question for the foreigners

[Jens]

how did you first get interested in american politics?

which region of the us do you find most fascinating?

1. I think it was late eigthies. I remember the Bush election and the first Iraq war.

2. I find New York quite fascinating but haven't really a favorit. The regions that I find hardest to grasp is the deep south and the prairie.

3. The presidential election is covered very intensely in Denmark and quite often they take the time to do some indept research but that is probably because all major networks in Denmark are public or semi-public owned. They have a public service obligation!! It is the most covered election much more that Germany, GB, Norway or Sweden (Or EU)

[Jens]

how did you first get interested in american politics?

which region of the us do you find most fascinating?

2. I find New York quite fascinating but haven't really a favorit. The regions that I find hardest to grasp is the deep south and the prairie.

Why is so hard to grasp the deep south and prairie? We are mainly just good hardworking blue collar types who earn a honest buck and work for our families. I'm sure you have the type in Denmark.

I was waiting for your reply I'm sure that most people in the deep south is quite nice. It's just that a lot of what is "comme il faut" like the right to have a gun is very different from Denmark. It the things that seems like obvious and absolute rights that are very different. I'm sure that many Americans would find the lifestyle of many Danes very hard to grasp. Things like our welfare system and our fairly high taxes may raise an eyebrow (oh and why the trucks and big cars. I looks so silly when some youngster byes an American (That's what we call the cars ) and tries to drive around on the not very wide Danish roads )

[Jens]

ok, followup question....

do the foreigners here find american politics more fascinating than their own country's?

personally, ive always thought parliamentary systems are a tad boring.  but, of course, im biased.

I find most politics fascinating, but size does matter I know more about American and French politics than Albanian or Mongolian (but quite a lot about Angolan politics - don't ask why!)
FPTP is easier to illustrate, but I prefere a good oldfashioned parliamentary election were you see the results from every region a follow the change in seats between the 10+ parties

[Jens]

Things like our welfare system and our fairly high taxes may raise an eyebrow

Don't you have the highest taxes in the world?

We have high direct taxes, but if you look at the overall prize of living we (and the Swedes) are quite average. We don't pay for education, hospitals, tollroads and stuf like that. There is a lot of redistribuation from rich to poor
(PS I just saw that the Danish Gini-coeffitent was 17 USA 32 (1= everyone gets the same amount of money 100 = rich gets it all))

[Jens]

how did you first get interested in american politics?

which region of the us do you find most fascinating?

2. I find New York quite fascinating but haven't really a favorit. The regions that I find hardest to grasp is the deep south and the prairie.

Why is so hard to grasp the deep south and prairie? We are mainly just good hardworking blue collar types who earn a honest buck and work for our families. I'm sure you have the type in Denmark.

I was waiting for your reply I'm sure that most people in the deep south is quite nice. It's just that a lot of what is "comme il faut" like the right to have a gun is very different from Denmark. It the things that seems like obvious and absolute rights that are very different. I'm sure that many Americans would find the lifestyle of many Danes very hard to grasp. Things like our welfare system and our fairly high taxes may raise an eyebrow (oh and why the trucks and big cars. I looks so silly when some youngster byes an American (That's what we call the cars ) and tries to drive around on the not very wide Danish roads )

Very different worlds I imagine. I believe the right to gun ownership is guaranteed in the off chance that the government should become so despotic we have no choice but to overthrow it and change it back.

Congratulations on post nr 3000

I have heard that "despotic government"-argument before. I find it a bit paranoid and optimistic (you don't really grap your rifle and meet at the battlefield anymore. Those bloody tanks are in the way). But I still remember the surprice a friend of my mother had when her husband died. Hidden among his remains she found a Stengun (British WW2-weapon). She knew that he had been in the Resistance during the war but they had been maried for 30 years and lived 5+ places, but never had he told he about the weapon and every time they moved to a new place he took the weapon with him and hid it again!! Just in case the Germans returned (or the Russians - my hometown is less that 100 km across the sea from former East Germany).

[Jens]

how did you first get interested in american politics?

which region of the us do you find most fascinating?

2. I find New York quite fascinating but haven't really a favorit. The regions that I find hardest to grasp is the deep south and the prairie.

Why is so hard to grasp the deep south and prairie? We are mainly just good hardworking blue collar types who earn a honest buck and work for our families. I'm sure you have the type in Denmark.

I was waiting for your reply I'm sure that most people in the deep south is quite nice. It's just that a lot of what is "comme il faut" like the right to have a gun is very different from Denmark. It the things that seems like obvious and absolute rights that are very different. I'm sure that many Americans would find the lifestyle of many Danes very hard to grasp. Things like our welfare system and our fairly high taxes may raise an eyebrow (oh and why the trucks and big cars. I looks so silly when some youngster byes an American (That's what we call the cars ) and tries to drive around on the not very wide Danish roads )

Very different worlds I imagine. I believe the right to gun ownership is guaranteed in the off chance that the government should become so despotic we have no choice but to overthrow it and change it back.

Congratulations on post nr 3000

I have heard that "despotic government"-argument before. I find it a bit paranoid and optimistic (you don't really grap your rifle and meet at the battlefield anymore. Those bloody tanks are in the way). But I still remember the surprice a friend of my mother had when her husband died. Hidden among his remains she found a Stengun (British WW2-weapon). She knew that he had been in the Resistance during the war but they had been maried for 30 years and lived 5+ places, but never had he told he about the weapon and every time they moved to a new place he took the weapon with him and hid it again!! Just in case the Germans returned (or the Russians - my hometown is less that 100 km across the sea from former East Germany).

My anti-state feelings make me very sympathetic to the argument, but as Jens points out it's sort of impractical.

What's so funny is that the weapons almost everyone agree to not allow (tanks, flame throwers, etc) are the ones that should logically be allowed, whereas those almost everyone agree to permit, such as hunting rifles, really have very little to do with the spirit of the 2nd amendment...

Imagine driving through Alabama and looking at all the pretty tanks, heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns in the front yards, sweeet