On a wintry London afternoon, I meet a philosopher friend walking along the same path. "America is becoming irreparably divided," he says. "It reminds me of Nazi Germany: the wish for a strong leader."Emphasis added.
I argue gently. It's true that, on a recent US visit, I came across an 11-month-old girl with the given name "Sieg Heil"; I think her parents were survivalists. But at the same time, several thousand miles away, Vladimir Putin announced that all Russian provincial governors would no longer be elected, but appointed by him. Here's a vozhd (Stalin's title as leader) in the making.
With its federal system, the US has at least worked out how best to run an enormous country. In Seattle, where I stayed, you're as far from the centre of power as Vladivostok is from Moscow. Solidly Democrat, its citizens felt dispossessed after Bush's re-election. But, as counter-poise, they could elect their own governor and legislature. Bush isn't Hitler.
Isn't it better, though, to think about the country we can do something about: our own? Since the British empire collapsed, the left has been misled into believing that somehow we can change the world morally: a new, ethical imperium (a very different thing from the public's heartfelt response to the tsunami). But morality begins at home.
Hey wankers, we're not Nazi Germany...we are freedom loving, liberty defenders. I continue to be shocked and appalled by the people who seem to think Nazis are in charge here in America. Have you not read history?
At least one person gets it...from here, the piece goes on to describe the situation in Britain.
