by the way, non-Americans . . .

[jlh]

You know what I'd love to see? I'd love to see a lot more of you all yammering away about your own fucking politics and what you like and don't like about them, and a little bit less about how you think our voting system is stupid, because, not so much with the helping. (I'm mostly exempting our friends from Oz who have been wailing quite loudly about their recent election and I say, go you! Keep wailing! I am so with you!)

But I'd love to know what, internally, in your country is good or bad. I don't remember hearing much about the Hutton commission report. I don't remember hearing any outrage about Rocco Buttiglione possibly being the new EU minister for justice. Haven't heard many opinions about what Arafat dying could mean in the Middle East. As far as I can tell from my flist, the US is the original horrible country and the source of most of the evil in the world, while Europe is a bunch of happy people who all hold hands around the campfire and sing kumbaya every night. Educate me. I feel like we are an open book relative to you. I know what I hear on the BBC, what I read on some news sites, but what do you think?

By the way, this post from anw about actors that have played both gay and action heroes reminds me of a very interesting article recently in Entertainment Weekly about a Denzel Washington project that was scrapped. Know why there aren't more black action heroes? Because while those movies will take in plenty of money in the US, they gross almost nothing overseas, making them financially unviable. We might be horribly insular Jesus freaks, but at least we don't demand that our films have only white people in them.

Comments

Why I don't think you'll hear much about our politics until the election next year.

[wednesdayschild.livejournal.com]

I think that the thing is, in Britain, anyway, there's nothing like the hype about American politics. Our politics, even the backbiting stuff, is all rather tame, comparatively. I'm certainly left-wing, but I can understand right-wingers in British politics in a way that I can't with the American Right. Our issues are not moral issues, in the main - they're economic issues. Tuition fees, pensions, privatisation of public services, fuel tax, tax on fags and booze, income tax in general, social security - these are the issues that get people voting. Which is possibly why our turn out is usually around 20-25%. There's not the clear left/right dichotomy that you have in the US: even for most right-wingers over here, John Kerry seemed a little too far to the right, but he was the man that a very clear majority would have voted for (Bush's popularity over here is incredibly limited, even among the 'Right'). Even the Conservative party (our right-wing party) has apparent plans on for civil unions for gay couples; abortion is a non-issue; and Tony Blair being a Christian is a faint embarrassment for most.

So, really, in the end, our politics is not like your politics: we vote for economic policies, not on 'moral values'. And while I prefer it that way, it does make the politics less interesting. Our most recent 'big issues'? The banning of fox hunting, new gambling laws (tightening regulations, but allowing more American-style casinos), and a possibly ban on smacking. Roughly speaking, I'm in favour of the fox-hunting ban, not in favour of more casinos, and not a fan of the ban on smacking (I was a horrible child, and getting a short, sharp smack when I was willfully disobedient did me the world of good) but if it's banned then I'm not overly bothered.

And this is how most of us feel, in general, about political issues. Barring the war in Iraq, which has/had nothing like the support over here that it did in the US, and in which the general (and bitter) feeling is that we were lied to about WMD (we were, but no-one believed it anyway, and we were never told about any al-qaida links, and were all very confused that Americans seemed to think that there was a link) and in which Blair is Bush's lapdog, there are no issues that really catch the interest of the public, and not just minority groups (fox hunters were rather riled over the fox hunting bill, but that was it).

You might be in luck come the time of the general election next year, but I wouldn't hold your breath. I'll be voting Lib Dem (http://www.libdems.org.uk) or Labour (http://www.labour.org.uk), depending on their respective manifestos, if you're interested.

Re: Why I don't think you'll hear much about our politics until the election next year.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I think that the extent that Americans vote on moral issues gets exaggerated--and I can say, definitely gets exaggerated at the very least by BBC Radio. I would listen to their reports on the election every morning and think, where are you finding these people? Clinton won because people voted about economic issues; Kerry just didn't make the case strong enough this time.

I think that the thing is, in Britain, anyway, there's nothing like the hype about American politics. Our politics, even the backbiting stuff, is all rather tame, comparatively.

The thing is, though, that does this mean you should care more about American politics, about which you can do nothing, just because British politics aren't that interesting? I mean, they affect your daily life, so wouldn't that make them interesting in and of themselves?

I'm wondering, frankly, if this isn't a media thing. American politics are, admittedly, a bit easier to hype up, and there is a sense I think in the journalistic community (rightly or wrongly) that Washington is Where Its At.

I don't happen to agree. Maybe it's the American in me, but all politics is local. That's how the right often gains power, and you have to watch for that stuff, so I'm always vaguely surprised that we get so much coverage in foreign media. When I listen to the BBC, I want to hear about what Blair did, not another person yammering about the stupid McGreevy speech.

Re: Why I don't think you'll hear much about our politics until the election next year.

[wednesdayschild.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think I accidentally mislead you about the hype thing - I didn't mean that in Britain there's more hype about American politics than there is about British politics (because that's not true), but that there's more hype in America about American politics than there is in Britain about British politics.

On the other hand, this election was of huge importance to us in Britain, because of our 'special relationship' and because the outcome would directly affect us regarding the war in Iraq. Because our soldiers are out there too, dying, and because our government supported your government, and that sort of thing. We all knew that unless there was a change of President in your country, our policies in Iraq would not change. So I think that we can be forgiven for getting so very involved and het up about your election.

Also, the US economy affects the rest of the world to a very great extent, too - a recession in the US can spark a global recession, whereas a recession in the UK is unlikely to. If the roles were reversed, I'd hope to see as many Americans talking about British politics as there are Brits talking about yours. While politics is local, and I agree with this, in the recent circumstances you can't expect the citizens of countries directly affected by American politics and policies to sit back and pay it little heed.

How do you listen to BBC news, incidentally? If you're listening to world coverage, then you will hear a lot about news in the US. If you check out the http://news.bbc.co.uk you can, I think, change your local area, and check out UK news. You'll start off on the global map, but you can select different areas.

Oh, you might be interested to hear that the Conservative Party has just announced plans for tax cuts - this was the big news this evening (I managed to catch it because one of David's housemates has a TV; I don't watch any when I'm at uni otherwise).

Re: Why I don't think you'll hear much about our politics until the election next year.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I fully hate all the hype in America about American politics. I think folks got a bit hysterical, and it gets in the way of an actual conversation about actual issues, which is a drag.

I wouldn't begrudge folks getting involved in our election--it was more, I was wondering why there was so often conversation about us and not about things closer to home. Then again, you are the one who started this thread (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jlh/153634.html?thread=798498#t798498) on one of my entries that was all about your domestic politics, so I would say you are far from guilty of that, anyway.

The funny thing is that what affects us most immediately much of the time is what happens in this hemisphere, so there is a great deal of coverage of Latin America in our press. When the Mexican peso went through its crisis some years back it threatened to really crash our market.

The National Public Radio station here in NYC plays the BBC World Service Newshour from 9-10am our time, which is how I hear it. That's most of the way that I find out about the things I do know; though the foreign coverage on NPR is excellent, it's mostly Latin America and then some Europe, whereas the BBC has more Africa and obviously internal European stuff.

Tax cuts are the panacea for everything, aren't they?