Americans are emotional, excitable and romantic
After living in both the UK and the USA, I have come to the conclusion that Americans are more emotional (and romantic) than their British cousins. The settlers in New England were a pretty phlegmatic lot but those who settled further south seemed to be more excitable. And many of our Founding Fathers were Virginians.
The French believe that heat excites the emotions and Parisians regard their fellow countrymen in Provence as excitable hicks. Even New England has more extreme summer heat than anywhere in Britain and the Southern summers are even hotter. So maybe the "heat theory" holds some water and our extreme climate (relative to Britain's mild maritime climate) is responsible for our less phlegmatic approach to life - and politics.
How else to explain some of the decisions that Americans voters have made - such as electing Obama? Emotions? Excitability? Romanticism?
I'm not one of those snobs who thinks that Americans are "sheep" as Boortz, Limbaugh and the rest of the nattering radio nabobs call them. In fact I think they're pretty smart. We could sit around like a bunch of policy wonks and carefully make logical decisions and end up being woefully wrong. Or we can go with our feelings and hunches and end up being woefully wrong - or sometimes right as the election of Reagan showed. Let's face it Reagan appealed to ordinary "normal" (as Two Dogs would say) Americans on an (emotional?) and personal level beyond policies or politics.
In the end Americans don't vote en masse. They follow their own lights and the en masse result really is the luck of the draw. How many people voted for Obama because it felt good to vote for the first black President? And how many of them believed (and hoped) that they would be out-voted?
It's a funny old world.
Blame this odd post on the delicious oysters, asparagus and chardonnay that I had for dinner.
The French believe that heat excites the emotions and Parisians regard their fellow countrymen in Provence as excitable hicks. Even New England has more extreme summer heat than anywhere in Britain and the Southern summers are even hotter. So maybe the "heat theory" holds some water and our extreme climate (relative to Britain's mild maritime climate) is responsible for our less phlegmatic approach to life - and politics.
How else to explain some of the decisions that Americans voters have made - such as electing Obama? Emotions? Excitability? Romanticism?
I'm not one of those snobs who thinks that Americans are "sheep" as Boortz, Limbaugh and the rest of the nattering radio nabobs call them. In fact I think they're pretty smart. We could sit around like a bunch of policy wonks and carefully make logical decisions and end up being woefully wrong. Or we can go with our feelings and hunches and end up being woefully wrong - or sometimes right as the election of Reagan showed. Let's face it Reagan appealed to ordinary "normal" (as Two Dogs would say) Americans on an (emotional?) and personal level beyond policies or politics.
In the end Americans don't vote en masse. They follow their own lights and the en masse result really is the luck of the draw. How many people voted for Obama because it felt good to vote for the first black President? And how many of them believed (and hoped) that they would be out-voted?
It's a funny old world.
Blame this odd post on the delicious oysters, asparagus and chardonnay that I had for dinner.
posted by Joubert at 6:51 PM
The Alliance
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