Monday, November 3, 2014

A rare opportunity for me to #VoteBlue

Of course the whole "45" thing is a none-too-subtle way of saying "don't blame me, I voted Yes", so in anticipation of tomorrow night's likely results across the pond, allow me to just say this - don't blame me, I voted Democrat.  Or strictly speaking, I voted Democrat and also for a range of left-wing parties and candidates in some of the lesser contests.

Voting in American elections always feels like quite an alien process, mainly because I actually have to make an active decision every single time - it's not like here, where I ritualistically vote for the same party I've voted for since I was 18 (albeit things have become slightly more interesting in Scotland since STV was introduced for local government elections).    I always think I should try to apply some kind of logical consistency to how I make the decision - for example, vote tactically for a centrist mainstream candidate in circumstance A, but stick to principle by voting for a no-hoper left-wing candidate in circumstance B.  But I've realised it's hopeless trying to come up with a set of rules that cover every occasion, so I just go by what 'feels right' and hope for the best.

With this being the first time I've voted in a US election since the independence referendum, it suddenly occurred to me just how murderously hard I will find it to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 if she's a presidential candidate, simply because of the disgraceful remarks she made about Scotland, telling a London interviewer she would "hate to see you lose Scotland".  You?  Lose?  OK, Obama made some thoroughly reprehensible comments as well, but at least he didn't imply that Scotland was a possession to be kept or lost, nothing more than a trophy that conferred status on our "owners".

Mind you, the dilemma will probably be solved for me, because if at all possible I try not to vote for candidates who support the death penalty, and the last time I checked Clinton still does.

32 comments:

  1. James why would you vote for terrorists?

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  2. Off topic, there is an interesting article about the discrepancy between bookie odds and implied odds from an election forecast website.

    http://politicalbookie.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/political-scientists-predict-huge-snp-gains-in-2015/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sports&utm_campaign=politics&hootPostID=01dd0cbce61130431f2de41f8e3070a2

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  3. Sen. Bernie Sanders deserves support in the forthcoming Presidential primaries.

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  4. James, I think the real probabilities are somewhere in between the two sets of odds listed in that post. There's no way the SNP should be anything close to 11/8 to win Orkney and Shetland, for example (not least because that seat is likely to buck the national swing anyway).

    But of course, we simple misguided fools should just haud our wheesht for now, and wait to see what the world's leading self-appointed expert on betting, Mr Neil "Alligators" Lovatt, has to say.

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  5. I t does not look good for the Democrats in tomorrow's mid-term elections. Bad timing for some of the defending Senator with Obama's unpopularity ratings dragging them down to defeat.

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  6. Marcia @ 8:42 p.m.: It's a lot closer than our mainstream infotainers would have you believe. Many races are either tied or within a point or two (or three). If we GOTV, we'll win a lot more than the "experts" are expecting and some early analysis suggests that's happening.

    The facts that Fox "News" are already making noise about "margins of fraud" and U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst is already preparing for a recount tell me we're much closer to blunting the Republicans than not.

    I invite you, and everyone here to follow Tuesday's returns at Daily Kos rather than our television or newspaper sites. It's a lot more accurate, and entertaining.

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    1. US and UK newspapers, radio and TV are pretty much the same. The only thing I listened to was NPR stations when I lived there. I don't listen to anything much here, except to figure out what propaganda the BBC is pushing.

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    2. NPR is still okay, and we have a progressive talk radio station here, WCPT, which streams online. (The Stephanie Miller Show, for one, is a godsend).

      From what I've seen online, UK newspapers are just more overt about their biases. U.S. papers are subtler; you have to read the editorial pages and then study how they cover the candidates and races.

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  7. James, where do you bide if you don't mind my asking? Curios as to how you can vote in the US and in Scotland...Not judging. Just genuiniely intrigued...Have the nat bashers discovered this yet?

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  8. I'm in North Lanarkshire. And yes, the Nat-bashers on PB have known about it for years - hence all the stuff about me being ethnically Irish/American/Quebecois and not a "real Scot".

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  9. OK, so you have held dual citizenship for a while or since birth? Not that it matters, but you've got a Scottish accent and that's generally a good indiation of how Scottish someone is.

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  10. Yes, I've had it since birth. I'm glad you think I sound Scottish, because not everyone agrees! When I was growing up people used to ask me what part of Australia I came from.

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    1. Interesting to hear about your ethnic origin and dual citizenship. For what it's worth I think you sound Scottish too but I thought with a mix of something else.

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  11. Interesting, I didn't know you were a dual national (I only started reading this website during the referendum campaign). Do you have to pop over to the USA to vote or do they have some sort of long distance postal voting type thing? Also, given that you reside in Scotland, how does it work regarding voting for congressional candidates, do you have to be registered in a particular state?

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    1. It's a postal vote. The rules are labyrinthine, but as I understand it all US citizens are entitled to vote in federal elections (unless, bizarrely, they live in US territories like Puerto Rico). There's no time limit like there is for British citizens living overseas.

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  12. "but you've got a Scottish accent and that's generally a good indiation of how Scottish someone is."

    That is the most asinine statement I have read.

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    1. Thanks for your input George

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    2. I believe what he meant was that people who aren't native to Scotland tend to sound ridiculous when they try to sound like Scots. I spent a lot of my childhood in Scotland yet sound completely and totally like an American, if an American with a slightly odd accent. I am often asked if I'm from Connecticut. *boggle*

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  13. Some useful information on Scottish politics. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PTs0vSCvPoHi-OhkpbIUcdcNi1pFwpWIg5WiyGQvvcw/edit#gid=917235469

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  15. As an American I find the present situation painful. If disgraceful comments about Scotland being in effect a possession were the worst or even her support of the death penalty (so common in the US it is mindboggling) I might still be able to vote for her but her absolutely unquestioning support of Israel, drone attacks, the NSA, and the fanatical support for pursuit and prosecution of whistleblowers takes her a number of steps too far. There are only a handful of Democrats I can vote for at the moment, so for the most part I will vote Green knowing they don't have a chance in hell of being elected because of the extreme nature of our two-party system. Saying it is frustrating doesn't even come close.

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  16. Is the hate between republicans,democrats real?

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    1. Very real.

      The Republican party has been taken over by hate, racism, xenophobia, and a slavish devotion to the plutocracy. They would rather the country crash and burn than the black guy get credit for anything. God help us if they win the Senate tonight; you will see them try to impeach and remove President Obama for ... something (Hint: Prezidentin' While Black).

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    2. You're welcome, for what it's worth now. The Republicans rolled. For the next two years, we're fucked. Better luck to you in May.

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  17. I was wondering, James, why you take the trouble to use your US vote, if you live here and regard yourself as Scots? Are you thinking about going back, or anything like that?

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    1. It just seems strange to me not to use a vote if I'm entitled to it. I mean, I vote in Irish Eurovision selections due to a loophole (they don't exclude UK mobile numbers in case they come from Northern Ireland!).

      It's no great trouble, anyway, it's all done by post. It just takes a couple of hours to research the candidates on Twitter to make sure I'm not voting for a complete lunatic (which is always a danger in US elections).

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    2. I've absolutely no idea why I said Twitter there - I just meant the internet in general!

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  18. What was the turnout in the mid terms?

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  19. I understand it was heavily dominated by conservative elderly voters #dejavu

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