I've been dating a Canadian for a couple of years now and have recently been seriously considering moving to Canada. I'd never really taken the prospect very seriously before; I love the Bay Area and when I moved back here I'd hoped it would be for good. But watching the effect Sarah Palin has had on the presidential race has started to change my mind. Not just in the "eeeagh, I cannot live in a country with this cretin as vice president" sense — though it's beginning to look as though McCain managed to find someone who out-Cheneys Cheney. But one of the sticking points I ran into whenever I thought of moving north was simply the prospect of living in a monarchy. I'm supposed to live in a country that has a queen on its money? Really? That was a deal-breaker — until now.
Hello! The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote about finally being moved to donate to the Obama campaign. The full article is here, and is made up of seven parts:
Introduction
- Obama '04: a rebuttal
- Sarah Palin's America
- God save the Queen?
- The incredible erratic adventures of Stiffy McCain
- And people thought mixing up the two Georgias was a joke
Conclusion
Much of the above touches on topics that have already been covered in other diaries, but it occurred to me that I hadn't seen anything like part three. So here it is:
3) God save the Queen?
Eight years ago I thought that the biggest problem in the US was that the electoral system didn't accurately represent the will of the voters. Now I think the biggest problem in the US is that the electoral system accurately represents the will of the voters. The past eight years have been a disaster for America economically, socially, diplomatically and militarily. About 45% of us have been horrified. A tad under 30%, the Bush dead-enders, have cheered on our downfall, because they're so backward they think backward is forward. These are the ones who have chosen the Republicans as their team, and will oblingly support that team no matter how intellectually dishonest it requires them to be — pretending to be offended at the phrase "lipstick on a pig," for instance. That leaves a bit over a quarter of the electorate: who are they?
They're the ones who voted for Bush, but eventually Bush got boring, and Obama seemed cool, so they thought maybe they'd go for him this time, but then US Weekly had a story about this Palin lady and now they're thinking they might go with her. They get tagged with various labels: "independents," "swing voters," "low-information voters." What they really are is incredibly stupid. I mean, yes, I think it's stupid to support the Republican Party. But it's a whole other level of stupid not to know whether you support the Republican Party. You cannot have a functioning democracy in which these people play such a key role. And this is the heart of the problem. In election after election, Democrats act as though this is a functioning democracy. And it's just not.
I've been dating a Canadian for a couple of years now and have recently been seriously considering moving to Canada. I'd never really taken the prospect very seriously before; I love the Bay Area and when I moved back here I'd hoped it would be for good. But watching the effect Sarah Palin has had on the presidential race has started to change my mind. Not just in the "eeeagh, I cannot live in a country with this cretin as vice president" sense — though it's beginning to look as though McCain managed to find someone who out-Cheneys Cheney. But one of the sticking points I ran into whenever I thought of moving north was simply the prospect of living in a monarchy. I'm supposed to live in a country that has a queen on its money? Really? That was a deal-breaker — until now. I get it now.
I didn't really get it before, even though I've told stories that should have made it clear. For instance, in 2000 I heard a woman say, in all seriousness, that she was voting for Bush because "his mom's a tough old lady and if he gets out of line she'll set him straight." I couldn't believe my ears. What, like the president's about to sign a tax bill that'll cripple the economy for generations to come, and Granny comes in a side door and hits him with an umbrella? At the time, what I got out of this was that too many people think in metaphor — thinking of the country as one big family and of voting for president as picking a dad. I still think that's right. What I now realize is this: Everyone's interested in the leaders of the country. Intelligent people are interested in the actual functioning of the government, what policies various candidates plan to put into practice, how those policies will affect the lives of the citizenry... but there just aren't that many intelligent people. A lot of people are stupid. To them the government is just a sort of reality show. To them politicians are just celebrities who show up in different timeslots from the actors and sports stars. The beauty of constitutional monarchy is that it gives the stupid people their reality show, but farms it out to a powerless royal family so the real government can get on with its work. And you do have to give the stupid people their reality show. If you don't, they will make the real government into the reality show. In Sarah Palin, Middle America has its Princess Di — the problem is that in the American system, Princess Di would have been second in line to make decisions that affect hundreds of millions of people. Which is almost as scary a prospect as Sarah Palin being second in line to make those decisions. Or John McCain being first.
Democrats always say that if they can just steer the conversation back to the issues, they'll win. But I read a lot of political journalism, and one observation that comes up in article after article is that low-information voters do not realize that government actually affects our day-to-day lives. They do not connect the experience of sitting around the kitchen table trying to pay the bills with the earnest men on the television set talking about sitting around the kitchen table trying to pay the bills. You can't reach them that way. The Republicans understand this; McCain's campaign manager came flat out and said, "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." That's exactly right. The key segment of the voting population is voting for a royal family — and in election after election, Democrats are all busy running for prime minister.
More here.