u.s. elections

[joanna bujes]

At 03:55 PM 08/07/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>I agree that the US electoral system is seriously fucked.  But I also think
>that the popular expectations of an ideal politician as a saviour on a
>white horse is crap.  What really matters is not personality or even how
>the politicians are picked, but whether there is an effective system for
>various public interest to keep them in check.  In the US, that system is
>rather weak when compared to the parliamentary systems and coalition
>governments in Europe - but another problem is that most of the US public
>is either not interested in politics at all or is interested in it in a
>very superficial and ritualistic way.

This has always surprised me: the fact that political discussion is not 
something you do in polite company in this country. An American friend 
explains it this way: American have such a slender sense of self that an 
attack/criticism/discussion of one's political views is taken as an attack 
on the self.

This makes some sense to me. Add to that the religion of 
individualism...which has nothing to say about individuals working together 
in any kind of collective. Add to that a high level of historical illiteracy.

Joanna