Talk about two cultures divided by a common language. Wonkette channels the Guardian's followup to its letter-writing campaign directed to Clark County, Ohio in So Long and Thanks for All the Castles:
Americans respond to the Guardian's call for Britons to lobby Ohio voters against Bush. Mostly, they are not pleased, though some are more polite than others:
I used to visit the UK every year. I love the history and culture of your country. But after I heard about your campaign to influence our elections, I've decided that neither myself, nor my family will ever visit again. I'm offended by your campaign and because of it, I'm remembering more of the negative aspects I've seen in the UK than the positive ones. Though I still love the castles!
Versus, say:
Who in the hell do you think you are??? Well, I'll tell you, you're a bunch of meddling socialist pricks! Stay the hell out of our country and politics. And another thing, John Kerry is a worthless lying sack of crap so it doesn't surprise me that a socialist rag like yours would back him. I hope your cynical ploy blows up in your cowardly faces, you bunch of mealy-mouthed morons!
Our take: Yeah! Imagine that! A foreign power trying to, you know, assert control over a sovereign nation by writing letters. Why don't they just hand-pick a ruling coalition like a real empire would? Pussies.
Dear Limey assholes [Guardian]
I just don’t get this. I have a feeling that most Americans would agree that if someone was about to make a decision affecting them, they would want to have a say. In fact, they would demand their say. But I guess that this sentiment only applies to Americans (and really only evangelical white Republicans, as the rest are suspect). Everyone else in the world is expected to drop everything at once and subordinate their interests to our own and, if we wish it, agreeably let us send them to hell. God, we are such hypocrites.
Anyway, didn’t Bush say that those limeys are our allies. We sure have a funny way of showing our appreciation.
If you read the replies on the Guardian’s website, the majority of the replies from Clark County, Ohio (i.e. from people who actually received the letters), are positive. The vitriol is coming from places like Texas, where people did not receive letters from Guardian readers at all.
Be cautious with this. The originator of the idea of the British letter-writing campaign was a Bush supporter by the name of Tim Blair. A significant part of this effort is actually a Nixon-style dirty tricks campaign to send rude and condescending letters that purport to support Kerry to Ohio voters so they’ll react by voting for Bush. Check out some of the letters that were sent. They basically say, “You stupid Yank. How could you vote for a wanker like Bush? If you vote for Kerry, the Queen, my butler, and I will all start liking you again. Cheerio from a civilized country. Clive”.
This is from an actual English person. I would never ever try to influence an US election, since I don’t seem to have a spare billion dollars. As for writing to a particular elector in a particular county, this also seems a little like hard work.
Surely, it must be better that I go to my work and persuade the ninety people I work with that Bush is a nasty, self-intersted draft-dodger whose entire inner circle is knee-deep in Halliburton stocks and histories of cocaine use. Those ninety people then connect the ninety people they know with the same truth.
By this time, people must know the truth. Over thirty thousand Iraqis have now died, which is a 10 to 1 “revenge” to the 911 attack.
As Donald Rumsfeld has said, there is no link between Saddam Hussain and Al Quaida.
Therefore, at this point the US should actually apologise to the people of Iraq for killing their citizens.