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Old 01-07-2012, 11:17 AM
 
Location: Purgatory
2,615 posts, read 5,388,962 times
Reputation: 3099

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Georgiafrog View Post
Whatever. We can beat you in a war. In fact, we have.
That sentence just proved his point. Well done.
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Old 01-07-2012, 11:29 AM
 
15,706 posts, read 11,748,402 times
Reputation: 7019
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Joshua View Post
What extremely dangerous views are you referring to?
They essentially want a theocracy, especially Santorum, he in not so many words said so. Perry's Strong Ad supported such a view as well.

They want Christianity to control our laws. They want to make abortion illegal for any and all reasons, including a threat to the mother's health. They want homosexuality illegal again, and gays to be treated as outcasts of society and 2nd class citizens. They want evolution banned from schools, or at the least they want Creationism taught as an equally valid theory. Santorum wants to bomb Iran. The list goes on.

Christian Fundamentalism is no different than Islamic Extremism, except Fundamentalists aren't the strap bombs on and blow up buildings type(Well, unless you're Timothy McVeigh).

Christian fundamentalism is a modern day movement. It is a disgusting representation of Christianity, and the day it fades into the dustbin of history will be a good day for all.
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Old 01-07-2012, 11:29 AM
 
Location: Purgatory
2,615 posts, read 5,388,962 times
Reputation: 3099
I am from Scotland originally and cannot relate to American politics at all. It all seems like a bunch of hot air and pandering to the interests of big corporations rather than to serve the electorate. The presiden is a lame duck, despite being a smart and progressive man who is probably just too far ahead of his time...or this country simply isn't ready for him.

I generally don't like to discuss politics over here. It always ends up with someone calling me a liberal, a communist, a socialist or Eurotrash. I initially tried to express my views in healthcare and higher education, only to be called those things.

You have just 2 main parties, both of which pander to special interests. Back home, I had several to choose from, including a party that stands for Scottish independence, but would probably be too left wing and scary for most of you.

I also do not get how Americans are so afraid of the government they elect, but are quite willing to bow down to their corporate masters and be so against things such as unions.

I'm not here to win any friends anyway by posting this. I'm sure many of you will tell this socialist (and proud) Scotsman to **** off and go home. As much as your country is incredibly beautiful, diverse and scenic, I've been exposed to far too many arseholes and have found myself at the losing end of the health care system to the point that if it weren't for my wife, I would go home tomorrow. Reading the venom posted on this forum is enough to send anyone with half an ounce of compassion in them into a deep depression.
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Old 01-07-2012, 01:39 PM
 
26,680 posts, read 28,627,220 times
Reputation: 7943
Quote:
Originally Posted by lucknow View Post
Don't get me wrong, I really love the USA and the American people. Having said that I would like to say that American politics embodies everything that is bad about the country. It's nearly totally corrupt. Just for a minute consider the number of politicians that are either in jail, under indictment or investigation. It's just historical in the country. Big corrupt political machines are and have been used in all manner of criminal ways. There really is not a whole lot of difference between organized crime and organized corrupt political machines. This corruption goes from the bottom power structure at the local level through the state level and right on up to the federal level. It's impacts on the justice system is just a travesty. Just as wall street is defined by it's greed to the uttermost degree, American politics is defined by a different sort of greed and betrayal of the people.
The U.S. is actually one of the cleaner countries on the planet, politically speaking. The U.S. ranks #24 out of 182 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index. Things could be much worse.

Corruption Perceptions Index: Transparency International
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Old 01-07-2012, 01:42 PM
 
Location: Blankity-blank!
11,446 posts, read 16,160,486 times
Reputation: 6958
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aganusn View Post
There are numerous non americans that think we're a joke, or that there is something wrong with us. There are a lot of people that cannot understand why we're arguing about giving everyone heathcare. It would be debatable if we were a poor country, but the richest and most powerful country in the world doesn't care about helping its citizens? That's asinine and really shows how bad Americans and American politics are.

Every developed country has a crazy conservative that no one likes, but the united states has too many politicians like this and too many citizens like this. They laugh at the fact that we have a majority that believes 2000 year old fables and use that to determine politics as well.
Good post!
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Old 01-07-2012, 01:52 PM
 
26,680 posts, read 28,627,220 times
Reputation: 7943
Quote:
Originally Posted by dragonborn View Post
I also do not get how Americans are so afraid of the government they elect, but are quite willing to bow down to their corporate masters and be so against things such as unions.
I agree. The worship of capitalism and business over basic human needs in this country is hard to understand.

