Tami and her teacher were having a conversation about the American election process. Her teacher finally asked her if she was nervous about what would happen after the election. “Well, no, it’ll be a relief getting W. out of there…”
“But what if he doesn’t want to give up power?”
Wow, just… wow. Not much shows the differences in our cultures better than that statement. While I guess in theory if the president has the backing of the military, he could ignore the elections and rule via martial law, I can’t think of any American that thinks that that scenario is even remotely likely. Her teacher was expecting, at the very least, riots and demonstrations. I think we had some demonstrations in the last two very close races, I can’t remember any actual riots. Plus, the candidates were not the ones behind those things, or even their parties. Political stability, respect for the rule of law, and a transparent election system may be the most important things that separate the US from Yemen. The respecting the rule of law bit is sorely missed here, many of the problems here would be at least minimized if not eliminated if the government would just follow the rules…
Anyway, in this light, I expect the election to be pretty dull, but at least it’s going to be a good race:-)