I had a bit of an epiphany today. In a way it's good that Bush stole the election. Sure, not for the ordinary American citizen, or for the raped African child whose local abortion clinic has been closed down, but for the political scene in general.
Perhaps I'm mistaken on this, but it seems to me that the main reason that the majority of Europeans bewail an invasion of Iraq is not so much opposition to the war itself, but simply because, outside of the US, Bush is utterly detested. The US has gone to war in the past with less justification than it has this time, but not since Vietnam has there been this level of dissent. People regard Bush as a simian religious maniac who fixes elections, and so everything he does is wrong by default. If Gore were President and going ahead with this war, I doubt there would be a lot of opposition. After all, none of Clinton's foreign adventures evoked much protest in this country.
Now, it's clear that European anti-war sentiment has no effect on the White House: but at least the political scene in countries like Scotland, England, France and Germany is the healthier for it, and political apathy, I think, has decreased. We have elections coming up this year in Scotland, and, with any luck, distaste for the government's enthusiasm to be Bush's bitch will be reflected in the results.
