A little cottage industry in the US has sprung up recently, selling buttons and bumper stickers bearing the simple logo "1/20/09".
In Ameri-speak this is 20 January 2009, and the date of the next presidential inauguration. Specifically, this date represents the official end of George Dubya's reign. Apparently it's now a mainstream activity in the US to count down to the date when Bush Jr will officially no longer be president.
While I look forward to this as much as anyone, it's sad that there is such a sense of resignation to the idea that nothing can be achieved between now and then. People in the US seem to be marking time until that date, with the feeling is that only after this date the economy and the environment will be back on the agenda, and only then something can be done.
What's going on? The US country is supposedly a democracy, isn't it? Don't the people decide how it should be run? When the universal opinion is that the current administration is no good, why can't it be replaced?
Here in Australia we have something resembling some balance. The elected Government can be sacked by the royally-appointed Governor-General if things get out of hand. I suppose the Congress could impeach Bush, but they'd have to get some intern to give him a blowjob. And none of them seem keen.
Some democracy. And this is the peculiar brand of democracy that the US wishes to foist, by force if necessary, on the rest of the world.
1 comments:
There doesn't seem to really be any easy or quick method of removing a President or administration here...and I pretty sure none has ever been removed (Ack! I minored in history -- I should know this!). Congress can pretty much shut down an administration because congress controls the money. But of course they won't because they are all politicians and that isn't deemed acceptable (plus many also have higher aspirations -- ie, they all wanna be prez). Just kind of life in the big city I guess.
I saw a bumper sticker in a similar vein as the buttons you noted recently I thought was funny:
Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
Sometimes you just gotta laugh.
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