This is how I feel about elections, and I'm sure a lot of YOU do as well. Yes, Shifra, there is an election every four years, but all we do is throw out the old crooks for NEW ones. Sigh. Worse, everybody seems to only want to punish the GOP, so those Republicans who AREN'T behind Bush will probably be flushed down the drain with the rest---leaving us with a bunch of career-Dems whose ideas are rather stale. Barak Obama looks good, but you KNOW if he tries to run the Dems will shoot him because they're all so hyped on Hillary. She might be good; I just can't stand her "it's coming to me" attitude. If Condi Rice runs, I'd rather vote for HER, regardless of this Bushwa mess. Or McCain, even. I gotta tell ya, it's hard to be EITHER Republican or Democrat these days! Look at all those candidates switching parties out West...
And it won't help them. Can ANYone honestly believe their shpiel? "I only switched because the GOP is too conservative now" sounds awfully similar to "I'll do ANYthing to be (re) elected". True, some may be telling the truth, except that waiting until the last possible moment to switch gives the appearance of an "avak"", as in "avak loshen hora", for example. To over-simplify,that's when you follow the halacha to the letter in order to be "spiritually" correct, but you know those three people can't keep a secret, either. The "dust of" an aveira, literally. It usually works; however, after all the "dust of" the GOP, I doubt everyone will fall for it.
That's the problem with politics, especially here. God is spelled "Show me the money". Who can afford it? Only those of "independent means", either having money oneself or having wealthy backers. Once elected, lobbies and Big Business (assuming one isn't a crook, which is vanishingly unlikely) will freely lard your "war-chest" so that contenders face almost certain defeat on the advertising level. Assuming one IS a crook then, (barring scandal) one can be elected virtually FOREVER. Besides, it's no secret that congressmen can become almost instant millionaires, what with all those fees for speaking, etc. And don't forget those famous Midnight Pay Raises. Who ELSE has the privilage of deciding their wages? Then there's that idiotic arguement about money equalling free-speech. Gee, I thought ALL our votes counted equally, but now that some of us seem to be MORE equal in proportion to our disposable income, I guess "We, the People" don't really count anymore. Adding in that wonderful 16th Amendment, which defined corporations as "people", too, well, how much DOES it take to have the best Congress money can buy?
Is Diebold a threat? Yes, but not the perfect monster the media implies. It doesn't surprise me in the least that voting machines can be hacked; I lived in NYC for eleven years, after all. With all those "poll volunteers" banging on the side of the machine after three minutes, and yelling "Hurry up", of COURSE all that jiggling would result in votes lost. But why not demand paper ballots? What law says ballots MUST be electronic? Many states have already passed Paper Ballot Only laws. Here in New Hampster, most of us still vote with #2 pencil on paper ballot, behind a red-white-&-Blue curtain tacked onto a flimsy wooden frame. Some towns even HAND-count their ballots, yet. If millions turned out to vote, demanding paper ballots, how easy would it be to fiddle with THAT mess of paper? Well, not counting all those "pregnant" chads, etc....
Okay, there are paper-shredders. I think Ollie North single-handedly gave the shredder companies their best advertising, in fact. And I know that a certain percentage of votes are ALWAYS "disqualified" for one reason or another. Election fraud goes back to the founding of our nation---when George Washington and his opponent both made sure to keep those rum barrels flowing at the polls. Good reason for women not voting then; we DID tend to spoil all the fun for the guys after 1920. Still, the less people who vote make it EASY for voter-fraud, because who CARES nowadays? All "We the People" seem to do is complain that our votes don't count yet, with so few voting, every ONE of those who do vote can count as TEN votes, or more. It's simple math, really.
And if millions turn out? So much the better! The quality of our candidates has seriously dropped since voting fell off recently (no, I don't think it has anything to do with those dropping SAT scores, at least not VERY much). Candidates don't have to work hard for votes, as only the party faithful will turn out, so why should they care about what the REST of us think? A lot of this mess is our fault; we just sat back and let it all happen. Oh sure, we made some noise, but nothing like the protests in the 60s. At this point, Dubya HAS his "Enabling Act". If we don't get off our collective "fat tush" to vote, then we're done. Freedom, as one blog put it, is FAR more than being allowed to download porn and @#$% over the internet. Orwell's 1984 had that; the "proles" were kept in line by having plenty of "free" access to porn, beer, and "pop" music. Sort of the modern equivalent to Rome's "bread and circus" entertainment, except we don't throw Christians to the lions anymore.
Believe me, I WANT to be wrong on this! I'm hoping people will finally "wake-up" after all we've been through. Unfortunately, from what I see thus far it's not gonna happen. Are we so willfully blind as to REFUSE to confront reality? Yes, I'm afraid we are.
Yes, I'm back into protest-mode (as if you hadn't guessed by now), and I suppose I'll make a fool of myself once again, but what the hell---being officially an "old fart" at 57, soon to be 58 in January---I figure I'm entitled already. After all, what's the point of being an adult if you can't act like an over-grown teenager? Besides, when you get old enough (around 80 or so), it's considered "cute". Like the Red Hat Ladies in their deliberately mis-matched purple outfits, us old hippies can strut our stuff and ENJOY the laughs from the "audience".
