h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The U.S. election results aren't official yet, but one thing is clear: the popular vote indicates that, for whatever reason, most American voters made a decision for Bush, and all that decision entails. We can never know how many voted out of fear of Al-Qaeda, out of a misconception that Kerry was what Al-Qaeda wanted, out of a desire to vote alphabetically, or for one of a thousand other equally frivolous reasons. Clearly, the fact that Bush lied, the fact that he put the U.S. economy into a tail spin which may just lead his country to bancruptcy, the fact that he has been diagnosed with a number of mental disorders, or any of a thousand other equally valid reasons had no effect on the majority of voters.

In the long run, it probably doesn't make much difference for the world. Bush as second term president will just bring an end to American hegemony more quickly. His military is stretched to the breaking point, his country's economy could be pushed into default by the simply expedient of an OPEC switch to the Euro, and the majority of his citizens have indicated that they have no real understanding of either domestic or world situations.

It will be interesting to watch the united states experiment crumble. Of course, many of us will be hurt and killed by the final thrashing of the dying giant, but it will be interesting.

Won't Bush have a wonderful legacy: "look Dad: I got Saddam and I destroyed the United States of America. I did better than even Osama could do."

Congratulations to the Republican voters of the U.S.: you just helped the terrorists to their final, decisive victory.

There have been equally incompetent presidents in the past and somehow the USA pulled through.

Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.


Zube

I voted for Nader. But only on the unofficial internet vote for sane people.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Saddam Hussein was backed by the American government because he was seen to be a reasonable force against the mad Iranis (led by the Ayatollah) who threatened to cut off America's oil supply.

Osama bin Laden was supported by the American government as he fought to free Afghanistan from the invading Russians.

Perhaps the lesson should be that the American government should keep their nose out of foreign politics, which they obviously don't understand.

You are right, both on the facts and the lesson to be learned.... Sadly, the US has been not learning that lesson since they started mucking about in the politics of other countries, way back when. I doubt thay will learn it this time, either.

Yes, Gnomon, there have been equally incompetent presidents in the past (Reagan comes to mind immediately). But none of those incompetents have combined such a drastic destruction of the American economy with such an overextension of the U.S. military during a period when there is an alternative economic unit on the world stage which is in a position to realistically outshine the U.S. Add to this the fact that Mr. Bush has fomented anti-Americanism throughout the world by snubbing the UN and global public opinion to the point that some of the U.S.'s potentially staunchest allies have publically turned away from U.S. foriegn policy and it is really hard to imagine that the U.S. will not be marginalized as at best, a non-player, and at worst, a dangerous rogue state.

Sure the U.S. will pull through, in name. But it won't be what it was. And it certainly won't be some sort of weird beacon of freedom.

The strange thing is that it was a beacon of freedom in the past, despite the fact that they funded terrorists, supported fascist governments and generally interfered left right and centre.

Greetings, anhaga... I feel pretty much the same way I did in 1984, when Reagan was re-elected... I berated an American friend I met in the supermarket (to his distress, he hadn't voted for Reagan.) A journalist here has said that a Kerry victory might well be worse - as the world would be lulled into a false sense of security... Let's see if he is right. This is a total disaster!

I suspect that the only real difference between a Kerry victory and what actually happened would be that with a Kerry victory much of the world would be reassured that the majority of American voters weren't a bunch if Neo-con thugs supporting the New American Century Organization in its campaign to conquer the world for Corporate interests while with what happened most of the world will be convinced that . . . well, you know where this is going.

So, now the cards are on the table. I hope that the rest of the world will open its eyes and see that the U.S. has a handful of nothing with a five of spades as high card and a single slug in its revolver, while the world has a bloody royal flush and three shotguns pointed at a certain crotch under the table.

How's that for a metaphor?

Now watch this drive.

Well, I spoke to the woman at the Post Orifice when I went out to pay the phone account - she(an Englishwoman) and the (Indian?) guy at the next counter, were as gobsmacked as I am... I lie your metaphor, anhaga...

One thing that's worth remembering is that it's not the majority of Americans that voted Bush - it's the small majority of those Americans that actually voted.

I'll be interested to see some reliable voter turnout figures. Doesn't the US usually have a 50-60% turnout.?

We had the American journalist Jame Moore interviewed on TV here last night (Della and six7s if you missed Kim Hill it's being repeated on Sat morning I think), and he was saying how the turnout was low especially amongst the youth vote, and even amongst the 30 -45 years olds.

Still I tend to agree with anhaga's analysis, that the beast is so out of control now we will see it's demise in our lifetime. Sadly I also agree that much will be damaged in the process.

