It is fair to say that George Bush has a lot to answer for. Two terrible wars, an unfair approach to taxation and Dick Cheney are just three prime examples but there seem to be larger problems for which he is responsible. The seemingly major one is the derision and distrust heaped on America by the majority of the British public who seem to think Americans are all fat, incapable of comprehending irony and stupid due to the malapropisms of their soon to be erstwhile president.*
Although BO's (he's got everything apart from initials that are good as a moniker) victory has, according to every newspaper everywhere, "restored people's faith in America" it shouldn't need such a monumental occurence to make people see through the fug of Christian Right politics that have pervaded under Bush into the heart of what America is and means. As excellently pointed out here America is a place of unparalled dynamism, diversity and endeavour, somewhere that despite it's inherent problems is probably the best thing that us bumbling humans have cobbled together. Thats not to say it's simply the "shining city on the hill" Reagan called it but that fact that it's citizens have such faith in it's basic virtue and it's capacity to change, and act on these ideals with often unrivalled entrepreneurial spirit and gusto, means that it is an entity which should be recognised as flawed but ulitmatley great and undeserving of the scorn that Dubya has made synonymous with America as a whole.
Maybe with the advent of a Barack Attack (another nickname I'm sure the almost-president would appreciate) America can become the pinnacle of freedom, hope and promise that it always had been. Either that or every bank will collapse, savings will dwindle and Tyler Durden's anarchic prophecies will come to fruition. Either way, and as always in the U.S of A's case, it's bound to be interesting.
Although BO's (he's got everything apart from initials that are good as a moniker) victory has, according to every newspaper everywhere, "restored people's faith in America" it shouldn't need such a monumental occurence to make people see through the fug of Christian Right politics that have pervaded under Bush into the heart of what America is and means. As excellently pointed out here America is a place of unparalled dynamism, diversity and endeavour, somewhere that despite it's inherent problems is probably the best thing that us bumbling humans have cobbled together. Thats not to say it's simply the "shining city on the hill" Reagan called it but that fact that it's citizens have such faith in it's basic virtue and it's capacity to change, and act on these ideals with often unrivalled entrepreneurial spirit and gusto, means that it is an entity which should be recognised as flawed but ulitmatley great and undeserving of the scorn that Dubya has made synonymous with America as a whole.
Maybe with the advent of a Barack Attack (another nickname I'm sure the almost-president would appreciate) America can become the pinnacle of freedom, hope and promise that it always had been. Either that or every bank will collapse, savings will dwindle and Tyler Durden's anarchic prophecies will come to fruition. Either way, and as always in the U.S of A's case, it's bound to be interesting.
*My personal favorite is: "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." Or possibly Bush saying; "Do you have blacks, too?" to the President of Brazil. Genius.
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