Is our Americans Learning?

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
“They misunderestimated me.”
“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.”

Just to name a few of the legendary ‘Bushisms’ that have had us Brits rolling about laughing, yet a considerable amount of American voters are opting for these uninformed, controversial, headstrong candidates for the most powerful man on Earth. We Brits are thinking, in comparison, how astoundingly normal and dare I say intelligent our wet-fish politicians are.

When comparing the two countries with the ‘Special Relationship’, it may seem that America is the big brother of the two but look closer and you may think differently. Although Cameron, Blair and Clegg have their own charming faults, none of them share the quite extreme views of their American counterparts. True, Blair lied to us about the war in Iraq; however, credit to him, he wasn’t Bush…

No seriously, how could someone as completely unaware and idiotic as President George W Bush have become the most powerful man on the planet? The same man who asked Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso “Do you have blacks, too?” and remarked “Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties” when discussing the Iraq war, is the same man who might have destroyed the world in a third world war. And yet still somehow we loved that chaotic little sleeze bag, like the man at the end of the table in a meeting who doesn’t quite know what’s going on.

Ah well, never mind that ‘reign of terror’ is over. He’s out and will never be President again, wheyhey! Yes, well although that may be true it doesn’t stop others, just as deluded and negligent, from scooping up the baton. For example, in 2008 we had the wonderful Senator John McCain as the republican nominee for president who ran against Obama, he seemed to be just as clueless as Bush when stating that he would be able to walk down the streets of Baghdad, Iraq, without any protection. Really? Through the streets of Iraq? Later that day a US army general refuted McCain’s statement.

As his running mate for Vice President we had Sarah Palin, “But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies” she calmly said. No I think that may be the other way round there Sarah. That’s just to name one from many of Palin’s gaffes. I think the fact that says the most about her is that Palin was elected by people of Alaska who were fed up with corrupt politicians.  Now the people who know her best, Alaskans, like her the least.

Ok so maybe that may just be a coincidence that straight after Bush the next Republican candidate was, let’s say, a little bit misguided. But wait no, here’s the next guy, Mitt Romney. Mitt believes he is wearing magic underwear! But it gets better; Romney not only wanted to ban abortion, something that has been legal in America since 1973. Not only did he want to spin the clock back to 1973 with his abortion law but he also accused Obama of ‘forcing’ gay marriage upon the country. I’m sorry? Supporting the right for two people to be married who may be the same sex but who love each other, does not sound too far fetched to me. It is legal in nine states after all.

Part of being a Mormon is wearing underwear adorned with sacred symbols; ok fine, whatever works for him, but being against a policy such as abortion, which has been legal for decades sounds more like taking America backwards rather than moving it forwards.

Rick Santorum, an almost republican candidate for president in 2012 beaten by Romney, accused President Obama of being a ‘snob’ for aiming to get as many Americans into college as possible. Now this statement just doesn’t really add up considering that Santorum has higher qualifications than Obama; a B.A, an M.B.A and a J.D to Obama’s B.A and J.D. So what Santorum was really saying is if you go to college, like him, it and achieve high qualifications, like him, it makes you a snob.

Now if we just take that situation and put that into Britain, I imagine the reaction would be very different.

To tell the truth we’re just much more cynical here in the UK. Most of Romney’s campaign policies were put on the back of ‘The American Dream’ and were lapped up by the republican voters. So this ‘American Dream’ one of freedom, prosperity and equality, would it work in the same way in England? I don’t think so. Imagine the ‘British Dream’; sitting with a plate of fish and chips and a cup of tea on a tray on your lap watching day time TV, bliss. See? We’re much too cynical for that type of propaganda to work on us.

So now you’re thinking, “Well now our political situation doesn’t seem that bad! At least we’re not in America!” True we’re not, but what about the 311,591,917 people who are? Why should they be so different from us that a considerable percentage of the voters will opt for these candidates who would never have even been contenders in Britain?

We can’t just put all the blame onto the fact that we are different cultures because both countries are major powers. Although Berlusconi wasn’t an ideal Prime minister for Italy, it isn’t a major world power and so didn’t have the same effect as George Bush did when he was President of the United States. If America makes a bad choice for President it has a major impact on the rest of the world.

My question really is, why are a considerable amount of American voters, opting for an uninformed, controversial, headstrong candidate for the most powerful man on Earth? Bush, McCain, Palin, Santorum, Romney and who knows what the next candidate is going to be like. All the rest of the world can do is hope for a politician that can both please the American voters but who also isn’t a complete moron. Fingers-crossed!