I wrote before the 2004 election (Bahasa), how the Bush win would bring together a unilateral approach and an incompetent administration resulting in policies that divorce themselves from reality-based world. (The article was written before the election, so it also has a lot of stuff on Kerry and Democrats. The relevant stuff is in sections 3.1 and 5.1.)
The current administration of the US seems to manage to always take the least popular position in every important issue matters to the rest of the world. No wonder, the world has managed to get by without the US.
Michael Lind wrote in the Financial Times how the US became the world’s most dispensable nation,
In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical zeal, George W. Bush declared: “Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world.” The peoples of the world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world order is indeed emerging – but its architecture is being drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which Americans have not been invited.
ariapn US
Right off the bat I have to say that I’m slightly leaning towards Democrats politically and economically, but not socially. I liked good speeches, so I rather enjoyed the presentations last night. I’ve been watching conventions since 1992. And of course the main constant speaker for the Democratic Convention since then is Bill Clinton. I have difficulty liking him personally, but I have to admit he’s a great public speaker.
Not only can he give a commanding rhetoric performance, but he also displayed extensive knowledge about his topics. Obviously he did his homeworks on those subjects before his speech. Still, he can make boring policy speeches so compelling without ignoring the substance. He did all that policy comparisons and propping Kerry in under 30 minutes with several ovations. No wonder people say he can be elected to a third term if that’s possible.
What I liked most about his speech last night is he has the confidence to be self deprecating. He used the fact that he didn’t go to Vietnam and coupled that with Bush and Cheney not going to highlight John Kerry’s career. It was very effective. I do think more people, especially in the leadership role should be more self-deprecating, be secure about who you are and your weaknesses. Knowing your weaknesses is one of your strength.
ariapn Politics, US
GWB showed (again and again) that the best thing that could ever happened to you is people having low expectations of you. It might be degrading at times at first. But then, if you do something right (just right, not spectacular), people are easily impressed. And people are just as forgiving for your mistakes.
In this election, two (relatively) small parties gained a large (again relatively) increase of votes prompting a lot of press coverages. I think this is a bit unfair, because people now expect more of them, while the parties that have more votes actually can govern with low expectations.
Of course expectation is built out of reputation. But reputation alone is not enough (maybe even worthless) in doing the actual job. You have to have necessary number of seats to make a difference in parliament for example.
I’m actually worried with people making a big deal out of the relatively large increase, when the actual number is still rather small, instead of focusing on 40 or more percent of votes still in the hand of the two major parties. I don’t know if this is done in purpose to build different levels of expectations which will lead to different perceptions of accountability.
ariapn Politics, US