I'm still catching up on my reading from the British elections and happened on a piece (
"Now that's what I call democracy") in the
Guardian by historian Simon Schama (
A History of Britain). It's a longish examination of the differences between American and British camapigning styles.
And down towards the end, after marvelling at the freshness of a political season with a "conspicuous absence in British hustings rhetoric of the one campaign helper without whose assistance no American candidate can possibly hope to prevail, namely God" in a "country where, unlike the US, it is assumed that Darwinian evolution is actually incontestable scientific fact", he drops the M-word:
There was, though, at least one big American-pie mob scene to sample: Howard's monster rally out in Docklands. There, I met America's most prolific and famous blogger, Markos Moulitsas, who has never seen British politics firsthand before. He marvelled at the absence from the proceedings, not just of the big campaigner in the sky but also flags, bands, the whole pumped-up operation of patriotic euphoria and snake-oil pitches without which the business of American politics is just so much grey newsprint and paid-for televenom.
Interesting, even though Markos was writing for the Guardian, and Schama's well worth the read.