Nobama (The Presidential Election and Racism) - Comments

Oh right, "We're not racists, we just hate black people." Convincing

That's good at least, that they're being monitored in case they act out and decide they want to do something crazy. And it baffles me how they could admit something like that in a poll. You'd at least try to be nice about it, right? Maybe start off with an 'I disagree with a few views held by the majority of people in other cultures' or lie about it, or something. Give people a little bit of hope that humans over there have the capacity to be friendly.

That's stupid but I suppose pride does that; even though they had a perfectly clear and fair way of voting they decided to change it completely because they were independent. It's not copying if it's the best way to do things. That's a lot of faith they're putting in their citizens, right there. Did they expect the government to be all-knowing superhumans who didn't want/need any input from the rest of the millions of people? Did they think they just had enough brainpower to work it out among themselves? They're the ones with the power, it's a bit silly to have the ones running things choosing who should be running things if you ask me. They've got privileges. They'll be bias towards whoever's going to give them the best quality of life, not who's going to do good for the actual people. But I do understand where you're coming from, what with the worrying amount of backwards hillbillies who want to vomit their opinion on everyone who happens to stroll past. Maybe if they just locked them in cages and let the grown-ups deal with how things should be working *g* What's wrong with the Monarchy anyway? We're doing fine with ours. Even though I'm not exactly sure what they do, except for open places and sit on their thrones of money. Sure, they used to battle, but then we realised that it's not good for the person running your country to be put in life-threatening situations. Daily.

They don't know?! Go, go out, go spread the word! You can make a difference, etcetera /big hands. I'm sure people wouldn't be happy if they knew that their votes barely counted for anything. Or you could go the whole wait-it-out route, where you wait until people discover for themselves and then use their anger as a base for taking over the government. Gunpowder-plot-style.

That's right, he's done the best that he could have given the circumstances. Maybe the election is just badly timed, maybe this is all a part of his 8-year plan to make everything sunshine and rainbows again. Don't want Romney coming in and messing that all up now do we?

Haha, what percentage of your country is made up of politicians? Eventually it'll just be the Democrats and the Republicans beating down the government together, and maybe then you can help them see the error of their ways. The Green party and the Libertarians and whoever else will just be sitting in their homes, watching it on TV, and maybe striking back when the government does something out of order (like gas everyone or st). I'm picturing this big rebellion with a happy ending but I know that's never going to happen. It's nice to think about though :-(

I really do feel bad for you if Romney wins. First Hurricane Sandy and now this. :/

@ serendipity cake.
Never underestimate the audacity of the extremist right-wingers in the U.S, those people are capable of anything. Many extremist right-wingers are not ashamed of their racism, they boast about and talk openly about it...... Then go on to say they're not racists. A lot of Southern States have to have supervision from the federal government because of it. For example, whenever Alabama tries to pass a new voting law, they have to get the Feds to okay it because they had such a bad past with racism and they are still known for being highly racist that they need to be watched so they don't pass a racist law. The entire South is known for still being highly racist, they've learned nothing. That's not to say everyone in the South is racist because not everyone is, but a majority of people in that area still are. A majority of Americans still are. In an AP poll recently, they found that 50% of Americans admitted they hold an anti-Black viewpoint. I believe it was 49% that hold an anti-Hispanic viewpoint and the same number hold an anti-Muslim viewpoint. We're still a very racist country. Our laws may not longer allow racial discrimination, but the citizens apparently still hold racist viewpoints. We've learned nothing from the past. Honestly, I think it's great that you guys have been able to move past racism for the most part.... Do you think you could enlighten Americans on how to do that because we apparently can't figure it out. v.v

It would make more sense, but our Electoral College dates back almost to the day we won independence from Britain. It's written in our Constitution which would require a constitutional amendment abolishing it to be passed which is extremely hard to do. Our Founding Fathers instated the Electoral College fearing the U.S would grow corrupt if we were allowed direct democracy with our president, our founders didn't think we could handle it without fucking it up. They were probably right, look at what we've become after all. The Electoral College was put in for many reasons and one of those reasons was the Founding Fathers feared America taking the path of monarchy like Britain once had if we were allowed direct democracy. It worked back then. Today it's an archaic and undemocratic system that needs to go.... The sad part is most Americans don't even know about the Electoral College, a lot do think we use the popular vote. We can abolish something Americans don't even know exist, we can't abolish it until Americans realize it still exists.

A lot of people who criticize Obama for the economy are just hurt he didn't do their impossible dream of fixing our economy in four years. Bush spent eight years fucking us up, it's going to take more than four years to fix eight years of damage. Obama inherited a broken country, he inherited a country on the verge of a second Great Depression and he's done the best he can to pull us away from that possibility. These people who criticize Obama for not completely fixing the economy are hoping for the impossible, no one would have been able to fix us in four years. Obama did good in keeping us afloat and taking us away from the brink of collapse. Our economy may not be too much better than it was in 2008 but it is still better, even if in just the slightest bit. I don't agree with all of Obama's economic policies but he does deserve more credit than what people give him. He saved us from another Great Depression, man deserves some credit for that.

Funnily enough, the government is actually predicting the same thing. A few months ago, the Department of Homeland Security made it known they had ordered around 350 million hollow point bullets in anticipation of mass riots after the next presidential election. The military has also been given riot gear meant to deal with civilians, similar to the gear our police have. Our government is more than prepared to beat us back into submission if we decide to riot. Romney is asking for riots if he does half the things he says he'll do. .v.

