I saw this article yesterday on my iGoogle homepage under the day's top stories, clicked on it and got a surprisingly good read from The Washington Post. It's all about other countries reactions to Obama securing the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States. The stated reactions are interesting (especially how Kenyan's are so enthused), but what most interested me were the posts in the comments section for the article. That's always were you find the raw underbelly of American society exposed: racists, liberals, conservatives, naysayers, well-wishers, and plain old haters all under the same cyber-roof.
I wasn't surprised by the nature of the comments, most of which are in the vein of 'who cares what the world thinks, America is the shiznit!', on the contrary they just served to continue to validate my personal viewpoint.
A lot of Americans out there want to be neo-colonialists and isolationists at the same time. They rail against the opinions of countries whose "asses we have to save" not realizing that the world does not picture the U.S. as the hero on the white horse anymore. They look at us as the warmongers who will go wherever and fuck with whoever we want to for whatever reason that seems good to our leaders. With the state of the economy and the fast falling value of the dollar America more than anytime in history may soon have to ask for help from some of these countries whose opinions on our politics are so despised (oh and how they would turn that around on the 'O' man if he got elected wouldn't they? "He's turned this country into a beggar nation!!"). America's lack of self awareness will surely be it's downfall.
I also found the reactions from Israel and China humorous. It's no secret (or maybe it is, oops) that the U.S. sticks so close to Israel because they think that it will benefit them in God's eyes when the big judgment day comes (too bad the ethnic group known as the Jews today are not the original descendants of Jacob). So they probably are not feeling good about the prospects of a guy who is not going to blindly go along with their government's policies and actually wants to (gulp) practice some diplomacy with their enemies becoming the next president. The relationship with their staunchest ally would be strained. China is worried that someone smarter than Bush who might actually try to do something about their huge trade surplus might be in office.
But all of this is really mute. Obama will not receive the majority of the vote (I doubt it will even be close). The Republican party will unleash a supremely sneaky smear campaign the likes of which have never been equaled in American politics, the media will pick it right up, and white people will be able to stop worrying about "being pushed to the back of the bus".
P.S. sorry for not providing the link when I originally posted this. It's active now.
I wasn't surprised by the nature of the comments, most of which are in the vein of 'who cares what the world thinks, America is the shiznit!', on the contrary they just served to continue to validate my personal viewpoint.
A lot of Americans out there want to be neo-colonialists and isolationists at the same time. They rail against the opinions of countries whose "asses we have to save" not realizing that the world does not picture the U.S. as the hero on the white horse anymore. They look at us as the warmongers who will go wherever and fuck with whoever we want to for whatever reason that seems good to our leaders. With the state of the economy and the fast falling value of the dollar America more than anytime in history may soon have to ask for help from some of these countries whose opinions on our politics are so despised (oh and how they would turn that around on the 'O' man if he got elected wouldn't they? "He's turned this country into a beggar nation!!"). America's lack of self awareness will surely be it's downfall.
I also found the reactions from Israel and China humorous. It's no secret (or maybe it is, oops) that the U.S. sticks so close to Israel because they think that it will benefit them in God's eyes when the big judgment day comes (too bad the ethnic group known as the Jews today are not the original descendants of Jacob). So they probably are not feeling good about the prospects of a guy who is not going to blindly go along with their government's policies and actually wants to (gulp) practice some diplomacy with their enemies becoming the next president. The relationship with their staunchest ally would be strained. China is worried that someone smarter than Bush who might actually try to do something about their huge trade surplus might be in office.
But all of this is really mute. Obama will not receive the majority of the vote (I doubt it will even be close). The Republican party will unleash a supremely sneaky smear campaign the likes of which have never been equaled in American politics, the media will pick it right up, and white people will be able to stop worrying about "being pushed to the back of the bus".
P.S. sorry for not providing the link when I originally posted this. It's active now.
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