Inside America

Two unworthies vying for the White House. A major environmental group burying it's head in the sand. (The Sierra Club) Sad that America has grown so fat and feminized that revolution is out of the question.

If you don't like what's going on - become an activist. TELL the politicians what you want. Join active groups that make their presence felt. Run for office yourself even.

In the end, the president represents 290 million people. The odds are that he won't represent more than a very small fraction of your views - so, spend some time looking at your choices & make sure you VOTE. No-one in this country better bitch & moan after November, if they didn't vote.

I'm an ex-thatcherite (born & raised in the UK & became a US citizen on 02/13/04) & an Independent voter. There have been republicans & democrats I would have voted for in previous elections. There will be members of both parties in the future I vote for - the most important thing I can do (and one reason I got off my backside & applied for citizenship) is VOTE - this Novembers election is perhaps the most important in the last 50 years.

The population is polarized. We can not afford to give a clear mandate to one candidate, that we want extremism - it hurts everyone.

VOTE.

It's a wrong characterization to refer to AmeriKKKa as fat and feminized.

Americans are simply the most ignorant first world population on earth.

When you breed a population of fools, you can expect your nation to extinguish itself as AmeriKKKa is doing.

Life Among The Science-Impaired Discover Jan 92

Insufficient time is now available.

America's debt is now scheduled to reach 14 trillion over the next 10 to 12 years should even the most optimistic reforms be put in place.

However as we all know, any attempt at rational economic reform will be blocked by the Republican controlled Senate and House.

America is as good as dead right now.

I've been an activist for years. All I can say - the sooner other people get off their couches & makes themselves heard, the sooner things can change. If you don't try, everything is impossible. I'm 41yo - I'm disillusioned (of conventional illusions) - I have a whole new outlook now. I listened to those damn whining Brits for 30 years, until I came to the USA. I now have learnt - if you want something work for it. If you want change - work for it......don't whine.

Step 1. Get the Villiage Idiot out the Whitehouse & institute a sound fiscal policy under the Democrats (am I really saying this ?). Kerry isn't a long-term solution - he's just a band-aid for all the harm GW has caused.

Step 2. Get other potential candidates to run (e.g. Jesse Ventura). Shake up the 2-party system - Ross Perot was right (even if he soundy like a crazy-man).

No time. Americans are far too bush grubbing for money so they can buy tooth whitening sticks and disposable, inflatable pools so they don't have to swim in polluted water.

After a long day of grubbing for money, Americans don't have the strength to even pick up a newspaper let alone get involved in political protests.

Yup. But you know Kerry will be resisted tooth and nail by every Republican in the House and Senate. Result - Zero Progress - 4 more wasted years.

Just how much time do you think America has left before it drifts into total and complete fiscal collapse?

Why not just vote for a third party? OOps, sorry, there isn't sufficient time to actually develop one that could take power and drive change.

America's debt is now scheduled to reach 14 trillion over the next 10 to 12 years should even the most optimistic reforms be put in place.

However as we all know, any attempt at rational economic reform will be blocked by the Republican controlled Senate and House.

America is as good as dead right now.

As a foreign born (UK) American, I suspect the biggest job is to show Americans how much else there is - outside the US. But don't just equate the USA & the US Federal government. The people of the USA do support organisations ranging form Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch to the Hunger Site & many more. Even the Federal Government has some programs, that aren't getting the publicity that bombing Bagdad got.

Michael Moore recently said - the US public is a pretty liberal group. But the governement & the media has disenfranchised so many of them. That's where activism can help - getting people to VOTE. It would have taken a ridiculously small number of of extra voters in 2000, to put Al Gore in the Whitehouse - I don't know exactly how much better he would have been (although I hope he would have been significantly better).

I'm a software developer for a brokerage company. I spend 50-60 hours a week 'grubbing for money'. But I repeately encourage eveyone around me to realise how STUPID it is, not to vote.

In 2000, GW took my home state of Arizona by about 96K votes (Nader didn't make a difference). Over 640K registered voters did NOT vote. A further 1.45 million didn't even register. The current process is NOT democratic - it does NOT represent the view of the people. Over 2 million people in Arizona, COULD have voted for Gore, but didn't - all it would have take, is to get 5% - I'll repeat that 5% more people out & voting for Gore & he would have won Arizona. 3% more in 1996 & Dole would have won AZ (Perot DID make a difference in that election), and......in 1992 if 16% more non-voters had got out & voted for him ....PEROT WOULD HAVE TAKEN AZ.

