Political Opinion Megathread Dump

[Lukipela]

As Sed said (I love saying that), the only thing that riles a forum up as much as religion is politics. So in a pre-emptive strike, I set this up for future use. Feel free to post about anything from Australian elections (Boo Howard) to if the 2nd amendment should cover tasers. Also Palestine and Georgians praying for rain.

[Eth]

  The American presidential race is always a guilty pleasure for me.  I love the horse race!  I was really hoping that Al Gore would throw his hat into the ring, but it appears that he's far too sane to involve himself in another election.   

  (Former Senator) John Edwards is looking pretty good to me (I'm a registered Democrat, so I get to vote in the Democratic primary) because of his stance on poverty.  He appears to be the only major candidate who's interested in the lower classes.  Senator Barack Obama has the advantage, in my eyes, of having a consistent stance against the Iraq War.  Senator Hillary Clinton (the current front-runner in the polls) strikes me as a bought-at-paid-for political hack, an old-guard corporatist Democrat.  I would dearly love to see her lose the nomination, but will (grudgingly) support her if she is triumphant. 

  Of the Republicans, (former New York mayor) Guiliani would be a hoot.  That many has more scandals in his background than I can even count, and I love a political scandal almost as much as I love an election.  Mike Huckabee doesn't stand a chance, but he's a fascinating picture, a religiously conservative populist in the William Jennings Bryan mold.  He could represent the new face of the Republican party, once its done reinventing itself after its recent reversals (and retirements en masse). 

  Sorry to bore the foreigners with all of this provincial stuff, but I'm a compelte election junky, and, well, you asked for it. 

[Lukipela]

Guiliani scares me. He sounds absolutely crazy at times, and seems to be riding hard on the "Dem der terrorists" wave. And Clinton just seems a bit fake. I like Obama personally, but I don't know that much about him.

[Zeracles]

Sorry to bore the foreigners with all of this provincial stuff, but I'm a compelte election junky, and, well, you asked for it. 

I'm amazed at how much of a role religion seems to play in politics over there, does it seem odd to anyone over there too? Or is this view not accurate? In the Australian election we just had over the weekend, religion was of no consequence.

Go democrats. I think I like them. Someone who wasn't going to bother voting, vote democrat for me

[Lukipela]

Sorry to bore the foreigners with all of this provincial stuff, but I'm a compelte election junky, and, well, you asked for it. 

I'm amazed at how much of a role religion seems to play in politics over there, does it seem odd to anyone over there too? Or is this view not accurate? In the Australian election we just had over the weekend, religion was of no consequence.

I concur. In Finland there is very little religion in the political arena. Sometimes someone will suggest that all those darkies need to go back home with their heathen religions and their inherent violence, but then some proper Finn stabs someone or other, and people get distracted. It amazes me how public many Americans like to go with their God.

[FreakyM]

Well, we had our first proper school shooting a while back.. that should silence the "racist!" accusations for a while.

[Eth]

How does a school shotting silence accusations of racism?

Guiliani scares me. He sounds absolutely crazy at times, and seems to be riding hard on the "Dem der terrorists" wave.

He's scare me if I thought he had a snowball's chance in hell of being elected.  I find him hilariously disgusting, myself. 

And Clinton just seems a bit fake.

She's a triangulator, just like her husband.  She mistakes "doing the least offensive thing" with "leadership."

I like Obama personally, but I don't know that much about him.

I cautiously approve of him.  He has little in the way of governing experience, and hasn't been showing as much leadership in the Senate as I think he should.  The man has a tremendous soapbox in the form of his presidential campaign; he should be using that power to accomplish things in the Senate.  He also has the advantage of a huge small-donor fundraising base, which means that he will (in theory) be more beholden to the people  than to corporate interests.  Clinton is just the opposite. 

The religious thing, I believe rises out of the 1950's-1980's anti-communist crusades.  Now, obviously the capitalist/democratic vs. communist clash was chiefly over political and economic ideology, but one of the pillars of communism was the abolishment of religion.  Politicians in the US, to prove their anti-communist credentials, had to make clear that they were religious.  The current climate is pretty much just a holdover of those times, I think. 

[Sedodes]

As Eth pointed out, the communist/democracy thing really impacted religion in politics.  The last thing you want to do is suggest the abolishment of religion in the face of a country founded by Protestants.  After all, they left Europe to pursue their own punishing religious fanaticism.

Aside from that, it really resurfaced hardcore recently.  When Bill Clinton was elected religion wasn't really that big of a deal.  Then the Republican party realized they could grab a bunch of votes by pandering to the Born Again Christians and have been focusing on religiousizing politics ever since.

The rub is that now it's old-hat.  Christians are jumping the Republican party ship for various reasons, not the least of which is that they see they've been duped.  After all, it's hard to believe the importance of your great Christian leader when he's doing numerous things antithetical to your religious beliefs.

The funny thing is that the importance of religion in American politics is cyclical.  Every now and then, for about a decade or so, it's a central aspect and people are voted into office based solely on their religious beliefs.  Then, when people realize how goddamn stupid and unconstitutional that was and a mess has to be cleaned up, religion is unimportant for a couple decades until everything is forgotten.

We Americans have short memories.  This isn't Europe where there are castle ruins laying about that are over a thousand years old which get a lot of viewing.  We only have a few hundred years of history, most of which is only vaguely remembered and the actual physical parts thereof inaccessible to the majority of Americans.  We're amazed about restoring buildings to how they looked 80 years ago.

[Eth]

Hah!  Giuliani's finished.  From The Politico:

As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.

If there's anything more interesting to Americans than religion, it's sex.  Giuliani basically made the taxpayers finance his extramarital affairs.  His campaign is, as of today, dead in the water, in my opinion. 

Luki can breathe a sigh of relief.   

[Lukipela]

How does a school shotting silence accusations of racism?

Because he was a white, normal finnish kid. A bit of a nerd, slightly intorverted, but otherwise normal. So according to our amazing logic, those people are the threat now, and will remain so until someone gets stabbed by a somali. Don't think it'l llast long though, the newspapers here have a very short attention span.

[Bleeding Star]

A bit of a nerd, slightly intorverted.... those people are the threat now...

Steer clear of Lukipela! He's about to expoooooooooooooode!

How does a school shotting silence accusations of racism?

You just shoot all the people accusing you of racism. Obviously.

[FreakyM]

Just noticed, a thread about politics and I haven´t even invoked Godwin´s law yet.

Hitler.

There.

[Eth]

  Well, it wasn't even a page long.  If you'd given it time, Godwin's Law would likely have been invoked naturally. 

[Scott_Irving]

politics make me sick, If I had my way I would overthrow our corrupt government and put me in place a true galactic dominator, um I mean prime minister.

To be truthful if I had my way I would move to some remote place. Be self sufficient and not have to worry about any government at all. Escape the endless taxes on every blessed thing, escape the fees for this and for that, and what might be, and so on and so on etc etc etc. To bad I don't think there is anywhere left on the planet a person could do that.

[Zeracles]

We should put scientists in charge (c.f. Asimov's Foundation). Clearly we astronomers should be at the top of the new technocracy, government needs a good view of the big picture