An Alien Perspective On Us

After reading the results of the Iowa Republican caucuses, the US’s purported exercise in ground level democracy-in-action, I couldn’t help feeling a combination of embarrassment and chagrin. I had no dog in the fight, but c’mon man, can’t our only other political party with big bucks and big power do better than this? Weren’t these the mealiest, whiniest, woosey-est, group of playgrounders that’s ever been touted by our scrounging infotainment news media?

So feeling this way I wondered what our global democracy brethren thought of such paltriness. I started with the BBC’s north American editor, Mark Mardell. Here’s what he concluded:

“This is Romney's real failure. There is a hunger on the right for something fresh and different.

There's a mood in the country that the system is broken and doesn't work for ordinary people. There is a yearning for a populist politics that stands up to the powers that be.

Romney is almost an incarnation of the establishment, from his well-manicured rallies to his tightly organised campaign lubricated with plenty of lucre, from his past as a successful businessman to his career as a problem-solving politician.

He is not going to capture the public mood with that record, any more than he has won the heart of his party.”

So Romney wins by failing. Santorum almost wins by rejecting the 21^st century. And Ron Paul wins by promising no war, no effective government and financial policies that would resuscitate The Gilded Age. What the hell is going on here?

BTW—"It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others." -- Wolfgang Pauli