rio wrote:
A few things.
Firstly, what happens politically in the US affects everyone. I'm sure you know this, so I'm not sure what offends you. There is no denying this, and I'm not going to apologize for believing I have a right to talk about it. Just as I feel I have a right to talk about political developments in China and India, as these are going to start affecting us all pretty soon as well.
Secondly, the USA is huge, and astonishingly diverse. In terms of being well situated to speak about the situation in different parts, I'm not entirely sure that someone in the rural deep south is going to understand issues that are held as incredibly important in San Francisco more deeply than a someone from London would, for example. Similarly, a British farmer is probably going to be more qualified to talk about US farm subsidies than a hypothetical San Franciscan, for example.
Thirdly, I currently live in America, and work and do research in America. So I'm not claiming to be an expert, but I do have a level of knowlede about some of the problems you have.
Rio, I probably took a couple of the comments you made out of context. I'm not offended that you, or anyone else, would take an interest in our policies, and I am aware that they do have worldwide effects. The difficulty I have is that so many Americans don't even realize or understand what is happening in this country. Often times, "simple solutions" are thrown out in discussions like this such as "let's be more socialized like Europe" or someone will take a firm, all encompassing stance based on one or two issues that are particularly important to them. More to the point, what I think is necessary for the US isn't what might work in the UK or somewhere else and vice-versa. And I think I misinterpreted a couple of things you said earlier and didn't give you the benefit of the doubt for just taking a serious interest in the subject.
I completely agree with you about the varying degrees of interest on issues and positions that varies from state to state, region to region, country to country, etc. That is much the reason why I prefer to see more power returned to the states and less blanket legislation by the federal government (not to mention that most of what they're doing violates the 10th Amendment).
And yes, I was aware that you are in the US for a few months (DC area, if I'm not mistaken). I hope your experience is a positive one, though I can only imagine it will be filled with some negatives as well. Again though, being in DC for a few months only scratches at the surface of issues here unless you voluntarily dig deeper. I think it would be hard to go anywhere and really get an accurate picture of what all is going on there; I feel that way just going from state to state here. And again, I think that's part of why so many issues should be state issues, not federal ones.
But when federal elections come about the emphasis is on everything at a federal level, we start talking about which states will vote which way, which candidate embraces this or that or what voters he'll get or not get, etc. etc. And it shouldn't be that way really because so must of that should be state issues. ... I think many, if not most, people here don't realize that or have forgotten that, and so I can only imagine how it appears from the outside as well. Personally, I think the entire climate surrounding our presidential elections is confusing and misleading to citizens here and people watching from around the world (and to be honest, I find the whole thing to be quite embarrassing at this point).