Dear Dirty America

The view from Scotland…. 

I write this a week or so after the second Presidential debate. I only watched a few clips on the television news of the first debate, but what most struck me was the aging of President Obama. He looked tired and disinterested in trying to counter Mitt Romney’s hackneyed arguments. This should have been easy for Obama, but he labored to make inroads. 

This wasn’t the dynamic thrusting confident man of four years ago. This was a pale imitation. Mr Romney isn’t a devastating debater, but Obama made him look good. This shows how much the stress of being President and the almost nonstop campaigning for the next election. How can anyone give one hundred percent to one of the hardest jobs in the world and campaign at the same time? It’s just not possible. 

The second debate was much better for the incumbent, with him hitting Romney with several telling blows. This raised the spirits of the Obama supporters hoping for a knockout punch. But punch, there was none! 

My objection to political debates is strong. What we see are, in America’s case, two men, each trying to out-lie the other. Blurring the truth with a welter of statistics, hoping the viewer doesn’t notice the paucity of substance and truth in the argument! 

In Scotland, we will almost certainly have independence by 2015! But we have to have the next two years filled with debate and argument, which will not be watched with any interest by the great majority of people. 

We do, however, have several political parties to debate each other. Which in some cases may well be entertaining. But only in small doses! The more I think about the next two years, the less enthusiasm I have for the process. The endless bollocks being spouted about…how good/bad independence will be for Scotland. 

I look at past American Presidents and despair at the current crop of future possible candidates. It’s mind boggling in its mediocrity! There used to be real substance behind the men who wished to assume the mantle of the most powerful man in the world. Not now! The only criteria they need are the ability to lie with sincerity and hundreds of millions of dollars behind them. They are basically a walking mouthpiece for whoever pays the most to their campaign.

 

This is surely wrong, but we, the populous, have no say! In Scotland it’s much the same, with super rich individuals donating large sums of money to get decisions in their favor. 

Of course this has gone on for a long time, but when found out, people were appalled at the corruption. Nowadays, if something comes out, people just accept it as part of modern life! The more money a person has means the more influence they have. Now justice is only open to the wealthy in most cases, but that’s a subject for another day! 

Back in the land of the free, I notice that freedom is as elusive as it’s becoming in Britain. Heavy handed policing and overweening state. President Obama came to power on a change ticket! In essence nothing has changed. Or if it has, it’s not for the better. He and his change reforms have been thwarted at every turn. Just as I predicted four years ago! Far too much hysteria and no sense ofreality were used by commentators on both sides of the Atlantic. He is only a man.

 

Sadly, Mitt Romney is such a busted flush, he can’t even excite the Fox News lunatics! A man without a vestige of personality and a smile of such insincerity, he could be an insurance salesman! 

Here in Scotland, we have Alex Salmond, a snake oil salesman of such talent; he is being described as the greatest politician in Britain for a generation! How slimy do you have to be to get that accolade? 

He is the leader of the SNP (Scottish National Party). They’ve managed to get an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament at the last election. There is really very little effective opposition here now. The Tories are a tiny yapping minority. Labour has taken votes and electoral corruption for granted for decades. The Liberal Democrats are all woolly sweaters and open-toed sandals. The Green Party is mostly do-gooding tree huggers. 

So Mr Salmond has most of it all his own way. Will he be the first President of an independent Scotland? Time will tell, but it’s certainly possible. I would flee the country, but almost everywhere is the same now. 

It’s a corporate world! Last one out the door, switch out the lights!

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