What Political Issue stirred you?
 

What Political issue of 2004 Stirred you the most?

For me,personally it was Abu Gharib,the images just made a lasting impression.




Other issues
-The Election
-Seperation of Church and State
-The ongoing war

#1 Religious tendancies of current Administration policy direction

#2 Devaluation of American integrity worldwide

#3 Pre-emptive Warfare as a viable military policy

exactly, in addition to the diminishing of free speech and privacy, reduction of women's rights on several fronts, and the inability of educational and political administrations to separate church and state.

The election was a galvanizing influence for many of these issues, of course, as well as the current "war on terror."

#1 The preemptive war on Iraq. What happened to the days of econimic hitmen, bribing, and sending women to get economic dominance? It's a scarey turn for the worse, espically considering that people STILL aren't getting the big picture.
#2 Hatred of the current American administration by everyone but middle america.
#3 Arnold wins, and the rest of the world collectively laughs at California.

election was pretty big for me

also found out i love cspan
panel discussions are awesome

We get to pick three?

I could give hundreds, but they can all be summed up in one choice-

The ever increasing size of our federal Government.

It is now so massive it operates with a will all its own, completely seperated from the desires of "we the people." It is bleeding its citizens dry and running rip-shod over the worlds economy. It has no foresight beyond the next election. Now, more than ever before, it is concentrating the power in the hands of a few while taking rights and priveleges away from us at an ever increase pace. It has become so opaque, that even those on the inside do not know what goes on down the hall or in the next office. While it is itself totally without direction, it dares to direct its citizens. It squanders our will, our name and our resources and those of others who would be our friends. Instead of assuming our rightful place at the front of all nations, protecting the downtrodden and leading the mislead, it has become the voice of injustice and selfishness.

No, come to think of it, my #1 is far more frightening -

It is that we have allowed this to happen and it is now beyond our ever regaining control.

The gay marriage thing. The war and other stuff is a pain, but government sanctioned discrimination in the name of "preserving the sanctity of marriage" is just abhorrent in my mind.

I've also really started to get interested in gun control recently.

Gun Control: Kerry is a gunowners worst nightmare, and Bush wasn't much better. They're both treasonous scumbags on this count, and many others.

The War: I'm a 22-year-old male. If this keeps going as it has, some POTUS in the near future is gonna reinstitute the draft. I'll gladly go to war if my country is invaded; but I'll be damned if I'll go fight in an unConstitutional exercise in Pax Americana.

The Ever-expanding Fed: USA PATRIOT, TIA, TIPS, the 9-11 Bill ( and its' National ID contained therein ), RFID, cameras in public spaces, etc etc etc etc. Bush and Congress gave us monstrosities that Bill and Hillary could only wet-dream about: monstrosities which will soon be turned against various politically-inconveniant portions of We The People. Once again, not much difference between the wings of the Boot On Your Neck Party in this regard.

Mr. Arafat, exiting stage left.

The federal election in Australia.
The education debate.
The US election.
The war in Iraq.

the re-election of GWB was a huge shock to me

the aftermarth of (alleged) murder of Dr Kelly by the British government, and that Blair was PROVEN to have lied to journalists about the 45 minute claim but survived

the Spanish people throwing out of office the leader who lead them into a war that 90% of the population were against - some hope that the democratic process can still work.

the ongoing war against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The war and apparently worsening situation in Iraq. I hope things get better, but more soldiers and Iraqi policemen are being attacked and killed than ever.

some very interesting perspectives.

our increasing size of government, especially given the republican platform of "smaller government"

current administration's inability to level with the american people on all issues

ongoing war/war on terror

Ahhh shit...another monster post typed and lost forever. I had to re-log in after typing and I get this error: Gah...what an extraordinary waste of time.

1.) The lies spewed by the liberal media all year to try and get an inferior candidate elected as president.

