Democracy

I made this comment on another blog that was discussing 9/11:

I think most people who complain about America's foreign policy don't realize that American's don't vote for their politicians based on solely on the foreign policy decisions that those leaders will make. Most Americans frankly don't care very much about what happens outside of America and are generally more concerned about local issues (which only makes sense). The fact that the political parties they are aligned with have particular foreign policy objectives is secondary to whether or not that party has the same views on morality, education, health care, social security, etc. I know many Republicans who bemoan Bush's handling of the war and even question the validity of invading Iraq in the first place, yet they will NEVER vote Democratic. While the rest of the world is sometimes painfully aware of the foreign policy decisions made by the U.S., most Americans are blissfully unware and happily ignorant of those choices. This does not make Americans warmongers - but it does show a very human trait of only recognizing as important things that you have direct experience with. That's one of the limitations with democracies in that you have to pick the candidate that on balance will hopefully represent the majority of your beliefs and hope that the decisions that they make on your behalf that you do not agree with are things you can live with. Otherwise the alternative is to choose someone who will not on balance represent your views. Of course the consequence of this is rather large on the people of Iraq.