Liam

Is the only way to defend Canada ripping apart the US? YankAbroad was not being critical of Canada, just of politicians who play games with the GLBT community. The same could be said of countless politicians here in the US. Please learn the difference between criticising a politician and a people.

But isn't the NDP much more liberal than many of the points I raise? While a Democrat here in the US (and I see myself as fairly moderate, but to a red stater I am probably a flaming liberal), I firmly believe that government can often be the problem, not the solution. For example, I am more a fan of free enterprise and a flatter tax scheme. I am a strong proponent of maintaining military preparedness (and the use of it under the right circumstances) and I am a big fan of law and order. On the other hand, I am a firm believer in gay marriage -- thank goodness I live in Massachusetts where it is legal. But, dare I say this on a Canadian board?, I support the right for an individual to own a gun. Am I still a semi-NDPer?

May I apply this question to the US since I am American? My ideal US would look like this: - we would be committed to educational excellence, even if it meant ocassionally disagreeing with teachers unions - we would gradually work toward energy independence by putting more emphasis on solar, wind, nuclear and renewable energy sources rather than relying on imported and domestically produced petroleum - our population would be more concentrated in cities rather than in vast suburban and exurban developments and we'd build more public transportation infrastructure - we would put more emphasis on diplomatic solutions to world events, but keep our military fully armed and at the ready should diplomacy fail or should there be an international crisis - we would forever separate church and state particularly since each is so completely meddlesome in the other's business - we would really value families by protecting vacation time, provide for more fully paid maternity and paternity leaves, and some federal funding for daycares so that the working poor can actually afford to go to work - internationally and domestically, we would put greater emphasis on individual rights, civil liberties and economic freedom - at a minimum, we would guarantee free health care for children and the elderly (how conservatives can claim to be pro-life but against guaranteeing health care to the weakest members of society makes my head spin) - we would have a flatter tax system that didn't punish people with higher tax rates as they became more successful

The "melting pot" concept was a late 1800's, early 1900's description of the assimilation of non-Americans into the US. That era of immigrants largely clung onto many of their ethnic traditions (forming Little Italys, Chinatowns, Ancient Order of Hibernian groups, etc.), but almost all of them insisted that their children learn and speak English and conform to the dominant Anglo culture. In fact, most of these immigrant groups eventually moved up in society and moved out from the inner cities to the live the American dream out in the suburbs. As a practical matter, the melting pot concept no longer exists as it did back then. Today's immigrants are less likely to force their kids to speak English and they cling a little more to their homeland cultures. The US is now more like a stew pot -- individual immigrant groups maintain much of their own identity and form, but melt down a bit at the edges to add flavor to the underlying, (and still) dominant Anglo culture. The melting pot does not exist as a concept in terms of regional differences among English speaking groups within the US. There can be huge differences in slang, food, belief systems, etc. within the US. So the food, slang and belief systems among Georgians can be vastly different from that of a New Englander. After the mass migrations of people from state to state after WW2, those regional differences have been growing fewer and fewer, but it's not really what Americans mean by the melting pot concept.

After the 2004 US election, a handful of American liberals threatened to move to Canada. Perhaps when Harper and the Tories win next week, we'll see a handful of Canadian Liberals lining up to move to Blue states?

You should be ashame dof yourself. Not for rascism, not for appropriating black culture, but for using "izzle". That shit went out in 2004, man. (Hangs head in shame)

The simple answer to this question is No, not everyone in the US is racist. I live in Boston, which is considered a very liberal city in the US, and my city a checkered past WRT race. Things here are much better and much more inter-racial now than thirty years ago. Personally, I don't have any friends who I consider racist and I don't think I have ever heard anyone here use the "N word". (Well, except in a joking way, I do occasionally call an African-American buddy of mine "my nizzle".) The N word was a staple of my upbringing outside NYC and my siblings, who still live down there, are frequently racist. I spend half of my visits to them rolling my eyes and the other half plugging my ears. I think a lot of racism comes down to education. With education, your world expands, you begin to understand different points of view and racism, to a large extent, just fades away.