Thursday, November 04, 2004
Empire Bush: The Aftermath

It's a bit surreal to watch American politics being covered by foreign news agencies. Everything I see here in Japan, is of course, filtered via Japanese interests. By and large, a rather diverse group of Japanese people are happy with Bush's re-election: the conservative segment, anti-North Korea lobby, and Japanese big business.

Many of my friends now hear the Star Wars theme "Imperial March" playing when they think of another 4 years of a Bush administration, but welcome to democracy - the highest voter turnout since 1968 and the people have spoken. Like it or not, the majority of Americans (notice on this map only the blue dominated states were on the east and west coast) weren't impressed with the idea of Kerry becoming president.

In my cynical view, I sorta expected Bush to be re-elected, mainly because:

1) Fear. It's a powerful emotion, and people are dreading another terrorist attack. Bush and the neo-cons are modern day cowboys (yee-haw) who are viewed as all to willing to use force. But from a purely tactical (and selfish) viewpoint, this is desirable - if your enemy views you as a loose cannon, they're gonna to be that much more afraid of you. I suppose the public views a Bush administration as a sort of dumb, yet powerful colossus that protects America.

Better to nuke them, before they nuke us! Typical American thinking, eh?

2) The stupidity of the "I'm not Bush" strategy. Poor John Kerry got stuck with this idiotic campaign strat by the Democratic Party. The only visible manifestations of who John Kerry was were during the presidential debates, and by then, it was too little, too late. It should have been obvious that in the absence of any knowledge of Kerry's character and specific policies, that people would choose the devil they know (Bush) versus the devil they don't (Kerry).

I wonder if my absentee ballot got "lost" by the government... though in a liberal place like Seattle, I'd be considered now a part of the tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, coffee-drinking, book-reading hippie set.

Too bad my absentee ballot ain't going to Ohio.


.:.


But as davephonic notes in an (optimistic?) apocalyptic blog entry, maybe another 4 years of Republican party domination is just what America needs to wake up to the fact that a lot of things need to change in our country.

Is the revolution coming?

Time to start stocking up on bottled water, rice crackers, and bullets. Read a book, train at the dojo, and visit your local shooting range. Haha.

Recommended battle music: Dead Prez, Rage Against the Machine, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Black Star.



.:.


digitalgravel

I was checking digitalgravel and I noticed a new design group from Hong Kong is now represented... what coincidence.

Some cool new gear:

"Knowledge" t-shirt
Guan Yu t-shirt
"I Have a Dream" t-shirt


.:.


movie-age

I've been watching a lot of the movies I bought in HK - House of Flying Daggers, Infernal Affairs, Twilight Samurai, 2046. Maybe I'll write some thoughts 'bout them later.


.:.


18 more days until I return to Babylon, er, America. Anybody wanna take bets I'm detained by INS for looking suspiciously "Anti-American"?

  |


Comments:
ha ha, my entrys a little hyperbolic... but i really do think Bushs re-election will be a good opportunity for the Left to unify and rally against... and actually realize the ideals the US is supposed to be founded upon.

-fonic
 
i hope the INS doesn't get over-zealous and go 'patriot-act' on yer ass. if they do, call me up and i'll mobilize the militia to ninja-strike seatac. bush has got me all up in arms...
 
Post a Comment

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33

the facts.
name. Gar AKA "that Chinese guy" "Sleepy.McSleeping"
ethnicity/nationality. Chinese/American, 4th gen.
location. Sea-Town, WA, USA Kawanishi, JAPAN
occupation. less-cynical poor grad student
age. younger than you think, older than you know

 



 

[contact]
UnseenGC @ AIM
(myname) @ gmail.com

 

 

[ARCHIVES]
main listing

[memories]
i - ii - iii - iv - v

  This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours? Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com Creative Commons License