The Bush Win- a sad day for the world
I can't say that I didn't predict it, but for a small moment yesterday I allowed myself to contemplate a Kerry win. This is so sad... I hope that my other predictions for the next 4 years aren't realized as well. I empathize with all the emotionally crushed Democrats who voted for Kerry and feel as I do. I will try to keep your dissent in mind when I condemn the evils your government has committed and will no doubt continue to amass in the future ... and I'll try to remember that Bush's actions don't reflect those of all Americans. It is ironic that this election was won on alleged moral issues - evangelists are seriously misguided to view Bush as a man who reflects Christian ideals. I am not a practising Christian but I do know that compassion, tolerance, love for one's neighbour and a rejection of violence are an integral part of their beliefs. This is not reflected in the actions of the present administration, and avarice and greed may also be included among their collective sins.
It was quite clear that Bush was courting the evangelical vote - why Kerry's strategists didn't recognize this for the threat it evidently was and counter it with an even greater push for the youth and minority vote is hard to comprehend. They didn't adequately present Kerry's superior political record . In the end, Kerry performed better than I expected, but needed more guidance in terms of how he comported himself. (ie. looking directly at TV audience during debates, correctly holding the mike, not blocking his wife from view during interviews - though probably a media strategy)
Well, it's over.
Here's an article to help us understand this fiasco a little, though it doesn't explain away the substantial majority who voted for him. Anyone who has ever taken a Greyhound bus across the States and witnessed the level of intelligence, education and general comprehension of world affairs reflected in the average middle American, will completely understand how this could have occurred.
Keep in mind that Gore won the popular vote last time, but still lost. (Which doesn't really offer any comfort- sorry!)
Poll officials dismayed by extent of dirty tricks and double-dirty tricks
by Jo Becker and David Finkel
As if things weren't complicated enough, here comes the dirt.
Registered voters who have been somehow unregistered. Democrats who suddenly find they've been
re-registered as Republicans. A flier announcing that election day has been extended to Wednesday.
Dirty tricks are a staple of campaigns, but election officials say this year's could achieve new highs in
numbers and new lows in scope, especially in key states such as Florida and Ohio, where
special-interest groups poured in to influence the close race.
"In my 16 years as an election administrator, I've never seen anything like this," said Ion Sancho,
supervisor of elections in Leon County, Florida. "I see it as an expression of a political culture that has
evolved in the United States of win at any cost. It's not partisan, but it's 'Just lie, cheat and steal, and
ethics be damned'."
The problem in Leon County: students at Florida State and Florida A&M universities, some of whom
signed petitions to legalise medical marijuana or impose stiffer penalties for child molesters,
unknowingly had their party registration switched to Republican and their addresses changed.
Officials say students at the University of Florida in Alachua County have made similar complaints
and that about 4,000 potential voters in all have been affected. Local papers traced some of the
problems to a group hired by the Florida Republican party, which has denounced the shenanigans.
Switching voters' party affiliations does not affect their ability to vote, but changing addresses does,
because when voters show up at their proper polling places, they won't be registered there.
The college scam has also made an appearance in Pennsylvania, along with a separate scam in
Allegheny County, where officials received a flurry of phone calls about fliers handed out at a
Pittsburgh-area mall and mailed to an unknown number of homes. The flier, distributed on bogus but
official-looking stationery, told voters that "due to immense voter turnout expected on Tuesday", the
election had been extended. Republicans should vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday. A
criminal investigation has been launched.
Authorities in several states are investigating claims, by former employees of groups paid by both the
Republican party and Democratic-leaning interest groups, that they destroyed or did not turn in new
registrations by voters of the opposite party.
Clouding investigations are claims and counter-claims not only about tricks, but double-dirty tricks. In
Wisconsin a flier is circulating in Milwaukee's black neighbourhoods that purports to be from the
"Milwaukee Black Voters League". "If you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the
presidential election," the flier reads. "If you violate any of these laws, you can get 10 years in prison
and your children will get taken away from you."
Chris Lato, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican party, called the fliers "appalling", but
wondered whether Democratic interest groups might be to blame. He said that fliers falsely claiming
to represent the Republicans might be an attempt to bolster turnout among black voters.
In Lake County, Ohio, some voters received a memo on bogus Board of Elections letterhead
informing voters who registered through drives by the Democratic party and the National Association
for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) that they could not vote. Election officials referred
the matter to the sheriff.
