Piwin -> RE: That bit with Sanders / Clinton (Mar. 3 2016 16:19:11)
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quote:
The point is that the things you post about Hillary may or may not be true, but like most of the misogynist attacks on her from both the right and left they are not fact checked or reasonably informed. Personally I have two concerns with Hillary. The first is quite simply that I don't think it's healthy to have political dynasties such as the Bush or Clinton families. But that's not against her per se, at least it doesn't imply anything as to her qualifications, it's just that the US has already been governed for almost eight years by a Clinton (and if Jeb hadn't dropped out, I would've pointed out that the US has already has 16 years under a Bush President). The second is her longlasting relationship to Kissinger. I know public opinion is divided on him. I happen to come from a country where the last time Kissinger was here, he fled the country because he had been asked to attend a court hearing as a witness in a case around the dissapearance of several individuals at the time of the coup against Allende in Chili. Fleeing of course doesn't indicate that he's guilty of anything, but the evidence that has been gathered suggest he likely played an important role in various questionable policies back in the 60s, 70s. To be honest, he's the only US politicians where I think a case for war crimes could be made. I'm not saying he'd be found guilty, just that there is sufficient evidence to support that legal claim. I'm sure he has political expertise but I do worry of an Administration where he would have any sway. quote:
I don't appreciate knocks to our system from people who really don't understand it from an Americans view point. Or from the point of view of a current US resident. We are not stupid people as you insinuate, we are a nation with a vast and diverse population that has radically different ideals about how they wish to be governed. It is not an easy situation. It is easy to sit in judgement of us ,but you would be lucky to live there I can relate to that feeling. However, it makes sense that US domestic politics are scrutinized by the rest of the world. The US has a huge impact on many other countries and I think this goes a long way in explain why non-US citizens are quick to form an opinion about US politics. Not many people would care about the elections in Island. This kind of scrutiny from abroad comes with the territory of being one of the superpowers of the world. I'd also suggest that these remarks, even if they are sometimes simplistic, are interesting as they allow us to put things back into perspective. For instance, the issue of gun control is a fascinating one when discussed domestically within the US, but it is telling that the vast majority of other Western democracies find it asenine. Similarly, Northern European countries look at France and our collective bargaining strategies and just can't figure it out (we're the "strike first, ask questions later" type). These are cultural or historical aspects that of course make perfect sense domestically, but getting an outsider's opinion can provide a fresh perspective on things. Of course, the value of the outsider's perspective has to be assessed and in many cases it can be simply dismissed. For instance, though I'm not an outsider per se, I have lived most of my life outside of the US, I'm not sure the diversity you point to ("vast and diverse population that has radically different ideas about how they wish to be governed") is all that exceptional. There are of course US idiosyncracies, such as how much power to give to the federal government, the states, etc. etc. (or if any power should be given to them at all), but on the whole what strikes an outsider is how much the American people share a common narrative. I honestly think there is less agreement on a common narrative in France than in the US. And this probably explains why immigration is failing in France and in the US it has worked to an extent that you meet people who have become, after only a few generations, so absorbed into American culture that their reference to their foreign origins seems more anecdotal than anything else. It's not a criticism, but I sometimes laugh when a US Citizen tells you that they're German or Italian or African or whatever. The assimilation process is so fast that they really have little left of their foreign heritage. Of course this varies from generation to generation and from one individual to the next, and this is a gross generalization on my part, but I've never encountered this phenomenon anywhere else in the world. For all intents and purposes, I'm an outsider to the US. But I do think my opinion on this, although it doesn't fit with the "diversity" narrative that seems to be widely held in the US, has some merit. If only for US-citizens to know that to some foreigners they don't appear nearly as diverse as they think they are domestically. (though it would have to be a very long discussion, because I do believe that the US was the first country to take in so much diversity and it's a unique social experiment in that sense; I'm only suggesting that a huge proportion of this diversity fades away rather quickly the longer people live there, much more so than in France I think). Anyways, just saying that sometimes an outside perspective, even if critical, can give some interesting new ways of approaching a domestic issue.
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