Posted on 11/05/2004 3:41:39 PM PST by red_is_beautiful
I am sickened. I want the cavalry to come in and take these pretenders away. Or better, I want the extras in this bad film to burn down the stage.
But, this is no B-movie. George W. Bush is back in office and that means for the next four years I cannot go home. For good and for bad, I will remain an ex-patriot in Germany. My reasoning is simple: If there is enough support for someone like Bush to get re-elected, I simply do not belong in America. I don't even fit into my notoriously flip-floppy home state of California, where stem cell research can get affirmed, but the Terminator governs. After four (Bush) years in Germany, my perspective has shifted so much that my home has become foreign to me.
In my adopted new land, gay marriage is legal, the Green Party is a major power player and debates swirl about less, not more, religion in schools. Post-World War II Germany is also famously pacifist -- it provides for the world's developing countries, rather than going to war with them.
Of course, I am not fully content in Germany. For me, this will always be a haunted land where too often secrets get concealed rather than aired and where helping others does not come instinctively. It's a place where people's idiosyncracies and obession with order puzzle and frustrate me. But it's also a country so doggedly opposed to nationalism that it's easier to find more American than German flags waving.
It's a disquieting realization that for now I fit in better here than there. Home used to be the magnetic north from which I plotted my wanderings. Now, the center of my cycles is gone. America is no longer what it was. The champion of the underdog has morphed into the world's bully.
In this election, I can't even blame the antiquated electoral system or claim Bush stole his victory. This time he made history -- getting more votes than any president ever and becoming the only son of an American president ever to win a second term.
The biggest problem I have with America isn't Bush, per se. It's that people no longer seem to care what their leaders tell them -- or how many untruths they are fed. Bush is not being punished for leading the country into a war that was not necessary. No one has been sacked for exaggerating the threat of weapons of mass destruction. A few low-level soldiers have been sent to prison for their atrocious behaviour in Abu Ghraib, but not a single one of Bush's deputies has paid a price for the administration's utter failure to ensure the security and stablity of post-war Iraq.
Americans also seem to have a deliberate ignorance of what their leaders do. Bush has shown utter disrespect for Europe and NATO and has chosen to swagger rather than waltz across a world stage. Domestically, he's managed to transform a budget surplus into a monstrous deficit. More than a thousand young soldiers are now dead because of his poorly planned invasion, and more are being sent to a win a highly un-winnable war. It seems the only thing Americans want to do these days is to be afraid. They slurp up fear like mother's milk and cling to religion and superstition for shelter. They want to hear that Osama bin Laden is lurking in the bushes ready to pounce, that Iran is the next Iraq and that gay marriage is sinful. The "they" I am talking about are not strangers. Some are my friends and family. I remember sitting in the Los Angeles backyard of one relative in March 2003 and hearing him insist Saddam was a "bad guy" who had to be taken out. "My son is in danger," he told me, pointing to his toddler playing in the grass. "These guys could strike at any time."
Then he showed me his garage, which would easily earn him a blue ribbon from Tom Ridge: In it, he had -- and still maintains -- plastic sheeting and duct tape, enough food and water for a week, three high-powered flashlights and a portable radio. The Bush administration -- and the US media -- fatten such fear like Thanksgiving turkey. Nothing like it exists in Europe, which has also had its share of terrorist bombings and kidnappings.
Wednesday night I watched the Bush team take the stage and my heart stopped. These men -- these fear-mongers who will lead the world for the next four years -- are as banal as doorknobs. And they rule the world like a comic strip. Bush the swaggering Bandito, Laura the timid Librarian who is also a Good Christian wife and Sinister, Archly Secretive Dick. The government they advocate is a fantasyland of the Puritan past, where fear and salvation feed off each other and where church and state blur beyond distinction. We will certainly see more religion in Bush II. After all, it is the Christian fundamentalists and the fight for American "values" that put the Bushes back in office. And now that he doesn't have to worry about re-election, whatever fire and brimstone he held back the last time will come out like a bucking bronco. Does that mean abortion will be overturned? I hope not. The mere fact that it is being discussed is chilling. There is, of course, the off chance Bush could prove to be like Ronald Reagan and be a healer in his second term. I doubt it. Even if he does reach out, the world will be suspicious. His gestures might be soft and loose as hair, but they will be shaped like a weapon. It's unavoidable. Iraq is Bush's mess to clean up. How he will do it remains a mystery.
In the end, this election has done one thing to unite me with my countrymen. Like them, I, too am now deadly afraid. As long as that fear exists, I will make Europe my home.
This guy made the right choice to stay in Germany - the progressive land that embraced Hitler in the 30s and Marx in the 70s!
Well, at least he's not bitter.
Welcome to Free Republic.
Well, my Amerikannercumeuroweener friend, you can just eat the nuts right outta my poop. Aufweidersiene!
Not disquieting for me. Stay there, America is better off without you.
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If somebody is a Freeper with Homeland Security....go ahead, have a little fun....add his name to the terrorist watch list....
Snicker.....remember, he really doen't want to come back anyway....
NeverGore :^)
The semi-literate states; "In the end, this election has done one thing to unite me with my countrymen. Like them, I, too am now deadly afraid. As long as that fear exists, I will make Europe my home."
Such a courageous young man - what a warrior - I would place the safety of my nation and countrymen in his strong hands (NOT). "When good men do nothing" should be "When nothing men do nothing".
the propaganda works! I heard that germany has a problem with pharmaceuticals in their water, especially: downer, which are broadly used but not eliminated in the sewage plant (no gag/sarc).
Soory Maam but we are the Cav.
Well i hope the ahole can find a job while in Germany.
That's because helping others is the government's job in Germany. Individuals have no responsibility. You see, collectivism... oh, never mind. You don't have the mental disk space.
For a moment- let's set aside the obvious arrogant tone of this writer, and just look at how distorted his view is of the facts. "They" don't understand who we are. The Republican Party is NOT ignoring the mistakes in judgement made by our president, many of us are distressed by the size of the deficit and spending, issues about border control and so on.
What's baffling to me is how they willfully do NOT HEAR the message of this man- nor attempt to see his vision. Remember when the liberals claimed human rights, freedom and liberty for the oppressed was their dream?
I'm beginning to wonder if they realize that NONE of those things we so cherish and treasure come easily? Looking at our own history, the Civil War, women's voting rights, civil rights to name a few- were all gains paid for dearly in sacrifice of lives.
It disturbs me to see these people think we are full of blood lust and can hardly wait to find the next war to send our soldiers to. It leaves me with the conclusion that they STILL don't GET IT- 9/11 did NOT change them.
We truly do inhabit a different world.
I think she means expatriate.
I doubt she was ever a patriot.
Wunderbar!!!! Fantastisch!!!
It's a she! I thought it was a girlie man!
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