When Hannah's complimentary luxury shuttle bus pulled into the Creek today she noticed placards being waved by a group of people outside our local USA Gas station. "Thank goodness," was her first thought. "Someone's finally demonstrating against a different oil company." But no! It turned out to be some dedicated political activists attempting to win the hearts and minds of the passing motorists. As soon as she told me about it I grabbed my camera and sprinted into action like the war photographer wannabe I am.
American politics is hard to gauge for a European. Being on the "right" is definitely right, but "liberal" just means slightly less right. Any kind of centre ground is treated as some form of communism, and I have no idea how an actual left-wing position would be greeted. It's all about the checks and balances. It was therefore a little hard to work out where these protesters were from, but I have a fairly clear idea it was the legendary Tea Party.
Still, they were polite when I spoke to them. "Are you going to vote?" the man with the anti-healthcare placard and NRA hat asked me. "No, I can't, I'm an immigrant," I replied cheerfully. This flummoxed him a little . "Oh...well...we're putting on quite a show for you here then," was his comeback.
The ladies on the other side of the road were more welcoming. I told them I was after a picture to show people back home, and they were quick to tell me that they wanted to make sure that America didn't turn out like England. "Or Greece," another added. I weighed up the benefits of launching into a diatribe about social welfare and the collective responsibility of the state to the individual, perhaps with a short geography lesson thrown in, but thought better of it, wished them luck, and returned home.
A reference to the infamous Sarah Palin quotation. But is this ironic? Anti-Palin? Like I said, American politics is confusing.
He's talking about the right to pay whenever you get sick.
Ok, enough snarky remarks. At least these citizens were out campaigning for what they believe in, on a relatively chilly October night, leveraging Amendment #1 for both free speech and association (I didn't want to ask if any were bearing arms). If I could vote I would...but probably not for the candidates they were endorsing.
