There has been a hell of a furore in the blogosphere concerning an initiative launched by The Guardian newspaper titled Operation Clark County. The Guardian has identified Clark County in Ohio as being a crucial battleground in the upcoming US presidential election as it almost evenly split between the two candidates. The newspaper is encouraging its readers to write a letter to a registered voter in Clark County in order to influence their vote.
They never say that letterwriters should endorse Senator Kerry for President but as a left-wing newspaper it is probably true that the majority of readers will be in favour of Kerry winning the election. As you would expect the right-wing blogs are aghast at the thought of the election being swung away from their candidate and that foreigners are seeking to have an influence in US politics.
It strikes me as ironic that this should happen considering that since the end of World War II that the US government has itself exerted their own influence over foreign elections even going so far as to support coups and the overthrow of democratically elected governments.
I was initially tempted by the idea of writing to an American voter but I wonder if I could truly have any influence over their choice of candidate. How would I react to receiving a letter from overseas urging me to vote one way or another? With my contrary nature I would probably vote in a different direction to the way in which I was being urged to, unless I was very much in favour of a particular candidate such that I was unlikely to be swayed any way.
What strikes me as odd is the split between the US and the rest of the world over their preference in this election, this is the first time that I’m aware of that this has been the case. Typically you would find a fairly even split down the middle with left-wing individuals preferring the Democrat candidate and the right-wing the Republican. But even in countries where they have a right-wing government such as Italy or Australia where you could assume that the majority of individuals would favour the Republican candidate the majority of the population don’t.
Are Americans that different to people from other countries and yet how can they be as they are virtually all descended from immigrants. But the again when you have a court judgement that asserts that FOX News has a constitutional right under the First Amendment to present lies as news how can you expect people to make an informed decision about their choice of president.
Tags: politics