I'm also mindful of the last time NZ voted so stupidly, and how the conservative National govt (in it's 3rd term) really went to town so that 3 years later they lost hugely to Labour.

I also agree that had Kerry won it would have been more a relief than a victory and that the complacency that followed would have been dangerous. I guess the way things are now, there is no denying that the world is in serious sh*t , although personally I don't think the US is the only country to be worried about.

<>

Yes, that was always the worry with a Kerry victory - so I suppose it's not that bad after all - but I still don't understand *why* Kerry ever conceded defeat! There still seems to be enough wiggle room from what I've seen in the Herald and on the BBC Website.

*Fear and Loathing in America*
I was so hoping to wake up today and find that Kerry had won Ohio and thus the election, but it was not to be. For me and most of the people I know, Kerry didn't represent complacency, but hope. Now there is no hope, but a whole lot more dread and disgust. It's interesting to read these posts and see how people from other parts of the world view America. My country is deeply divided and it makes be feel rather insecure. Also, I do not trust the integrity of our election system, what with the new paperless, non-accoutable E-Voting in some places. South Florida, where Jeb Bush is the Governor, is heavily democratic and they used the E-Voting machines. That in itself is cause for concern. I used to be proud to be an American, I guess, but not anymore, not since George Bush was installed in the office of President in 2000.

I wouldn't worry too much about the electronic voting, Gemmie. The problems with your voting system are

(1) that if a majority in a state favours one candidate, the whole state must vote for that candidate; (that's the electoral college system)

(2) since votes are non-transferable, votes for a third candidate are wasted, encouraging a 2 party election. If this election had been held in Ireland, Kerry would have received all Nader's votes once it was obvious that Nader wasn't going to be elected.

In a democratic election system, it is much more likely that the choice of the people will get elected.

cross posted from the 'thoughts on the election' thread I started before seeing this one and my blog http://kevinswoodshed.blogspot.com/


After being glued to election coverage on CNN and the internet(s) all day, I went to work the night shift at the paper. Our late Tokyo edition goes out at midnight and Ohio was still tied. I got home at 1:30 and turned on the TV and did what any sensible intelligent politically-aware individual anywhere in the world does the night of a U.S. presidential election -- I drank a half a bottle of irish whisky before the ice cubes could melt and muttered obscenities to myself while I watched the good guys concede "for the good of the country" so that the "healing could begin." Then I went to bed and tried not to cry myself to sleep.

Please tell me the fix was in
Tell me it was the Diebold machines, tell me it was missing absentee ballots in Florida, tell it was voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, tell me it was little green men from the planet Zorgo using a mind control ray. Tell me the election was rigged, because the alternative is just too depressing to contemplate.

The U.S. presidential election saw a record turnout of about 60 percent of eligible voters, nearly 115 million. This means that unless the polls were rigged, 59 million Americans are stunningly ignorant, easily-led, bloodthirsty reactionaries who believe God talks to George W. Bush.

This means that fear, superstition, knee-jerk flag waving, intolerence and blind faith trump reason, science and egalitarianism in public discourse and politics in America.

I'm a Canadian that lives in Tokyo. For me the Bush presidency has been like have a belligerent drunken hillbilly for a next door neighbor. He sits on the porch in his undershirt, spitting tobacco juice on your driveway while he cleans his gun collection and lets his pack of hounds dump on your lawn. The whole neighbourhood hates and fears him.
After four years of this a "for sale" sign goes up next door and you're overjoyed. A few weeks later, a guy comes to your door and says he's thinking seriously of buying the hillbilly's house. You chat and he seems like a decent, reasonable person. You begin to hope. Then a few days later, with a "yeehaw" the hillbilly sets fire to the sign and tells you he's decided to stay after all and proceed to tell you that you better take that durn fence down and move it closer to your house before he gets mad.

There are some great metaphors and similes floating around.

Now, for some rumination on what is to come:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1342955,00.html

and for further rumination:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137492,00.html

I think the fundementalists are going to take the result as a mandate to step up the culture war in the US. Bush will name at least one and possibly as many as four Supreme Court justices in his second term, leaving a long shadow over the future of the country. By the time he is finished the center will have moved so far to the right, Nixon will look like some kind of godless liberal tree-hugging surrender monkey.

As for the estimated 83 percent of voters aged 18-21 who stayed home - I hope they enjoy the draft.

On the other hand, the last time Canada gave a neo-con bonehead a second term (I speak of course of the chin who must not be named) the entire conservative party imploded and was split into the crazies (reform) and the moderates (the pc) who have only recently reunited to lose the latest election.