I'm actually kind of nervous. Our election is only a week away but Obama and Romney are still neck and neck in the swing State polls. There's no telling who will win it right now.

@ Airi.
Cowboys and Indians is what springs to mind. I was going to say maybe that's why places like Texas are more racist, but that got sorted out a while ago so that really shouldn't be a problem (and as for slavery, we had that in the UK too, and there's barely any racism towards black people nowadays. Just Pakistani's and Indians because they're viewed as 'suicide bombers' and 'illegal immigrants'. Don't ask me, I don't get that part either). It might be that the people in the Mid-US are more vocal with their viewpoints than other places. Otherwise Romney wouldn't be winning by so much - I heard somewhere that about 10 big states in America contain 50% of the population, and they all seem to be near the coast.

I never really understood how you Americans vote. Wouldn't it just make sense to add up everyone's votes from every state and then see who got the most? If that thing about Mitt Romney tying his dog to the top of his car is true then there really should be no question about who's fitter to be president. And before when he said that he fully supported the troops who are fighting in Afghanistan and wanted to keep them there - sure, he's changed his mind now, but it took him a while to get his priorities sorted out. I agree with most of what Obama is doing, myself, but it's easy for me to say that when I don't live there. He could be testing out nuclear missiles on small towns for all I know. I understand that he's gotten the country into a lot of debt, but his 12-point plan makes a lot of sense. Every government dealing with recession at the moment seems to want to make the working class pay more and make the rich richer, which, no, that's completely the wrong way round to be doing things - if they asked the people with the most disposable income to pay back the debt in bits and pieces then at least everyone would still be able to put food on the table.

I predict a lot of riots if that idiot gets elected, either a few months afterwards when everyone's had time to soak up all the crap he wants to do or just after the election. Hold on in there, four more years to go and then maybe you'll get somebody clever enough. If Romney ends up winning then I'm pretty sure all that will be forgotten, haha.

@ serendipity cake.
As much as America compliments itself on being a "melting pot", we still have a long way to go in truly accepting racial diversity. We may have racial diversity in our country but that doesn't mean people are accepting of it. Much of America is very closed-minded and conservative, they're not open to change in a lot of things and we have a hard time moving into the future. The middle States and the Southern States are known for being fairly racist whereas you are right that the coastal States are more accepting. The Mid-Eastern States are fairly accepting as well. Racism is a lot less prevalent on the coasts because the coasts, for whatever reason, are more accepting than the majority of the Mid-U.S and South. There's hope that eventually those States will catch up with the times and become more accepting, but it probably won't be for a while longer.

Well I mostly said that just because I do have a lot of problems with Obama and voting for him would require going against many of the views that I hold... But Romney is still all around worse than Obama could ever be. I have a lot of concerns with Obama but when it comes down to it, he has shown he is the more caring candidate and the smarter one. Romney may be business smart but he's cold and ruthless, not fit for presidency at all. All in all, the U.S election has come down to the lesser of the two evils. We're choosing who we have a better shot of survival with and praying the 2016 election has better candidates. While we have third candidates, the decision is ultimately between Obama and Romney since the Electoral College won't allow a third party even a chance at presidency. How we elect our president is one fucked up and broken system that isn't even democracy. But ah, hopefully people like that won't have too much of an impact on the election. It's really shameful that Obama and Romney are neck and neck in the polls, Obama should be doing so much better than him but Americans are naive.

America is going to owe the entire world a huge apology if we're dumb enough to elect Romney because he is going to destroy more than just the U.S. America is on a path to ruin and Romney would quicken the pace down that path, but we won't be going down alone. We'll take our allies with us because of how powerful we are like you said. Christ we still owe the world an apology for the disaster that was the Bush Administration. v.v

@ Airi.
I had no idea until today. I always thought that it was just the places in the middle, like Texas, mainly because I heard something somewhere about which people immigrated where and why that makes attitudes towards racism different in different parts of America. Supposedly the places along the coast are a lot more accepting.

Stein sounds like a good candidate (85% for me. Yep haha, I took that quiz and looked them all up afterwards). I wish a lot more people would 'swallow their pride' and pick someone who will actually do good for the US. Even if I'm all the way over here, America is a powerful country and what happens there will no doubt end up affecting us. I just. Pfft. :-(

Unfortunately, there are still some Americans who are very racist people even if they will never admit that themselves. Racism is still a big problem in the the U.S and there are a lot of Americans who won't vote for Obama solely because of his race. They'll never care what good he actually does because they'll never get over their blind hatred for the "black man running us", as I've heard so many of them say. Honestly, there are times I wish these people just wouldn't vote. They're fucking up our country with their stupidity. Americans are not the most open-minded people at times.

I'm in the U.S and I'm either going to vote for Jill Stein or Obama. I like Stein a whole lot more than Obama (I'd take Gary Johnson over him too) but voting for a third party candidate is a wasted vote, the only two who matter are the corporate candidates (Democrats and Republicans). So I haven't decidd if I'll "waste" my vote and go with a third party candidate or swallow my pride and take part in the two party sham and vote for Obama because I will never vote for Romney no matter what. I'm leaning more towards voting for Stein though. I took that "I Side With" quiz as well (assuming it's the one you took) and it said I agreed like 92% with Jill Stein. c: I got I think an 88% with Gary Johnson and a 75% with Obama.