As a British subject* (yes technically over here we are ‘subjects’ not citizens) my nation has rightly not had any influence on the US democratic process or the presidency since at least 1814 when British Empire troops burned down the White House.**
That said however, the outcome of an American election doesn’t only affect the citizens of the United States but has a profound impact on the whole world and especially the free and democratic parts of it.
How an American votes for example in Lincoln, Montana or in London, Minnesota has an influence that can be either negative or positive on the Lincoln and London here in the United Kingdom.
Because the United States is a great and inspiring nation I take an interest in its politics, but have grown increasingly perturbed by the words and actions of the current holder of the office of President of the United States of America, President Barack Obama.
President Obama, although a fine orator, seems to be following similar domestic and foreign policy paths to those which are causing problems in countries on our side of the Atlantic Ocean. Several things give me cause for concern and I shall attempt to list them.
Firstly, President Obama appears to be centralising power in the hands of the Federal Government especially with the Obamacare legislation, and as someone who has had experience of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom I would advise that this is not a route that should be travelled by any nation. Obamacare may end up with healthcare becoming a state provided virtual monopoly as it is in the UK and as with the NHS, the American taxpayer like the British taxpayer would get a universal healthcare system that was universally mediocre.
Giving the state too much power in healthcare or anything else, never ends well. It didn’t work in Soviet Russia or its satellites and it doesn’t work anywhere else no matter how much you try to adapt it or how flashy your public relations machine.
Secondly, although I do not support the shrill and sometimes seemingly unbalanced voices who call President Obama a ‘Muslim’, the current President does seem to be far too close to both the Islamic world and too receptive to the perpetual self inflicted victim-hood mindset of world Islamic opinion.
The way the Obama administration has reacted over the riots in the Islamic world and the murder of American diplomatic staff has, in my opinion, been shameful.
Those of us who live in countries where there isn’t a written constitutional guarantee of free speech (in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland there isn’t even a written constitution) look upon the arrest of the alleged maker of the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ with horror. Carting people off for what they say or write is the sort of thing that used to happen in East Germany, but for this to happen in the USA is astonishing to me and many others across the Atlantic.
This subservience to Islamic feelings and kowtowing to their threats, from the holder of an office which is not just President of one nation, America, but is looked upon as leader for the whole of the democratic world, is to be quite frank disturbing and disgusting.
America grew to greatness not because of governmental five year plans or
top-to -bottom planning, but through its citizens individually and in voluntary association exercising freedom tempered with morality to produce in the USA a nation that is the world’s prime example of how a nation can grow through freedom. America is great because its citizens accept and defend the values of free speech, freedom of religion, free association and free enterprise.
I consider that the free and democratic world today teeters on a knife edge. When each American votes at the polling booth in the Presidential election she or he will be deciding not only who should govern the United States but who is best fitted to defend freedom where it exists from the ongoing assault of barbarism.
Rightly as I have said, as a British subject, I have no say in the outcome of your democratic processes but I would like to make a heartfelt appeal. Think carefully about who you want to see in the White House.
Mitt Romney doesn’t inspire many Americans to jump up and support him. I can see that even from this vantage point. Mr Romney may make a few gaffes here and there (I’d be suspicious of the politician that didn’t though) so what, don’t we all make errors from time to time? Mr Romney may not be perfect, he may not inspire, he may not even seem much like the great leader that America and the free world needs at this time.
However, Mr Romney is better than the alternative. Mr Romney is not steeped in the failed ideas of the political Left like President Obama. Mr Romney doesn’t look to the bankrupt welfare states of the European Union for inspiration, unlike President Obama and Mr Romney doesn’t appear to have any desire to bow down to a frothing group of bearded savages, unlike President Obama.
President Obama is a statist, it is self evident even to me that his administration wants more control over the citizen, rather than letting the citizen be more free. That is a bad path to go down, as people eventually lose the ability to question things and make their own decisions. This is because with statism the State is always the first and often only port of call for help, advice, work, food and every necessity and luxury in life. As President Gerald Ford said in 1974 “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. “
President Obama is good with words but when I see how he is doing in his job at home, I shake my head, but more worrying for us over here is when we see how he is handling the international challenges. It feels frightening to see your president be so outmanoeuvred by barbarians. Seeing your current, and I’m quite sad to say weak, president in action, makes this particular European feel quite anxious for the future.
Mr Romney is a Mormon and I know that gives some American voters cause to question Mr Romney’s suitability for office, but I will say this, who do you want as your next president, do you want the Mormon or Barack Obama, a man who far too often is referred to as a moron? It’s your call.
Links
President Gerald Ford’s speech to Congress 1974
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4694
1814 Attack on Washington
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/washingtonsack.htm
*Although in the UK we are all technically subjects of HM Queen and all criminal prosecutions for example are made ‘in the name of the Crown’ rather than ‘the People or State versus….’ format as in the USA, the term ‘British subject’ has changed its legal meaning since 1981. It now refers to a particular group of people with a connection to the UK. Prior to this it referred to anyone born within the jurisdiction which the British monarch ruled or reigned over.
** Sorry about that, won’t do it again, promise.
“1814 when British Empire troops burned down the White House.”
The last time anybody went to Washington with honest intent.
Yeah that’s very similar to Guy Fawkes the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions.
However, back to the subject of free speech, even now under President Obama (where free speech is getting a bit tattered round the edges) it cannot be denied that the Americans have far more free speech than we do here in the UK. I wonder if the Islamic child abuse gangs that we’ve had would have been allowed to continue for so long as they did, if a right to free speech was guaranteed?
The fear of being arrested and possibly imprisoned for voicing a negative opinion of aspects of Islamic culture cannot be underestimated. So much of the legislation passed by the Labour party has had a definite chilling effect on free speech.
The right of free speech is by no means as absolute as you might think in America; say the wrong thing (however true) about muslims, blacks, Jews or any of the various homosexual branches (LGBT+ whatever else now)and you can expect to be accused of ‘hate speech’, lose jobs, homes, family and generally become a social leper. That’s the problem with constitutions, all sorts of vested interests will put their own particular spin on it, almost certainly to your detriment.
Agree that PC has had a deliterious effect on free speech in the USA. Especially the generation that has gone through the American university system which appears to be dominated by the far left.
There is a fab documentary on the issue of lefties and the shutting down of free speech in educational establishments called ‘Indoctrinate U’ See link below.
Bu the whole concept of hate speech comes comes from the good old US of A.
and the concept of political correctness too.
not sure why some Brits brown nose quite so much.
it’s a bit nauseating and embarrassing.
Yeah that’s one export from the USA we really could have done without. I think that many of us admire the USA because you still have many of the freedoms that we’ve already lost.
Apparently, Mitt wants to give ‘y’all’ the right to have wind down windows on aeroplanes. Good luck with that one.
I dunno, below 10,000 feet should be OK.