffectual, but now they're getting big enough that the polite parties, who normally wouldn't talk to them, are relying on them for support (Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, for instance).
Ahh yes. The Germans, only tolerant of very serious politicians, where very serious leaders get involved in lawsuits over whether or not people are allowed to talk about the chancellors hair dye.
What about the horror of the illegal CURRENT PRESIDENT?! Huh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3-MHEbZNSw&feature=youtu.be
This is our weeding out process. Didn't France have an openly racist guy almost win a few years ago, which caused a runoff, where he lost badly?
I like to think we care enough about our elections by having these wackos really only run in primaries.
@JoshUng Sure, Le pen, and now his daughter is polling third. But we don't get that run-off.
Well now this quote is as good an epitaph for the post-Citizens United American political process as any: "Money in American politics was already an elephant in the room. Now the supreme court has given it a laxative, taken away the shovel, and asked us to ignore both the sight and the stench."
They ought to try living here. Then they'll really be aghast.
@Rick Alfaro Precisely. I do live here, and "wide-eyed in horror" is a decent description of my normal state of mind.
The Euros have sold their political souls to German bankers and London bond traders with their common currency project, so no wonder their politicians have nothing interesting to say. They are largely irrelevant.
The latest Greek bailout plans would allow the (unelected) European Commission to determine national budgets. Former Goldman Sachs "advisors" are now the prime ministers of Greece and Italy, in each case, without a vote by the people.
Are they really in any position to lecture the US about democracy and open political debate?
@Lockheed Ventura Is it really lecturing if we're not being forced to listen? Isn't it more like ranting on the sidewalk corner to no one in particular?
@Lockheed Ventura this is getting sort of off-topic, but why the hell haven't the Greeks told everyone to piss off and just drop out of the euro already?