Posted on 08/10/2004 8:04:10 PM PDT by kddid
Adopt an American voter today! WORLDWATCH
By Kaius Niemi in Helsinki
It is a complete and utter waste of time to go arguing the toss over whether the citizens of the United States are more indifferent to world affairs than, say, the peoples of Europe, Asia, or Africa. What is of significance is that the Americans should in any event be considerably more conscious of what is going on around them. A vote given in the world’s only remaining superpower determines, for instance, whether there will be war in Iraq or not.
In November, the United States will be holding presidential elections. I would like to take part in the voting process. Preferably in a battleground state such as Florida, where by all accounts the victor in the overall race will be decided. Instead I have to sit at home in Finland and bite my nails over whether Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Minister of Finance Antti Kalliomäki get elected to the local council in Nurmijärvi. Or over when President Tarja Halonen is going to reveal all about her possible intentions to run for a second six-year term in office. Don’t get me wrong, this is not about frustration with Finnish domestic politics. My friends from Kyrgyzstan to Sweden would all very much like to be casting their votes in the U.S. presidential election - if only they could. And for choice, they’d like to be doing it in Florida, of course.
The world right now is in such a confused and messy state that the November presidential run-off is the entire world’s presidential election. The terrorists managed to lure the current U.S. leadership onto the warpath and provided them with a pretext for acting in a high-handed and arrogant fashion. This has its own knock-on effects here in Finland, too, and hence I demand enfranchisement in the upcoming vote. I’m fed to the back teeth with the do-as-we-say approach employed by the present occupants of the White House in their dealings with the European Union. I’m sick and tired of following how Washington has built an "American chain" to the eastern borders of our Union. And I’ve had it up to here with listening to the hurt, childish spats between the French and the Americans. I want to vote into the White House a bunch of people who would respect human rights, and who would not unilaterally opt out of international agreements.
It would also be not unreasonable to demand that the United States President for whom I cast my vote would not attack anywhere on trumped-up grounds. Or that he would not create a failed state through occupation, in which beheaders who call themselves devout Muslims can now freely go about their grisly business. Or that he would not give Russia free rein to operate as it likes in Chechnya, as long as the Kremlin keeps schtum about the military operations in Iraq.
It would be important for foreigners that the global leader would have global responsibility and the capacity for dialogue with others. However, in the United States the bulk of the registered voters cast their ballots over whether there are reductions in personal taxation in prospect. In other words, they act in much the same way as voters everywhere else in the world. A very substantial number of American voters will not register at all, but will snooze through the election - and unfortunately this, too, is by no means an unusual spectacle on the international front. Perhaps us unfranchised outsiders could try to adopt those sleeping Americans as godchildren and ask them to vote on our behalf. In the Sunshine State, you bet.
Too bad. We choose those who'll represent us. It's our country.
......should butt out of our affairs.
Yep, when our country is bigger than Western Europe. When our country benefits from a single language. When our country has states bigger than the largest countries in Europe...
Keeping track of our domestic issues is quite a bit of work for an American citizen. Do Europeans expect us to pay attention to their squabbling as well?
How crass!
And if you idiots think that Kerry would sign Kyoto, Weapons Ban, Land Mines or any other treaty, you simply don't know anything about America.
Sounds to me like you've managed to work your way to the smart end of a vodka bottle.
Here Here. It is more evident everyday that the elitist lib DNC will lie, cheat and kill to fill every voter box with Kerry ballots. THey did it in the last election and blamed it on the GOP. They will do it again come hell or high water and wse have to watch everything they say and do. They will deny the vets their votes again, just like they did in the last election. We have to be ready to stop them.
I point at your candy-ass and laugh.
Let me translate that into AMERICAN english for ya:
"I want to vote into the White House a bunch of people who would let another 300,000 to 1 million Iraqis be murdered; I want people in the White House who would kiss our reindeerskin covered butts to get our permission to fart. I want people in the White House who can keep a straight face when we demand that Americans cease their uselss prosperity OR ELSE because American success is causing an intensification in solar activity which might mean poor Finland will have an oppressive imperialistic mediteranean climate!"
Apparently "video child" Kaius didn't get the memo that the UN was taking payola in order to keep the US from attacking Saddam. As long as the money was being stolen from the mouths of Iraqi babes and funneled into the coffers of Kofi & pals, there weren't going to be ANY grounds for dealing with Saddam, "trumped-up" or otherwise.
Methinks that the international "observers" in the US elections will stand guard to monitor those who are monitoring the elections using camcorders and other "intimidating" devices to make sure that the same voters are not returning to the polls several times on election day (or being paid by their bus/van drivers).
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