New motto - 'John Stuart for president' :o)

It's hopeless. 30% of the U.S. population thinks that the U.S. population constitutes over 50% of the entire population of the world.

Another 30% (approx) of the U.S. population can't find tha pacific ocean on an unnamed map of the world.

70% of them think there is no gravity in space, and almost 50% don't know it takes a year for the earth to rotate around the sun. For that matter a fair number of americans don't know the earth rotates around the sun.

But promise them a tax in the form of a long term loan you take out in their family names, and they will allow you to murder as many defenseless brown people as you like.

Essentially you have three classes of people. Republican Democrat Complacient.

The Complacient are complicit in the treason being committed by the Republican party and Conservatives in general.

They are either complicit out of ignorance, apathy, or with full knowledge. But in every case, they are complicit.

Polls indicate that they remain complicit, apathetic, or supportive of the Fascist Bush regime.

They will not be moved simply because you wish it.

Vendicar, you may be right about how shockingly ignorant of science many Americans are. Or maybe not. But suppose you're right about the alleged cluelessness of your fellow citizens.

What then?

Lenin was not such a nice man, but no one could ever accuse him of being complacent about the state of affairs in Russia in 1900, and he put the question really well in the title of one of his books: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

That's the question: 'What is to be done?'

If other Americans are as ignorant as you say they are, then the challenge is to educate them, isn't it?

It seems to me that you're already trying to do that in your repeated posts to the Google talk groups, and although I've criticized many of your posts, I think your instinct is right when it comes to wanting to spread knowledge and dispel ignorance.

But of course, you then have to look at what works in terms of educating people, don't you?

And in my opinion, you have to have some real love, affection and even respect for the people you're trying to educate. No one wants to learn from a would-be teacher that despises his students and is always berating them or looking down on them.

You're really angry at your fellow Americans right now, and I sympathize with that more than you might believe, because I've been angry at us, too. But anger only gets people so far.

I wonder: as you grow up and pursue your career, can you find it in your heart to feel love and respect for the people you're trying to inform about the harsher sides of American history, so that you can be effective in helping all of us see past our prejudices and preconceptions? Can you respect people who are ignorant about the problems with US foreign policy or the threat of global climate change enough to let you interact well with them?

Can you temper your anger with affection for your fellow naked apes, so that you can do useful work in some organization that is working to educate the American public to its real situation in life, and its real interests and duties?

I hope so. Because I don't think your political positions are all wrong

I've just had a thought & can condone everything the US electorate does. First let me tell you tht I was born & raised English. I spent the first 30 years of my life in England and the last 10 years here in (Arizona) America. I became a (proud) American on Feb 13th this year (1 day before Arizona statehood day). So I've seen the USA both from a European perspective & as a resident/citizen.

So what have I come to realise - the current system for electing politicians was created at a time when the average pioneer farmer, fur trader or miner knew nothing about national or international politics. So they chose an intelligent well-educated person to represent them. They elected someone to make the big decisions for them. In certain states, even if the person voted into the electoral college may be of a particular party - they don't legally HAVE to vote for the presidential candidate from that party. So a Republican representative in the electoral college COULD vote for Kerry - now I wouldn't like to be that electoral college member, when they went home - but it's theoretically legal.

Don't be thinking that the USA is a democracy - it isn't. It is a constitutional republic. And all the public can do is elect an intelligent well-educated man (or woman). So perhaps the only science that I wish the electorate knew more about, is psychology.

Educate, educate, educate. One can not expect good decisions from an ignorant populace.

Correct.

There would apperar to be several motivations for Joe Sixpack. Anger - necessitating research for logical rebuttle. Fear - resulting in either avoidance, or research to confirm/aleviate this fear. Natural Curiosity (rare)

There must also be motivation on the part of the student. Sometimes they need a good kick in the backside, or need to be challenged in their beliefs - particularly if those beliefs foster ignorance.

A public flogging is quite memorable.

Ahhhh I see. Capitulate with Evil... You will be 1 with BORG.

I don't respect fools. PERIOD.

And what organization might that be?

By the way. I'm sorry to tell you that your country is both Economically and Morally bankrupt. America is history.