the reason the votes were so close (and probably will be) is that Americans lead awesome lives, have freedom and success, and are doing something real close to what is right with all of that, so we're pretty much gonna stay on that course. If things weren't goin good there'd be actually divisive issues.
Wow. I think this is incredibly simplistic. I'm surprised to hear this from you, Dave.
My problems with the above are that:
1) While as a country we do have a great deal of freedom and success, there are serious inequalities in the distribution of that freedom and success. Especially economic inequality, whether you consider it as "right" or "wrong", it is detrimental to the economy's long term health.
2) What Americans are doing "right" is completely subjective. Given that the world opinion (including Americans) is more against the US than ever before, I would say this is a tough claim to make.
3) I can think of numerous divisive issues (stem cell research, protectionism, terrorism policy, social security, the voting system...). I think the expected high voter turn out, and the fact the population is split rather evenly between the two parties is a sign of greater divisiveness, not less.
You're jaded.
Social issues:
When you believe 'divisive issues' includes nuances in the placement of research funds or retirement plans, you're jaded. 'Divisive issues' are on the order of slavery, or the right of women to vote. Whether or not scientists do their research on identical cells with one set of DNA or another (this is the difference) is not that sort of issue.
Foreign Policy:
We've got some big issues right now as far as what has happened, but that's past. What will happen in the future isn't changing that much based on who you vote for.
'This is incredibly simplistic etc.'We're dealing with issues we don't have the ability to understand. I'm not so arrogant as to believe I know whether or not we should have gone to Iraq. I'm not there, I've never been there, and I receive a full spectrum of reports in the media. All I can do is make simple decisions based on what I do know, what I can see.
The subjectivity of right and wrong and 'world opinion'.We have no standard to apply, there is no gold model. We have no choice but to do what we believe in our hearts is right because we cannot measure right and wrong with a thermometer. We can't measure them by listening to European pundits either.
Economic inequality being detrimental to the economy.O.K. we don't need to hash this out. We've got capitalism now and socially we're not in a place where enough people think change is in order to show up to the polls. If our society advances to a point where we can move on, maybe we will. But right now the vast majority of americans aren't questioning capitalism.
