Hannah Cann tells us why she loves political correctness.
Do you have swine flu? No. Do you know anybody who does have swine flu? Probably not. So what's all the fuss about?
Can't afford ethical clothing but can afford a night out at Ziggy's? Jennifer Heyes discusses where students' priorities should really lie.
Three of The Yorker's blogs team have had a hard think about what general rules they live their lives by and written them down in the form of their own Personal Philosophies.
Now, I know that the highly-informed Yorker readership will already have spotted the error but I’ll point it out anyway. The candidates for the presidential election have yet to be chosen, Hilary and Obama are of course competing in the Democratic Primaries, the race to decide who will represent the party in the big shebang.
However, this quiz question, in its incorrectness, inadvertently highlighted a view that is commonly held by many Europeans, that the winner of the Democratic primary will inevitably become The President of the United States. How could it be any other way?
After the eight-year Dubya disaster, things are looking pretty hopeless. The country is on the brink of (or already in, depending on your degree of pessimism) recession, the occupation of Iraq is into its fifth year of bloody incompetence and the country’s global reputation is so bad that American backpackers are having to walk around with Canadian flags on their backs just to avoid being abused by the normally delightful locals. Surely it’s time for the other side to have a go? Not necessarily.
For all the sound and fury of the Obama-Clinton show, neither are great candidates. Obama is a handsome, intelligent sort of a guy who was one of the few members of congress to vote against the war in Iraq.
However, apart from harping on about change all the time (go on You tube, type in ‘Yes We Can’ and start retching) he has very little experience and very few concrete policy proposals.
Clinton on the other hand is vastly experienced and has sound, detailed plans for governance. However, one can’t help but view her as a relic of the same political era that the American public are keen to forget.
Her husband is one of the most divisive figures in the country and Hilary’s unhealthy influence over Bill during the early part of his presidency has in the eyes of many made her look like a Machiavellian, power grabbing egomaniac.
And in all fairness to McCain, he’s a pretty decent bloke.
And in all fairness to McCain, he’s a pretty decent bloke. McCain supported an amnesty for the 12 million Mexican immigrants already living in the United States and was one of only two Republicans to vote against ‘the Bush tax cuts’, a set of proposals which have given $350 billion in tax breaks to those who needed them the least.
McCain is so decent in fact, that a lot of high profile Republicans hate him. Scarily-influential right wing media figures are actively trying to discourage voters from backing McCain despite the fact that he is the only Republican with a realistic chance of winning.
The queen of the lunatic Right, Ann Coulter even went so far as to pledge her vote to Hilary Clinton on the count of her being ‘more Conservative than McCain.’ Although, one has to question the words of a woman who believes that Jews need to be ‘perfected’ into Christians and that ‘it would be a much better country if women did not vote’.
Although the Democratic candidate (most likely Obama) will still go into the Presidential election as overwhelming favourite, we discount John McCain at our peril. He’s a former Vietnam POW with tens times the experience of Obama and a reputation for integrity which Clinton can’t match.
Sure, at seventy two, he’s a little bit older than you’d like but based on the campaigning performance of his sprightly ninety five year old mother, dying in office isn’t an immediate concern. And at a time where bi- partisanship is the buzz word, who better than a liberal conservative to draw together the disparate strands of the world’s most powerful nation.
Spot the error from this Mccain quote:
"the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."
So a person who outright lies about his country's constitution, and also a man who would stay in Iraq "for 100 years".
Sounds like a pretty decent bloke to me.
sure, the quote about the constitution is just wrong, I'm not going to try and defend it because I'm not McCain's cheerleader, in fact I voted for Obama in the recent primaries. The point of the article is just bring into question this Democrat= good, Republican= bad mentality which exists in Europe and true blue areas of the United States. McCain has said a few very stupid things which he claims were taken out of context but in the past he has lost elections because of his refusal to compromise his principles. Hilary on the other hand championed universal healthcare for years and then shelved the plans when the health insurance companies and medical associations she had fought against agreed to fund her senate campaign.
The Democrats are worried that the party won't be united around the chosen cadidate come the election.
I think the Republicans are more worried that McCain might die before the ballot.
rod james you are a legend keep it up.
John McCain might well be the acceptable face of the GOP, but you speak as though he is the only one who can "draw together the disparate strands" of the US. In terms of rhetoric, I would say that this seems to be higher up Obama's agenda than that of any other candidate (be they Republican or Democrat).
For instance: "there's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it."
And if you want a brief list of policies, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Barack_Obama (where, for example, you will find more to combat global warming than in the policy of any other candidate.) And, like McCain, he also wants to "provide a pathway" to citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
As an American who is involved in politics and is fairly party-loyal, I think there are some things in regard to the importance of party politics which most people are unaware of or at least underestimate. I agree that McCain seems like a nice guy who (as I am a Democrat) appears to have voted in the past in ways which Democrats find acceptable/appealing. He would no doubt be a step-up from Bush in terms of religiosity and ideology, but I think people underestimate the power of the religious Right within the Republican Party. 47% of Americans attend church at least once a month and (24% attend at least once a week). While this doesn't necessarily mean that all of those people are Republicans, a vast majority of them are and the rest tend to have Republican leanings.
In the American political climate, if you are a non-religious Republican you are definitely in the minority and probably feel slightly alientated. With that said, if you think that McCain will not follow in the footsteps of the Bush administration, in my opinion, you are being naive. The religious Right at the present, have a grip on the party, much to the chagrin of party-purists. McCain may not want to follow along Bush's lines, but the religious Right will force him too if he has any desire for reelection in 2012.
On the Democratic side, the party appears to be divided along the age line. The young go with Obama while the older generations side with Hillary. Democrats would be naive to expect a shift as radical as many of us would hope to achieve purely because it isn't possible. Although, a lot of that will depend on the outcome of the congressional races.
I think outside of the US, and even within, the power of congress is underestimated. If the congress turns to a Republican majority and McCain wins, expect another four years of the status quo. If the Democratic candidate wins along with a Democratic majority in congress, changes will occur but like I said, probably not to the extent most would hope for. This most likely would be because the balance in congress will still remain along the 50/50 line. Don't hope for too much change in American politics. If different parties are elected in congress and the executive, don't hope for any progress. Then you won't be disappointed. Sorry about that. A lot of us are just as frustrated as you are.
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