Chomsky: What Next? The Elections, the Economy, and the World - 1/4

[chewyfishsticks]

I don't have much of a point, other than Mr. Chomsky always fascinates my 20 year old mind. I wish people my age knew of his name and accomplishments rather than those of athletes and pop stars.

[bif7412]

Europe more racist than USA. that is really a strange statement coming from a linguistic. I think you need to clarify that a little bit.

[yrrmom]

See the following Youtube vid, titled "European racism":

/watch?v=jwpO-nnFY9g

I can't speak for Chomsky, but maybe this is the sort of thing he had in mind.

[Bredac]

well you are an idiot because its very true...do research before you open your dumb mouth.

[mathijs1987j]

I'd like some clarification as well. I'm not saying he's wrong, but his statement does certainly not reflect the common view in the Netherlands, where I live. About the video, soccer-fan vandalists are hardly average europeans.

[stirrrrrr]

"Europe has never gone through the civil rights movement like the US, to a less extent, Canada." I heard NC giving this as the reason for his argument. But I have only been to Europe for a few days. So dunno if the charge of racism is true.

[goodolfreaknjr]

nubbs- There are over 300 million people in the USA. If he won by only 8 million votes, that is not a landslide. It is a definitive win, but not a landslide. McCain nearly received half of the total votes, which means that no landslide is possible. 8 million is a lot of people, but you must look at it in context. Anyways, Obama is just another corporate candidate. Yay, to corrupt globalization and increased imperialism.

[oldjoe5]

Bush "won" in 2000 with less popular votes than Gore and then won in 2004 by far less than 8 million votes. Yet I seem to recall that result being characterized in the mass media as sufficient for a mandate

[yrrmom]

Of course. But that was just because Bush *declared* it a mandate, and the mass media essentially repeats (with little or no criticism) what the powerful declare.

[oldjoe5]

The I guess Obama needs to declare his victory and landslide and a mandate for his policies (whatever those are)and it becomes so.

[nubbs]

wasnt a landslide!? 8 million votes is pretty significant. receiving more votes than any other presidential candidate in history is pretty significant. winning 53% of the vote, more than any democrat since FDR, is pretty significant.

[yrrmom]

The *total* number of votes he received is irrelevant. After all, there's more people in the US than at any other time in US history; so what? Now, when you look at the *margin* by which Obama won, it's only something like 14%. Not really what many would call a "landslide". But, whatever word you use to describe it, the margin isn't very big - just 14% or thereabouts. By the way, FDR had a margin of victory of 24%. Don't know if that's a "landslide", but it's a lot bigger than Obama's win.

[nubbs]

yeah, you're right. 70 plus million votes is completely irrelevant.

you know, people like you really shouldn't be throwing around the word "irrelevant", unless you're using it to be ironical

tell me where obama and mcgovern, amy goodman's loverboy, differ on domestic policy?

all you people like you and chomksy do is bitch. the man just defeated the republicans, and he did it as the most liberal senator in congress. the man is a black mcgovern, and still you bitch

you are irrelevant

[yrrmom]

Maybe naively, I didn't expect that you would turn hysterical. You have; so I'll ignore the hysterical outbursts in your last comment & stick here to the one point worth responding to. Obviously, I meant that the total # of votes isn't relevant WITH RESPECT TO the question of whether his victory was a landslide. "Landslide" entails a *comparison*; so whether it was a landslide doesn't depend on the absolute # of votes he won, but rather how many he won *by*. I.e., his *margin* of victory.

[nubbs]

we live in different worlds. i live in a world where 5 billion people are celebrating the victory of a black man with the most liberal voting record in the senate to the white house, and did it by beating a "war hero" by 8 MILLION votes.

and i could respond to chomsky that the landslide would have been much bigger if anyone other than mccain was running for the republicans. romney? guliani? they would have lost like mcgovern or mondale or dukakis

and 8 million for a "muslim terrorist" is huge

[KentAllard]

forget it yrrmom, some people cant figure out the differenc between raw number and percentage and why it matters. nubbs is like the people who focus on the raw numbers of taxes or foreign aide, whil conveniently ignoring what the percentages are.

[oldjoe5]

You shouldn't be throwing around the "word" ironical unless you are being ironic

[polidic]

don't forget that non voters outnumber voters in either major party 2 to 1. So more people didn't vote then did.

[amcnea]

I would say Obama won by a landslide if you look at the electoral votes:

Obame: 365 -- 365/(365 + 173) = 68%

McCain: 173 -- 173/(365 + 173) = 32%

Thats a difference of 36%, I would call that a landslide.

But if you look at the popular vote:

Obama: 52%

McCain: 46%

That is only a 6% difference, this I would NOT call a landslide.

However, the popular vote doesn't matter in our system, so I would say that Obama won by a landslide.

[waggabu]

45% opposition vote is hardly a clear mandate from the people. I think that's what Chomsky is getting at. Especially on such disparate levels of campaign financing.

With the country in major crisis and with a very centrist Republican candidate, it's amazing that so many Republicans voted red. Maybe it's because they lost the true conservative vote to third parties...

[RapMastaZ]

Exactly. Good post.

[iopital]

a man that knows what he's talking about

[percyeve]

Thanks so much for uploading. Much appreciated.