Today is Independence Day, when Americans celebrate their separation from England some 248 years ago. Ironically, recent events in the United States have triggered an odd suggestion -- that we might be better off rejoining the United Kingdom in the years ahead.
It seems to me that people across the pond have made significant progress in the decades since we declared our freedom from the crown while we, on the other hand, have begun a steady descent toward theocratic hell. More on that in a minute.
It’s also ironic that today is Election Day in Britain, and while a conservative wave is sweeping America under the hand of the Republican Party and the Supreme Court of Appeals, the center-left Labour Party is poised to retake the U.K. government from the Conservatives in what many are predicting will be a landslide.
All of which makes me think of the idiotic way we conduct our elections in the United States.
Our election process – from the date candidates start to announce until the actual election – easily lasts at least two or three years if not longer. Billions of dollars are thrown around, thousands of promises are made, hundreds of lies are told and misinformation abounds. Even the Russians and the Chinese like to get involved.
The campaigns are so long that a lot of people are simply worn down by the time Election Day arrives, and a third to half of all eligible voters don’t even bother to cast a ballot.
In the U.K., by comparison, the time frame between a prime minister calling for a general election and the actual vote is only six weeks. (Our campaign started in 2022, give or take, and still has 19 weeks to go.)
Limits are established on how much money can be spent in a given campaign. That sum is generally somewhere south of $2 million, and parties can be fined for breaching the limit.
Another difference is the role religion plays in politics. Here, voters are increasingly being steered toward a christo-fascist, white supremacist, authoritarian theocracy not unlike the one we fought the Revolutionary War to escape.
Meanwhile, in Britain, today’s politicians are fond of saying, “We don’t do god.” No mainstream British politician is likely to mention the word “god” in a political speech or during a campaign. Ironically, religion in general is kept apart from U.K. politics the way it was supposed to be separated here.
(It’s worth noting that religious belief is declining in the U.K., particularly among younger generations. Just under half (49%) of Britons surveyed in 2022 said they believed in God.)
In America, meanwhile, those who seek to assume power plan to impose their fundamentalist Christian religion on every citizen and child – regardless of whether it aligns with our individual beliefs. Schools will become churches, one god will be worshipped and all other religions be damned.
The British are also amazed at the age of candidates in the United States. The two candidates for president are 78 and 81, while the British prime minister is 44 and his chief rival is only 61.
Finally, the British tend to stay away from the so-called “cultural issues” prominent in American politics. That’s because in the U.K., abortion is legal, gun ownership is rare and heavily restricted and gay marriage is uncontested. There you have it. Problems solved.
In summary, they won’t be celebrating Independence Day in Britain today, but they are voting for a government, and it probably won’t be lost on many Britons that their democracy seems to be doing fine, thank you very much, while ours is teetering on the edge of a cliff. The irony and juxtaposition are truly hard to understand.
So happy Fourth of July, American friends. It’s okay to celebrate our independence as we always do, but this year, maybe we should take a few minutes to look to the U.K. and other democracies around the world and try to remember what that means, because sadly, it appears that many of us have forgotten.
Now, pass me another hot dog, please. And where did you put the beer?
We never learn our lessons.
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