[Mb-civic] Quotes of the Day

[Ian]

Although these two articles have probably made the rounds, the following passages seemed worthy of extra citation:

"The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate...In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.  Where else do we find fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity, religious intolerance, fear and hatred for modernity?  Not in France or Britain or Germany or Italy or Spain.  We find it in the Muslim world, in Al Qaeda, in Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists.  Americans wonder that the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous, so single-minded, so impervious to international appeals.  They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed."  (Garry Wills, Op-Ed, The New York Times, 11/4/04).

"Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago - as if nothing had happened.  It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance.  It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.  This was not an election.  This was station identification.  I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?," the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way."  (Thomas L. Friedman, Op-Ed, The New York Times, 11/4/04)

Peace.
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