Britain's Elections

The recent elections in Britain made clear the contrast between the British democratic system and the American one. . . namely, that theirs works and ours doesn't! Tony Blair won a third term as prime minister somewhat easily, but his Labour Party lost several seats in the House of Commons. Voters sent Blair a mixed message - they approved of his handling of the U.K. economy, which is doing much better than ours, but they also made it clear that they opposed his entry into the American war against Iraq. So Blair will have to adjust his policies accordingly. He won't be pulling British troops out of Iraq tomorrow, but he won't be joining George W. Bush on any more armchair adventures.

The result of the British elections is the product of a well-informed and savvy citizenry, thanks to an aggressive, if somewhat unseemly, British press and and public interest in the common good. George W. Bush's re-election in America - along with increased Republican control of both houses of Congress - came without any punitive message, because enough voters were taken in by Bush and Karl Rove's spin of the issues - with a complacent, bloated, overpaid media elite happy to parrot the administration line rather than go out and do any serious reporting - to endorse the idea that Bush could keep the country safe from further terrorist attacks. That and Bush vowed to stop gay marriage, which many Americans believe is a greater threat to our culture than reality television.

The economy? The environment? Transportation issues? Health care? BOR-ing! Americans can't be bothered with such concerns when they pay more attention to far more serious topics like Georgia runaway brides and Paris Hilton's mere existence. Although the Democrats campaign on the issues, they're hardly immune from criticism because they don't act boldly enough to stand behind their positions on an issue or keep it in the forefront

Further proof that American democracy is becoming a contradiction in terms is the fact that the Christian right, emboldened by the 2004 election results, are moving ahead to force their agenda on the rest of us. Consider Pat Robertson's assertion this past Sunday that activist judges are a greater threat to American liberty than the Nazis were, as well as the drive in the House of Representatives to erase the separation of powers between themselves and the courts. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans - no strangers to dismissal of minority rights - are trying to take away the rights of their Democratic counterparts to force through judicial nominations and just about anything else on their agenda.

It seems ironic that a group of old men in the House of Lords have long comprised the highest court in Britain, while the majority party in the House of Commons calls all the shots, and yet the Brits seem to do better with separation of powers and respect for multiparty democracy.