Germany has some of the strongest labor unions in the world, and it's also got one of the strongest economies in the world. Our right-wingers don't seem to understand this.
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Old 01-07-2012, 02:12 PM
 
Location: West Coast of Europe
25,956 posts, read 24,680,279 times
Reputation: 9728
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale View Post
I agree. The worship of capitalism and business over basic human needs in this country is hard to understand.

Germany has some of the strongest labor unions in the world, and it's also got one of the strongest economies in the world. Our right-wingers don't seem to understand this.
Afaik, US and German unions are quite different from each other.
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Old 01-07-2012, 03:06 PM
 
Location: The Silver State (from the UK)
4,664 posts, read 8,231,611 times
Reputation: 2862
Quote:
Originally Posted by ben86 View Post
What gets me more than the partisanship (we have plenty of that here, but generally it's reserved for the politicians at Prime Minister's Question Time - you'll struggle to find a British forum where people act as cheerleaders for their side as much as some of the crazies on here) is how ridiculously long and complicated your election campaigns are and how so much of it is down to how much financial backing a candidate has. Months of generating publicity, months of primaries and caucuses, months of people waving flags and pom-poms and getting really excited at overly stage-managed conferences and rallies, then the election (and after all the hype and the money spent half the people don't even vote! Lol!) and even then the new president has to wait another few months to take over, leaving the existing president a sitting duck (why?)

In Britain the party leaders/election candidates are elected internally amongst MPs or members of the party, not the general public - we often know years in advance who the election candidates will be, and people vote more for the party and their manifesto than the personality. Elections are not usually major talking points among the average person, and I've never seen a car bumper sticker saying who somebody voted for - they just wouldn't be produced in the first place. One other big difference is that campaigning generally takes no more than 4-6 weeks (the election dates are not set in stone - the PM can call an election whenever he/she likes within five years of the previous one, and doesn't have to give much notice in advance) and as soon as one side claims victory their leader goes to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen's permission to form a government (it's just a formality, though she is the head of state and in theory could say no) and becomes PM usually within hours of the polls closing. Voter turnout has fallen in recent years but is generally about 65%.


Running for President is not the same as running for Prime Minister. You're right to point out that there is too much money involved in US elections and corporations rule all, but American politics is all out war compared with the UK. Every word that comes out of a nominees mouth is dissected over and over, a million interviews, debates etc The crap that I heard coming out of David Cameron's mouth leading up to the election in the UK was unbelievable, with no real interrogation.

Question time gets heated, but apart from that its not in the same league. Cameron wouldn't last 5 minutes in the US. You don't see cheerleading in the UK or bumper stickets etc but that's because the British are apathetic to politics - just ask your average Brit about which bills have been passed in the last 2 years, or what Cameron is up to at the moment.. they won't have a clue and that is dangerous. Just look at the attack on teachers entitlements several months ago with very little even mentioned by the MSM.

America's poltics is nasty, and people can treat it like sport but at least most actually care about what is going on which is far more than I can say for "how it is done in Britain"! and don't even get me started on having an unelected head of state
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Old 01-07-2012, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Boston, MA
14,466 posts, read 11,246,933 times
Reputation: 8983
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale View Post
I agree. The worship of capitalism and business over basic human needs in this country is hard to understand.

Germany has some of the strongest labor unions in the world, and it's also got one of the strongest economies in the world. Our right-wingers don't seem to understand this.
And you left wingers don't seem to be able to look more than ten years into the past. Germany's success is a fairly recent phenomenon. It wasn't that long ago that Germany was considered "the sick man" of Europe. In addition, Germany's recent success has nothing to do with unionized business. It is primarily based on small firms specializing in precision technologies.

So, you'll have to excuse our reluctance to throw out an industrial model which has kept us the most prosperous nation the world has known for more than 130 years for what is essentially a blip.
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Old 01-07-2012, 05:15 PM
 
Location: West Coast of Europe
25,956 posts, read 24,680,279 times
Reputation: 9728
There was no change in the industries the Germans specialized in. I guess they just became much more competitive at what they have always been doing...

In Germany employees have a lot more to say than in other countries. There is a specific employee council without whose approval management can hardly do anything. Those councils are more important than unions these days.
Works council - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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