Carpe diem,
Mark A. Adams JD/MBA (Full letter here)
Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again
In a very real sense, each primary will be about doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. We've got federally mandated and funded electronic voting machines throughout the United States thanks to the bipartisan Help America Vote Act and billions of taxpayer dollars. We have just a few voting machine types, with demonstrated security problems in every state. And we have the foundation for suspicion and disaffection with the political process through secrecy and obscurity in voting systems, regulations. All this is consistently dismissed by a political class irritated with the increasing demands for openness and accountability.
One more ingredient in the mix is the foreshortened primary season. We're rushed to pick a final candidate through "super" Tuesdays designed to force a selection with months to go before the national conventions this summer. What do we really know about the leaders in the field? One thing for certain is that they're the best funded of the lot. They have to be. The compressed primary schedule requires one thing above all others, money and lots of it.
So we're on the precipice of what has to be the most important election in the nation's history given the stakes and all we've got is the vulgar quatrain of anti democratic processes in place: heavily funded campaigns from private interests (i.e., legalized bribery); ongoing voter suppression of the poor and minorities; secret vote counting; and a rush to judgment that prevents real deliberation and debate. It's another mission accomplished by The Money Party.
"Those few of you who still think that we can trust having our votes counted in secret will be happy to know that your view is shared by many powerful and influential people. For example, Joseph Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." If you want to roll back the evolution of civilization from citizen influence over government to a form of feudalism, then you might as well quit reading now."
Mark Adams, JD, MBA
END
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