It wasn’t us wot voted for him

I’m still pondering Ellie and Miss Dagurreotype’s ‘We didn’t vote for him either’ comments [10.11.06] about George Bush and the politics of fear.  I sympathise with them – I’ve worn variations on that tee-shirt with pride all my adult life.  I just wish that I could climb more sympathetically inside the psyche of those who do vote for George Bush .. for Ian Paisley …  I suspect that what makes this kind of politics fairly repugnant the world over is the way in which simplistic religion is used to give it drive – and to make it hard to challenge.  ‘If you’re against me, you’re against God as well.’  And beyond that, I think that the way in which people describe their country tells you a bit.  ‘Nation’ is ok – tho’ I suspect it is becoming uncomfortably exclusive now that communities are so astonishingly diverse.  But when people start referring to the ‘land’, I think you are in trouble – as in ‘homeland security’ or Billy Wright, the loyalist paramilitary leader, who talked about the choice to be made between ‘land and faith.’

2 comments

  1. Needless to say, I agree with you.

    I was VERY disturbed when Bush started referring to the U.S. as the “homeland”.

Comments are closed.