As an American, I can only say...
...that thank god, you may finally have revealed to me somewhere I can move to if the GOP wins this election.
Like the Vole, I'm not a Democrat, nor a Republican. I see both parties as being controlled by and beholden to forces I can't trust. While I could say Capitalism Capitalism Ra Ra Ra in middle school, the collapse of several prominent companies and a brief history lesson in laissez faire economics have revealed to me that the corporate sector is a horrifying place, and anybody who studies politics even as a passing interest would have to be dangerously obtuse not to notice the influence that lobbying and monetary alliegances, to say nothing of family money, must have on a politician in an modern, underregulated representative democracy.. What I find shocking is that so many come out idealistic or remotely honest.
Between Clinton's impressive Whitewater case body count (Arkansas is known for its mafia involvement) and Shrub's disturbing combination of religious fascist and frat boy (a combination I have recently been taught to refer to as a "plutocrat"), any possible support for the parties themselves, and with them their appointed officials, hangers on, and agendas has eroded.
I have no trust of my government or the populace behind it.. While my remarkably transparent and honest district congressman is somebody I would trust, I realize he makes up only an incredibly small contingent in a large and powerful government.
Frankly, I'd be willing to lose even the good and wonderful DeFazio in order to see this government replaced, had I any faith in our people to replace it with something other than a dictatorship. While it may not be the place of a foreigner (in that foreigner's opinion) to decide what is and is not best for my democracy, I can tell you that he and I seem to be in agreement about a great deal.
Frankly, if the Democrats win sufficient seats in the House and Senate to bring everything to a deadlock, I'll be a happy camper; if it turns out the DNC get to have their way with the whole country, I imagine we'll see another hideous mess of lobbying scandals and corporate giveaways, though. Our system is broken.
Throw on top of that existing official precedent for the removal of my civil rights, and what you have is a recipe for emigration. This will happen far faster if the GOP maintains a majority, as this will dispense entirely with whatever faith I had in my countrymen, as well as hastening and emboldening a party which has made a habit of spewing hatred for me on a remarkably personal level. (I'm bisexual.)
Yep. If either side has their way with the nation, and things don't improve or become a little more rational? If the parties aren't cowed by a popular reprisal? Then I'm emigrating for Newfoundland, where at least there will be others with the same distrust of opaque government as I.
