Yeah, the quality of the debate is pretty poor. Kerry is running on the fact that he served in Vietnam and isn't GWB. Bush doesn't seem to be running on any agenda other than hold the course. Hopefully during the convention and afterwards he will campaign on some issues like he did for his first term. We will see.

I remember when there used to be debates over things like the appropriate role and size of government, but I date myself.

So Andrew, why not send your views to the newspaper. It might get printed.

We have our own general election soon but the Prime Minister has yet to announce a date. He's probably waiting for the Olympics to be over and then will set a date for late September/early October.

Interestingly, the opposition party have pledged to pull Aussie troops out of Iraq if they get in. So Colin Powel and George Bush have been telling Australia to vote for John Howard. We've even had the American ambassador sitting on the government side of the parliment during debates with the ambassador's secratery wearing a stars and stripes scarf.

It will be interesting to see if American meddling in Australian politics will have a backlash.

Tell me, in America, does anyone have a platform for compulsory voting? We have compulsory here and it makes you think a bit before you cast your vote.

Because I dont get to vote in a US election, on top of which I live in a country that is almost a benign dictatorship when you look at the options.

No one has a great deal of time for our current leader but no one would dare vote for the alternatives.

Yeah I find all the crap about their backgrounds worrying. No one seems to give a shit about real policy direction of either party. Unfortunately if the US crashes financially it filters out into the real world and affects us all.

US Spending, the debt and the economy (not being funny and I know that we are just coming to the end of the olympics in Athens which is hardly an economic powerhouse, but China and Beijing is a different story, and how pissed will the mid-west be when their jobs start be shipped off shore..........whats being done about this?)

National / International Defense (we made our bed in the middle east, how are we going to sort it out?) Related to the above, HOW THE FUCK are we going to pay for it, an aging population, you can bet your ass the baby boomers are not going to want to and birth rates are declining, I can just see the under 30's wanting to support and increased tax burden over the next 20-30 years.

Foreign Policy (that encompasses such broad ranging issues such as trade and tarrifs on steel, orange juice and Harleys (protectionism in PA, FL and WI), international foreign policy and relations with the G8)

Meanwhile back in the bat cave a new colossus, called China, will have been getting its shit together and one day someone will wake up and realise they are knee deep in debt and all the jobs headed east..........

Good post!

These are complex, long-range issues but unfortunately we won't find much if any info. coming from either side and you'll never find it on the radio, TV or in most of the tilted books stacking the "Politics" section at Barnes & Noble. You really gotta dig for this stuff and it's difficult to form an opinion.

Example:

I see how outsourcing (trite word) is actually very good for the world in many ways (if 20 percent of India or China becomes truly "middle class," there's a huge new market for our Harleys and oranges) and hurtful to the U.S. economy and the world in others (if 20 percent of India or China becomes middle class, that means fewer high skill jobs here and an even bigger drain on the world's natural resources).

And NO ONE is touching the subject of our enormous national debt OR the money we owe other countries. If I'm not mistaken, our country owes more to other countries (perhaps $trillions?) than any other country, by far, and our attempts to pay it back are getting weaker and weaker? -TB

I remember when there used to be debates over things like the appropriate role and size of government, but I date myself.

Heck, I remember when Republicans and Democrats professed to disagree over the size of government. It's hard to have a serious debate about the issues- any of them- when there isn't any fundamental disagreement.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Well said, I agree 100%. Hopefully a dynamic leader with vision will emerge from one of the parties and positively address our domestic and foreign issues.

>Tell me, in America, does anyone have a platform for compulsory voting? We have compulsory here and it makes you think a bit before you cast your vote.

No we don't, but we should. They make you take a test to drive a car but don't give a rats ass if you participate in an election. Unfortunately, some politians like it this way because it's easier to target a group with a "get out and vote" campaign.

This is actually a really interesting subject, Niall Fergusson (I cant spell or be bothered to look up how to spell this with one or 2 G's) who wrote Collusus (cant spell that either right now) has some very interesting views on the future of the US.

I lived there for nearly a decade and have to say I would move back BUT I think the world is a changing and no one is less aware of that than the US.

I dont mean that people are unaware of it but if you watch the media, you'd be lead to believe that the biggest crisis facing the US is dissent between George and Cheney over gay marriage, the entire country is divided over abortion and whether Kerry did or did not vacation in Cambodia whilst blowing or not blowing someone or himself up with some form of armament.

