Meine Gedankenmuster

When in India (read as outside the US), I was stumped when George Bush was elected as the president. I was even more perplexed when I saw that he was leading in the opinion polls for the next elections.
To me, Democrats are cleverer, better dressed and better looking of the options available, and yet the reins seem to be sliding into the hands of the other side. Why? This is because, it is just the sort of Americans who know they are neither clever nor good-looking who will vote for Bush. And that number is pretty huge!
Bush supporters are the sort of americans that a visitor and the media never meets. The americans that you will typically meet are the costal elites, academics, clerics, journalists and the techis. The sort of american travellers you meet abroad will probably vote for John Kerry this november. The elite enjoy the cultural diffusion and will fly a thousand miles to patronize a quaint culture. That's a holiday well spent for them.
The heart of america is seen inland. For the people here, vacation is something you take in Las Vegas or Disney Land. They are the Bush voters. The bush voters look worse (obesity is more of an inland disease), dress worse and are less likely to have attended a university than Kerry voters. They form the majority of the electorate. But then again, why should they vote for Bush?
They are the sort who believe that america was founded to protect the likes of them - unlike the clever and good-looking who can fend for themselves. This is the source of their patriotism. One should visit a mid-sized city in the country's interior to see fot themselves. The kind of passion for country during July 4th or Spetember 11th that you see there is unimaginable and unparalleled in the Europe or India. Goverment, by the experience of peoples, has been an instrument of the rich and powerful to opress the poor and weak. The passion for their country among average american springs from their conviction that America is a sheild for them common folk.
To a lot many people in the world patriotism means intense nationalism that has sent troops of countries marching to each other's territories butchering each other. It means believing that for Germans in WW-II, it was correct to massacre Jews. Believeing that to an englishmen, it was correct to treat indians as the scum of the earth because india was a british colony. Governments have typically been an instrument of nepotism and corruption. Indians can never really love their government. The educated elite can only scream in despondancy of the current state of affairs, and the uneducated commoner, the rural folk care less, so long as election time means free money, free food and free booze.
But americans, in contrast, are descendents of a population who decided to cease to be europeans. They believed that they had had enough to take from the colonial powers and they wanted out. They were good and the colonial powers were evil. Here is where the american world view begins, with the seperation of "Good" and "Evil", almost biblically. The english monarcy was evil, where as the english colonies were good. What immigrant left behind in the old country was evil, what they found in american shores was good (hence the concept of the "american dream"). Communism is evil, democracy is good. Soviet Union was evil, and America is good. America is always good, regardless of Hiroshima, Vietnam, Korea. America is always good. You cannot shake this intense docrination that is ingrained in the american minds. Anyone who attacks america, for whatever reason, is evil. To them anyone who is attacked by america, by definition, has to be evil! It doesnt really matter if the iraqi army has nothing more than pistols to combat the american onslaught, they were still evil. It doesnt matter if the american soldiers raped the iraqi women and tortured the men without an inch of decency, because america is good and iraq is evil. That's all there is to it. So although the entire world sees the stupidity of bush administration, and it's failure in multiple fronts. The average american is still very happy with Bush, because Bush and his "war on terror" makes them feel "good". He gives them what Caligua gave to Rome, a spectacular orgy with a vulgarity beyond comprehension.
This is the amercian ideology.