I love Switzerland

I decided to follow through on a thought I had some time ago: I'm going to ask an intelligent, reasonable person who voted for Bush (let me forestall the jokes by saying that, to my constant astonishment, I know several) to sit with me and tell me WHY. I have every intention of sitting down, shutting up, and earnestly trying to hear the reasons. I am blinded by my vitriolic disdain and fear of him, and I am hoping to hear something that will make me less terrified by my own culture.

I can send you an e-mail from one of my relatives to his entire mailing list offering a reason to vote for Bush was because Kerry owns too many homes and the cost in security improvements and secret service would burden the taxpayers unreasonably, to put it nicely.

maybe.

One of my university lecturers had a thesis about the transformation of education in Australia (and maybe the states?)from "learning for learnings sake" to "training for jobs" (especially at University level) and the effect this had on democracy as you no longer had citizens who were taught how to think but instead had a system that produced consumers. Hence the candidate who had the most marketable product, the Bush Doll or the Kerry Doll, would win? Possibly Noam Chomsky et al said it better? ;-)

It would be interesting to compare either to Switzerland where you can decide as early as 12 whether to take the path towards university or apprenticeship. I could be wrong, but I think the majority have the equivalent of an high school education (or slightly less) and most people I meet are interested in politics, ask questions and try to inform themselves on the issues. Perhaps size of the country plays a part and whether society has particular expectations of one as a member. I really can't say if they're taught to think for themselves or if they consume what the media tells them and then discuss amongst themselves... More examination is required.