Today is midterm election day in the United States. I’ve always had an interest in politics, and in some ways am better informed about what’s going on in the US thanks to my love of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Americans tend to do things on a grander scale than us Brits, and politics is no exception. They spend more on campaigning and even the rhetoric is on another level.

These elections are notable by the rise of the Tea Party movement – essentially a right-wing following that has sprung up in the wake of huge government-funded bailouts in the dying days of the Bush administration and continued by the current administration. They are essentially looking for a reduction in the size of the state, and hark back to the ideals of the founding fathers and adherence to their interpretation of the United States Constitution.

This movement has been championed by the ultra conservative Fox News, and in particular Glenn Beck. Just to give you an idea of what Beck is like, here are a couple choice quotes:

On Barack Obama:

Glenn Beck: This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, I don't know what it is. 

Brian Kilmeade: Listen, you can't say he doesn't like white people. David Axelrod's white, Rahm Emanuel's his chief of staff, I think 70% of the people we see every day are white. Robert Gibbs is white—

Glenn Beck: I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. He has a — this guy is, I believe, a racist.

On the theory of evolution:

I don't think we came from monkeys. I think that's ridiculous. I haven't seen a half-monkey/half-person yet.

I’m sorry, this is from a guy who has a primetime TV show on a nationwide news network. I’ve seen his show a few times and it basically consists of him with a blackboard and chalk, general fearing mongering and spouting crazy conspiracy theories. Oh, and it often ends with him crying on air...

Can you imagine that on TV over here? He’d be laughed off quicker than Nick Griffin on Question Time. Unfortunately for most well adjusted sane people in the States who don’t think Obama’s a crazed secret Muslim hell-bent on destroying America, it sounds like the extremists are in for success at the polls tonight. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come for the 2012 presidential elections.

- Baydr