If you read Cousin Elwood or, is it?, Ajfrankes posts here you'd think that this swift boat issue was the turning point of 21st century politics.

I've not seen an intelligent post, or for that matter any post at all discussing how the US proposes to pay its current debt (ball park $7 trillion in June 04) and how the right can reconcile this with tax cuts, I know the spiel, create spending ergo they create jobs. Or how the left believes that not giving the tax cuts will reduce the debt whilst keeping jobs.

America's biggest, or one of the biggest, creditors is China, the country to which the jobs are being exported. How ironic is that? China is funding the US's national spending and taking the jobs at the same time. So in the end you will end up with out the jobs, which went to China and having to pay China back the loans that paid for the increased spending.

The government is increasing spending on a variety of issues, primarily defense. (About the only thing that should make the right happy about this is that if the left get in there will be no money for a health care program)

The national debt is rising, $7 trillion, there is no question, none at all it has gone up directly as a result of the increased spending on defense. Period.

Not just manufacturing jobs, but service sector jobs are being sent off shore. In an industry where your single biggest cost is labour, such as a call center (the hardware is secondary and there are no raw materials to speak of, you are paying for voices only) it is patently cheaper to send the jobs to educated developing countries such as India and China where the costs are dramatically cheaper.

Anyone that thinks the major research, or R&D programs will have to stay in the developed world are kidding themselves. Look at Astra Zeneca with a new state of the art facility in India. You can see the board sitting round mulling that one over:

Board Member "well we can build a $10m facility in upstate NY, pay leading scientists plus tons of PhD's to assist at $40-100k a pop or we can open in India, bring in the same experts and slash the support staff cost by 50-80%"

I think that the way the election is being fought is ridiculous, even more so given the posts and what appears to be important to the electorate on this board.

I'd not give a rats ass about abortion, gay marriage, what Kerry did or did not do or to whom, I'd not even give a shit if Bush was a coward or lied about going to war. That is all in the past, yes character plays a part in this, but the focus should be on where the countries going, developing jobs, reducing the debt and taxes (that is now a mutually exclusive exercise although it need'nt have been).

You can just see the "moral majority" on both sides in 10 years going......

On the right "well I know the economy sucks but at least we overturned Roe v's Wade"

and

On the left "I know that we have 20% unemployement but I told you at the time there were no WMD's in Iraq, we were right"

Regardless of that though, whomever gets in is F**ked. The economy is not going to improve, the debt wont be reduced and whoever does win will be screwed in four years...............

Man Vitus, you sound like you are almost as old as I am. It will be just our secret.

Tell me, in America, does anyone have a platform for compulsory voting? We have compulsory here and it makes you think a bit before you cast your vote.

No, and I'm not sure I want voting to be compulsory here, either. Why do you say it makes you think before casting your vote? I'm glad it works that way where you're from, but I fear that here, we'd just have more thoughtless idiots voting.

I do support the idea of a rigorous civics test before allowing someone to vote.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

"Niall Fergusson (I cant spell or be bothered to look up how to spell this with one or 2 G's) who wrote Collusus (cant spell that either right now) has some very interesting views on the future of the US."

Very interesting speaker and historian. Much younger than I would have expected, and with some really interesting ideas. I saw him speak and was very impressed.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

What happened to make you move ? Didn't you have your green card? Did you go back ot the UK or somewhere else?

Is Colussus (I confess, I looked it up) worth reading?

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http://pavlov.psyc.queensu.ca/~psyc382/rockgold.html
(Norman Rockwell's "Do Unto Others")

"Is Colussus (I confess, I looked it up) worth reading? "

I think so. Ferguson has some interesting ideas regarding America as an Empire and our place in the international community.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I'll admit it - you're about the first American I'm aware of (here) who has voluntarily submitted to putting "America" and "Empire" in the same sentence without any connotation of rebuttal. I obviously need to read more...

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http://pavlov.psyc.queensu.ca/~psyc382/rockgold.html
(Norman Rockwell's "Do Unto Others")

Yes it is unquestionably worth reading, even better if you can see the guy speak.

He is a very young professor, currently at Columbia in NY and his views are hugely controversial, but if you are open minded he has some valid points.

I had a GC, Have a GC, will be back this Thursday in fact, am currently in grad school, looking for another internship.

Interestingly enough, a lot of Ferguson's argument is that admitting we are an empire would free up the U.S. to take action in a lot more arenas without feeling guilty or having to be as political about it. A lot to think about.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)