2.) The closed minds of many countries on many issues. Terrorism/scandal/moral attrocities/evil

3.) Don't talk about California being humiliated by electing Arnold. We did it much worse a while ago, I'm from Minnesota...

The media isn't liberal anymore. Sorry to dissapoint. :thumbsup:

If only other countries had the balls to follow this good example.

The Republicans managing to get out enough new voters to win the U.S. election when a high turnout has traditionally helped the Democrats.

The American media, a collection of organizations that supposedly form a "Free press" but behave like a state-run organization. Just a few examples:

-keeping the American public in the dark about third-party candidates other than Nader, perpetuating the myth that we have to vote for the lesser of two evils.

-perpetuating lies and myths about gun violence and gun control

-blindly supporting a president whose disregard for our Constitution threatens to bring down both our position as a world superpower and our society in general

The constant failure of almost all politicians to represent the American people and respect our Constitution.

-Patriot Act

-Consideration of renewing the AWB

General apathy and ignorance throughout the population

Gay Marriage. Despite my belief that it was a trivial matter in comparison to the war, the economy, abortion, and even the tax cuts. Despite my acting on that belief when I voted.

Mostly because I held the minority opinion (for it) on my college campus. And because I participated in a "Marriage and the Family" CCA in which all the lectures concerning the topic took the other side. Made for more interesting conversations than the issues ranking higher in importance.

This is more recent but i find that proposed virginia miscarriage law a little disturbing.

for 2004 it was more general. The obvious failures of the idealogic bush government and the media's inability to properly expose them.

1* the murder of Theo van Gogh (might just be a Dutch thing, but it gave the whole intollerance and freedom of speech debate a gross twist)

2* the quagmire Iraq is becoming at a faster pace.

3* the American elections (the fact that the whole world was watching this spectacle with so much interest made it the best entertainment I had in years (4 years actually))

Not so much only 2004. The fact that elections are not a selection of the best candidate for the office, but the lesser of two evils.

Australia
The election in Australia.
The misrepresentation of Labor [sic] as a party that would raise interest rates.
The issue of refugees and detention centres.
The (so-called) Free Trade Agreement with the US.


Ireland
The peace process.
The early release of the McCabe killers.


International
The war in Iraq.
The tsunami disaster.
The US election.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The adoption of a pan-EU constitution.
Tee entry of Cyprus to the EU.
The proposed entry of Turkey to the EU.
The Chechen war and Russia's actions.
Terrorism in Indonesia, Ireland, Ingushetia, Iraq (how co-incidental is the alliteration?!!)


That's all I can think of off the top of my head.


Mr Mephisto

The continuing attempted takeover of the minds of the population by the collected forces of the mass media and its symbolic - and quite resounding - defeat (for the time being) as evidenced by the results of the Presidential election. That was a surprise well worth being alive to witness in my lifetime.

I get moved less and less by politics every day. It's difficult to keep caring in light of the fact that america is going more down the shithole with every passing hour. I think we should all be more concerned with preparing to pick up the pieces of whatever is going to ultimately destroy our shortsighted, greedy, self destructive little civilization.

despair management became a real preoccupation the past couple months.

partly because, in the last election, i saw precisely the opposite of what art posted above: it was the triumph of opinion management and new types of political organization, centered on using churches as logistical bases.
other issues:
the iraq debacle.
the self-referential pathogen that is conservative discourse in the states.
weariness.
disgust.

As far as using churches as bases goes, roachboy, this has been a historically demonstrable tactic the opposition has pursued for many decades.

But no need for despair, really. Your voice and views are wanted and needed. And it's not nearly clear where we're headed in the long run - or even for the medium term. It looks like there will continue to be front lines on both sides of the big questions and that they will be running neck and neck for quite some time. Throw in the towel here and you'd diminish your ability to impact a historic moment.

thanks, sir.
actually, i have been shifting some of this onto a remove, working on ways to use the sense of despair to fashion new sonic lunacy.
we'll see what happens.