Lawyers for the Ohio Republican party, who have charged Democratic groups with registering
fictitious characters such as Mary Poppins, said they condemned election fraud and misinformation
campaigns of any kind. But some Lake County Republicans have adopted the double-dirty-trick
explanation, saying Democrats are out to make them look bad.
Whatever the motive, officials say voters are genuinely confused by the misinformation. In the
Cleveland area election officials said they received a spate of complaints after voters began receiving
phone calls incorrectly informing them their polling place had changed. Unknown volunteers began
showing up at voters' doors, illegally offering to collect and deliver completed absentee ballots to the
election office.
In South Carolina Charleston County officials warned voters to ignore a fake letter that purports to be
from the NAACP and threatens voters who have outstanding parking tickets or have failed to pay child
support with arrest.
The Rev Joe Darby, a South Carolina NAACP official, said: "This isn't new ? it's the South Carolina
politics of ignorance . . . But I don't think people will be fooled."
Washington Post
The Guardian Weekly 2004-11-05, page 6
It was quite clear that Bush was courting the evangelical vote - why Kerry's strategists didn't recognize this for the threat it evidently was and counter it with an even greater push for the youth and minority vote is hard to comprehend. They didn't adequately present Kerry's superior political record . In the end, Kerry performed better than I expected, but needed more guidance in terms of how he comported himself. (ie. looking directly at TV audience during debates, correctly holding the mike, not blocking his wife from view during interviews - though probably a media strategy)
Well, it's over.
Here's an article to help us understand this fiasco a little, though it doesn't explain away the substantial majority who voted for him. Anyone who has ever taken a Greyhound bus across the States and witnessed the level of intelligence, education and general comprehension of world affairs reflected in the average middle American, will completely understand how this could have occurred.
Keep in mind that Gore won the popular vote last time, but still lost. (Which doesn't really offer any comfort- sorry!)
Poll officials dismayed by extent of dirty tricks and double-dirty tricks
by Jo Becker and David Finkel
As if things weren't complicated enough, here comes the dirt.
Registered voters who have been somehow unregistered. Democrats who suddenly find they've been
re-registered as Republicans. A flier announcing that election day has been extended to Wednesday.
Dirty tricks are a staple of campaigns, but election officials say this year's could achieve new highs in
numbers and new lows in scope, especially in key states such as Florida and Ohio, where
special-interest groups poured in to influence the close race.
"In my 16 years as an election administrator, I've never seen anything like this," said Ion Sancho,
supervisor of elections in Leon County, Florida. "I see it as an expression of a political culture that has
evolved in the United States of win at any cost. It's not partisan, but it's 'Just lie, cheat and steal, and
ethics be damned'."
The problem in Leon County: students at Florida State and Florida A&M universities, some of whom
signed petitions to legalise medical marijuana or impose stiffer penalties for child molesters,
unknowingly had their party registration switched to Republican and their addresses changed.
Officials say students at the University of Florida in Alachua County have made similar complaints
and that about 4,000 potential voters in all have been affected. Local papers traced some of the
problems to a group hired by the Florida Republican party, which has denounced the shenanigans.
Switching voters' party affiliations does not affect their ability to vote, but changing addresses does,
because when voters show up at their proper polling places, they won't be registered there.
The college scam has also made an appearance in Pennsylvania, along with a separate scam in
Allegheny County, where officials received a flurry of phone calls about fliers handed out at a
Pittsburgh-area mall and mailed to an unknown number of homes. The flier, distributed on bogus but
official-looking stationery, told voters that "due to immense voter turnout expected on Tuesday", the
election had been extended. Republicans should vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday. A
criminal investigation has been launched.
Authorities in several states are investigating claims, by former employees of groups paid by both the
Republican party and Democratic-leaning interest groups, that they destroyed or did not turn in new
registrations by voters of the opposite party.
Clouding investigations are claims and counter-claims not only about tricks, but double-dirty tricks. In
Wisconsin a flier is circulating in Milwaukee's black neighbourhoods that purports to be from the
"Milwaukee Black Voters League". "If you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the
presidential election," the flier reads. "If you violate any of these laws, you can get 10 years in prison
and your children will get taken away from you."
Chris Lato, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican party, called the fliers "appalling", but
wondered whether Democratic interest groups might be to blame. He said that fliers falsely claiming
to represent the Republicans might be an attempt to bolster turnout among black voters.
