Bob / Jack
I've been observing American politics for years , mainly for two main reasons , one is that the politics and economy of the USA are so big that they affects the whole world , two is to try and understand the whole process , [ still can't , and most Americans I've asked about it have a imperfect idea on how it works ] , a third minor reason is for the entertainment value , because it is entertaining to see a country whose politicians are even more useless , corrupt and inept than ours , but because of the very nature of the USA it makes them 100 times more dangerous than ours
It took a while to write that without using four letter words
I feel that the people of the USA have fallen into the same trap as we here in Australia have , most people don't vote for the party or candidate they believe in , they vote for the candidate or party they believe has the best chance of getting the other bludger out , so we just end up with a endless stream of duds , from two parties whose main goal is power for the sake of power [ the same idea that applies to small club and organization politics works for big political parties and politics , anyone who really wants to be in charge probably shouldn't ]
I was reading something from some American commentator some months back , he was suggesting that the people of the USA are possibly the most patriotic people in the world , couple that with being the most television addicted people as well it's a situation open to exploitation by manipulative media or some one controlling it , this guy seemed to consider it brainwashing by television , not just from interview shows , talk shows and news shows but by movies , documentaries and sitcoms , [ seemed to think that was why people will vote against their own best interests , like those who vote for Obama ]
You guys there are in a better position than me to say if any if what he was saying was right in any way , but of course that fact that you're on this forum means you like to get out and do things so probably don't spend as much time as most in front of the TV as the average person
I noticed during the last election in the USA , most of the people I come in contact with on the net aren't really Republican or Democrat and though most of the people I come in contact with would have voted Republican they are in fact Libertarians even most don't recognise it or even know for sure what the Libertarians stand for ,
David