Perceptions of inherent tension in the Great American Experiment will no-doubt remain a mainstay of this blog.

As I look across the ocean at the country of my birth, the U.S., it is hard to guage the level of "enlightenment" in the general population based on news reports from over here. Recent reports are mixed. On the one hand, there are stories like the one about a man who was recently sentenced to ten years in prison for performing female circumcision. That could be read as an indication that sane limits on religious freedom are in place and the country has the guts to stand up to fundamentalism. On the other hand, that was the courts - often the last bastion of progressive policies and civil rights. Meanwhile, the campaign ads in the elections are so horrendous, so pandering to base ignorance, I am close to losing hope. As if _not_ cutting funding for sex education is somehow an advocation of pornography. That is just plain stupid - and dangerous. But people are paying for such an ad because they know it will work. That kind of media shows a contempt for the public that is self-feeding and thus seems to be deserved. A German friend of mine refers to the voting population of Germany as the Urnenpöbel - the "urn rabble." I hate to drift into intellectual elitism, but the term seems to fit for a large segment of the population on both sides of the Atlantic. At least our American Urnenpöbel get to vote for people (instead of lists of people) and for referendums - something German politicians won't let their constituencies touch - another expression of contempt for the voting public.

I see today's election as a referendum on the policies of George W. Bush and especially of the rubber-stamp congress that has totally neglected its oversite duties under the constitution. I have decided to vote off the spectrum as a protest against the total lack of concern among mainstream politicians and mainstream media for the important meta-issues of our time: media reform, election reform and campaign reform.

Nonetheless, I expect (in both senses of the word) a Democratic victory. If the Republican machine doesn't come to a grinding halt, my countrymen will have disappointed me. I have little confidence in the Democrats' ability and willingness to really clean house with the necessary vigor. But we can at least throw a monkey wrench into the gears of corruption, fear-baiting and rampant dishonesty that have characterized the past six years.