In Lake County, Ohio, some voters received a memo on bogus Board of Elections letterhead
informing voters who registered through drives by the Democratic party and the National Association
for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) that they could not vote. Election officials referred
the matter to the sheriff.
Lawyers for the Ohio Republican party, who have charged Democratic groups with registering
fictitious characters such as Mary Poppins, said they condemned election fraud and misinformation
campaigns of any kind. But some Lake County Republicans have adopted the double-dirty-trick
explanation, saying Democrats are out to make them look bad.
Whatever the motive, officials say voters are genuinely confused by the misinformation. In the
Cleveland area election officials said they received a spate of complaints after voters began receiving
phone calls incorrectly informing them their polling place had changed. Unknown volunteers began
showing up at voters' doors, illegally offering to collect and deliver completed absentee ballots to the
election office.
In South Carolina Charleston County officials warned voters to ignore a fake letter that purports to be
from the NAACP and threatens voters who have outstanding parking tickets or have failed to pay child
support with arrest.
The Rev Joe Darby, a South Carolina NAACP official, said: "This isn't new ? it's the South Carolina
politics of ignorance . . . But I don't think people will be fooled."
Washington Post
The Guardian Weekly 2004-11-05, page 6
posted by Dawn One at 11:39 pm
1 Comments:
The Morning After (2004 11 02 15:00 UTC)
I do not know about you, but I felt a bit of a let down the morning after the election. As the results began to sink in, I felt a great sense of despair. Not because President Bush won, we all knew that it would be close to begin with, but because what the underlying meaning of his victory means. Mr. Bush can no longer be considered the accidental President. No, without doubt, he clearly represents the majority opinion, for good or for bad. Clearly, I believe for the bad.
Why? Because America not only voted for a Republican President, but also for Republican Governors, Congressmen, and Senators. They have voted for a ban on gay marriage, in every state that it was on the ballot. From any vantage point that you look from the morning after, it is hard not to feel that we have just taken a great step back socially speaking. One that will not easily be reversed, because now with unfettered majorities everywhere you look, coupled with obvious organizational strength on the ground, the extreme right wing of American politics has a sense of empowerment that it has never had, not even during the Reagan era.
This day marks not only the continuation of what is proving to be a flawed, if not a failing foreign policy, and misguided economic and fiscal policy, but the further implementation of a fundamentalist Christian based social policies that in no way can be described as compassionate, except for and by those who share the faith. Social policies that will foster an environment were debate, creativity, and, lifestyle choices will be truncated if not stifled outright. (Do not believe me; wait till someone wants to start a prayer group at your place at your work place.) And, one whose affect on society will be longer lasting than what some are currently foreseeing. Watch when the next Supreme Court nominations come up as they are expected to do so during this Presidential term. We are no longer talking four more years when it comes to the appointment of Supreme Court Justices.
Worse, the defeat of Democrats now puts their remaining members of the House and of the Senate in the unenviable position of being cast as obstructionists and miscreants. In other words, if they do not plan their up coming battles carefully they will risk, by their very actions, further alienation with the electorate.
No, today is not a good day for me. Today I find myself standing in the shadows cast by fear and ignorance. Today, whatever hopes or optimism I might have had held out for America has been blotted out, at least for the time being. Today, I stand perplexed at how a people who have been lied too, if not by commission, at the very least by omission and by narrow culling of the facts, can still concluded that they are better off with, and, more trusting of the man who is ultimately accountable for the lies and the policy choices. A people, who have just voted for social, economic policies that for the most part will benefit very few of them in the long run, and, for a diplomatic course that will most likely continue cause America to be estranged within the community of nations.
That this should happen in country, whose Constitution is certainly amongst the greatest political document ever written. A document that was crafted by some of the greatest political minds of their time, and dare I say, liberals, who were informed by the Enlightenment, a document that held out such a bold and a bright vision for the nation that they were founding makes the results all that more disheartening. Then again, maybe America must enter into its own Dark Ages, before it can come back with its own Age of Enlightenment. If so, then I hope that it will be for no more than a generation, possibly even less.
Today, the results of this election are not just the failure of not appealing to hearts, let alone the minds of the people, but in some sense a failure to its founders and their vision.
Today, I realized that I still care a lot about America.
Paolo Bramucci,
Montreal QC, Canada
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