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Some Afterthoughts on US Election
I overheard this discussion as I was approaching my colleague’s office after the election day. These are two educated white southern conservative males living in Atlanta, Georgia, which is one of the strong conservative Republican states. I could not help saying, “no wonder, the rest of the world hates you guys so much.”
Dr. Jaffor Ullah said in one of his articles :
But I have always found Americans more conservative on all issues then the rest of the western world. Unless you are in one of the northeastern states, or in big cities like New York, Chicago or LA it is hard to find progressive minded liberal people so easily. We have seen the difference in reaction between American people and the people in Europe when Bush and Blaire decided to attack Iraq. There was no surprise that most of the US map looked red (where the republican won) during the election. If you take out few states like New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California with the big cities and big urban population, Kerry would not be able to get half of the votes he has got in this election. US media is way more conservative than the Western media; I have seen many liberal Americans depending on European media for more accurate and detail news during any crisis moment. More than 80% Americans are religious though this country has been the hub of scientific innovations for decades. I was also surprised to learn that it was a bad thing to be marked as a 'liberal' in America. It was very hard for me to adjust to the southern conservative culture when I moved to Atlanta, Georgia with my job from the liberal North. Atlanta city is predominantly democrat because of a large population of African Americans living in the urban areas, but the rest of the state is as conservative as it can get. I mentioned in one of the previous write ups how my daughter’s school teacher got deeply offended after I told her I was an atheist. She told me very clearly that she felt uncomfortable about it and she would feel much better if I had some kind of faith! One of the very few gay couples I knew moved to California last month as they were not feeling safe here anymore. Northern Georgia is still very conservative and racist and white Americans do not welcome any other races there. Surprisingly I have found myself more liberal than most of the Americans on different social and political issues. As I finished my undergrad degree and joined the American workforce I again found out that most of the people are conservative, religious and ignorant about the rest of the world. That is also the reason, I think, why it was so easy for Bush to fool these people on Iraq issue, and most of the American supported their president overwhelmingly when the Europeans did not. If history is any guide, this is an expected scenario for a super power nation. The American people are also getting a share of their global corporate oppressive system; as a result they are becoming a part of the aggressive oppression cycle and gradually loosing their progressiveness as common people. They lean towards oppression and socially stagnant structures protecting this system more easily than the rest of the world. This is why the Americans supported their president overwhelmingly on Iraq War, and most of them could not care less when it was revealed that their president misled them and had no valid reason to attack this country and kill thousands of civilians. Bush has received support from the people who are keen to preserve their moral values and traditions. To them, tradition means opposing Women's right to choose, Gay rights, stem cell and scientific research, fights against racism, promoting faith of their choice. The so called anti- Islam activists are supporting Bush in his Islamic terrorism efforts, but Bush is one of the most conservative President of United States who is promoting the faith based Christian right wing agenda. These is the government who think Jamate Islami is a democratic power in countries like Bangladesh. If these people think they have to embrace the fundamentalist Christian right wing agenda to fight Islamic terrorism which is a dangerous proposition; it is leading them to take a reactionary stand against humanity. We really need to re-evaluate their so called 'progressive stand' one more time. May be it is fair to say, They are against Islamic terrorism only and We are against all kinds of terrorism and oppression which is not confined to narrow vision of personal hate. We do not need to support a crime to eliminate the other. I guess, the difference is very clear at this point. I have talked about this issue in this following article before. https://gold.mukto-mona.com/Articles/bonna/response_ali_sina.htm Please do not get me wrong. I have had the opportunity to meet quite a few liberals and progressive minded people here in the United States as well. I was actually lucky enough to find like minded liberal people to hang out with all the time. After the Iraq war one of my liberal American friends told me this was not a war between Iraq and USA only, the way it has been launched, this would not be confined to Islamic Terrorism verses America. This war will be extended to a worldwide war between the liberals and the neo-conservatives. I have thought about this many times; the world is actually shifting towards fundamentalism and conservatism everywhere starting from the USA to the Middle East to South East Asia; And Bush's victory confirmed it one more time.
Bonna Atlanta, USA. Comments
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The value of selling values grew on Election Day