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The Ultimate Reality Show; Election 2004; And the Loser is.... Democracy

by David Thompson

The election of 2004 is already in the bag just a week before the actual election.   In this case, in the bag, does not mean there is a certain winner this time, but rather, a loser is the definitive certainty. 

Democracy, it seems, has run its course, in these United States.  The system has become so contaminated with money and corporate influence masquerading as free speech, that discernment by the voting public is impossible. 

The American people might as well be deciding whether a Ford is a better car than a Chevy, and doing so as though it really mattered.  The campaign process has been reduced to feeding the public nonsense and the public is willing to bet their lives on the same nonsense.  Truth is not an option anymore.  It has been consigned to the ash heap as an inconvenient statistic that gets in the way of the tainted political process, and belief systems that deny the truth.

Perception is what comforts Americans.  Reality, has taken on new meaning.  Reality is television.  Reality is ‘Survivor’, ‘The Bachelor’, and the ‘Jerry Springer Show’. 

As of today, one thousand one hundred and five American service men and women have died in the Iraq War; well over 8,000 have been maimed and wounded, and even these statistics do not tell whole story.  As grim as these facts are, they merely appear as an asterisk on the evening news, and the daily newspapers provide a perfunctory service by publishing the wire service reports.

The reality is that truth is a nuisance, an annoyance that interferes with the desired political message that, in particular, the current administration wants the public to believe.  The opposition does not go unscathed, but they are not the party that controls the White House or the Congress, or for that matter the Federal Communications Commission, the republicans do. 

And so, there will be no ‘officially’ declared winner of the Presidential election of November 2^nd, 2004, because there cannot be one. 

It will be impossible, under the voting protocols in place, to count the votes.  Both sides of the political spectrum are lined up to challenge voters at the polling places, as well as to nit pick the validity of the votes that are cast.  This means, that the counting of votes and determining a winner will not happen by the following day, nor, will it likely happen for days or weeks.  It will not matter if the exit polling declares that one candidate has soundly beaten the other, the fight over the election results will have just begun. 

The voting process has not only been compromised, it has been manipulated in order to create this confusion intentionally. 

The Republican Party, specifically, knows that it is in the minority in terms of registered voters.  It also knows that it can only hope to win the election by changing the minds of voters who are prepared to vote for another candidate.   At this late date, the polls indicate a race that is dead even, meaning that no voter is inclined to change their respective minds about whom they’re going to vote for.  

The only way the president’s party can hope to maintain its hold on the political process is to be able to exert some sort of influence on voters causing them to switch sides, or by exercising some methodology that allows them to steal the election.  

Past behavior, and a fondness for lying as a means to an end by this White House, doesn’t bode well for the coming election.

We will know just how true this is by what occurs in the next week’s activities.  

If any of the voting irregularities, outright fraud, or voter intimidation occurs that raised their ugly head in 2000 and are revisited this time, it is likely that the public will not stand by passively and wait for the courts to select a winner. 

We can also be certain that the Electoral College, at least in the public mind, will finally be dismissed with, but, that if the status quo prevails, it won’t matter anyway.  Even if there is a decisive popular vote, the other side is going to challenge the results, regardless, and electing the president by popular vote will not likely become a reality, ever.  

Democracy, of course, is the loser.   Winning an election by the popular vote may be a reality two times in a row, but it’s more likely it won’t be the determining factor in selecting the President of the United States, because current law says otherwise.

This election cycle is simply the training ground for all future elections in the United States.   Time is not on the side of the democratic process in the United States because, the necessity and urgency required in ‘getting on with the affairs of government’ must take precedent over the messy details and perceived errors of the election process. 

In the mean time, regardless of which candidate has a plurality of the popular vote, half of those who’ve cast their votes are going to feel disenfranchised.  My guess is that the public will not stand for the uncertainty, republican or democrat. 

Hardcore support on both sides of the political scale amounts to between 30-40 % of voters.  By all standards of measurement, these demonstrative supporters of their respective parties criticize and condemn the other party, loudly.   The allegations leveled on each side will spew out and fury and rage may well reign. 

These circumstances may also insure that the chaos of the voting process will also mutate into pandemonium across the country.  

Neither party will be much interested in the process of allowing the courts, or the strong-arm of the government to decide the election results.   Neither side trusts the government, especially if their side appears to be the loser. 

If these circumstances take place, the national security of the nation will be in jeopardy, and one doesn’t need a vivid imagination to ponder the response of those entrusted to maintain the security of the nation.

Intervention by the United States Department of Justice, State and Local Law enforcement agencies and the National Guard, are already a part of any anticipated circumstance that might lead to the disintegration of law and order, regardless of whether it is caused by a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or the failure of the electoral process to choose a candidate for President of the United States.   

The Department of Homeland Security has been charged with preparing for any contingency that could threaten the stability of the nation, and an election result fiasco brought on directly because of the crash of the voting process, is an emergency that most of us outside the government haven’t thought about. 

But rest assured, because of the debacle that occurred in Florida in 2000, and more recently because of the fallout from the events of 9-11 in 2001, the government’s response to deal with the chaos that may confront the ‘homeland’ from any perceived threat to its stability, is real, and will it be dealt with, in spite of what the public may feel about what the government can and cannot do.  

Armed with the ambiguity inherent in the Patriot Act, the government can do whatever it perceives necessary to preserve the integrity of the nation.   It is the law of the land now, and we, the voters, are the victims of our own making.    

It doesn’t take great intellect to ascertain that if the voting problems that occurred in the recent past, have not been fixed in the interim, the same or worse situation is likely going to happen the next time you try to duplicate the election process. 

Ironically, for the United States, it is democracy, in the form of its grandest component, the voting process itself, which will determine the demise of the American experiment. 

We have chosen to vote ourselves out of existence.

*David Thompson philothompson@verizon.net is a freelance writer, a contributing writer to the New Unionist newspaper, and operates a bookstore in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.