First re "OK I'll get my coat (as we say) and won't post anything further in this thread", sit and stay a while as the old saying goes. Feel free to critize, might do us good to get a few more out of the US views.
IMO, our politics have been becoming more unpleasant my entire life. And it's not just one party or indidividual that started it, inspite of some's blaming particularly ones. Chuckling, there I go disagreeing with someone already.
The 2000 fiasco election problems in Florida led some to feel that President Bush was never elected. It was a mess, and there will never be agreement on how it was handled. But the system worked, even if poorly, and we didn't have a civil war over it. But the climate in the US and Speakeasy never really got out of election year mode after that. Politics here in the US has become who can find the most dirt. Some of that is because it seems many of our elected officials have a lot of dirt to find. I'm not sure how much the systems corrupts everyone, or how much it just allows corruption to chose who gets elected. But everyone has been mud slinging since the 2000 election and it will not stop I'm afraid.
You folks always bring everything back to a party political level and yes I do understand that it's an election year. You give helpful replies to me and I appreciate that, but I don't understand why you think it makes any difference to others in the world as to which party in the US did "what they did", i.e. "the US did it, not the ...whichever party did it", given the US's power both military and economically.
OK I'll get my coat (as we say) and won't post anything further in this thread, but I would be really pleased to hear (cos I ain't well versed in American debating techniques) whether you really are discussing the issues or just enjoy debating politics (and why not).
Regards
Mo

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