Posted by Jim Lindgren:
The Guardian's Letters to Clark County, Ohio.--
When the Guardian Newspaper in the UK [1]lamented that citizens around
the world couldn't vote in the US election, Oz blogger [2]Tim Blair
suggested that they [3]write letters to voters in swing states.
[4]Without giving Tim Blair credit for the idea, the Guardian has been
encouraging just such [5]a letter-writing campaign, distributing the
addresses of voters in Clark County, Ohio, a swing county in a swing
state. Blair then started [6]an email-writing campaign, writing [7]to
Guardian editors.
Today, [8]Mark Steyn discusses one of the more condescending letters
from intellectual Brits, a letter from Richard Dawkins, a "professor
of the public understanding of science" at Oxford University. Here is
an excerpt from [9]Dawkins's letter:
Dear Americans,
Don't be so ashamed of your president: the majority of you didn't
vote for him. If Bush is finally elected properly, that will be the
time for Americans travelling abroad to simulate a Canadian accent.
Please don't let it come to that. Vote against Bin Laden's dream
candidate. Vote to send Bush packing.
Before 9/11 gave him his big break - the neo-cons' Pearl Harbor -
Bush was written off as an amiable idiot, certain to serve only one
term. An idiot he may be, but he is also sly, mendacious and
vindictive; and the thuggish ideologues who surround him are
dangerous. 9/11 gave America a free gift of goodwill, and it poured
in from all around the world. Bush took it as a free gift to the
warmongers of his party, a licence to attack an irrelevant country
which, however nasty its dictator, had no connection with 9/11. The
consequence is that all the worldwide goodwill has vanished. Bush's
America is on the way to becoming a pariah state. And Bush's Iraq
has become a beacon for terrorists. . . .
Now that all other justifications for the war are known to be lies,
the warmongers are thrown back on one, endlessly repeated: the
world is a better place without Saddam. No doubt it is. But that's
the Tony Martin school of foreign policy [Added by Guardian: Martin
was a householder who shot dead a burglar who had broken into his
house in 1999]. It's not how civilised countries, who follow the
rule of law, behave. The world would be a better place without
George Bush, but that doesn't justify an assassination attempt. The
proper way to get rid of that smirking gunslinger is to vote him
out. . . .
Steyn ends [10]his editorial on the Guardian's campaign by noting:
Linda Rosicka, director of the county's Board of Elections, thinks
the rampaging Brits will have little effect. "The American
Revolution was fought for a reason," she remarked drily. That's the
spirit.
Rosicka's comment reminds me of something that Dan Polsby (now on
George Mason's faculty) said on my first day at work at the
Northwestern Law School in 1996. Princess Diana was in the building
that day and almost everyone was excited to try to catch a glimpse of
her. I would have shaken her hand if introduced, but I saw no reason
to figure out where she was to get to see or meet her. Polsby was
asked by an administrator if he had seen Diana and he replied, "Didn't
we fight a war to be rid of these people?" Indeed!
I find it hard to believe that condescending letters from professors
of the public understanding of science at Oxford University will carry
much weight with Ohio voters, nor will posts from professor-bloggers.
The frustration of foreign elites is perhaps understandable. Yet there
are a lot better reasons than a letter from the UK to vote for or
against George Bush.
References
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1309889,00.html
2. http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007570.php
3. http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007735.php
4. http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007735.php
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1325984,00.html
6. http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007779.php
7. http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/007769.php
8. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/10/19/do1902.xml
9. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1325984,00.html
10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/10/19/do1902.xml
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