The election in Afghanistan, according to all the "mainstream" press reports (and the Bush administration), went remarkably smoothly. And the Bush administration says they're gearing up for elections in Iraq next January.These are, by any standard, third-world countries, with no history of free elections. They have no mechanisms in place for ensuring that elections are legitimately planned and executed. Despite all this, smooth elections are held - or at any rate, planned - within a couple of years of beginning the process.
Yet here in America, four years after one of the most botched elections in our history, with more history and more money available to fix the problems than any country in the world, we still can't seem to get things right.
Early voting in Florida is already showing signs of serious problems. Voter registration fraud is running rampant in states from Ohio to Nevada. Once again, we may wake up on the day after the election without having the slightest idea who won.
What went wrong?
Well, for one thing, this time George W. Bush can't blame Osama bin Laden. He can't blame Saddam Hussein. He can't blame "liberals" either in or out of Congress. He can't blame anyone outside of his coterie of power. George W. Bush and his Republican friends created the laws two years ago that have led to this morass. The major problems seem to be only in states, such as Florida and Ohio, which are controlled by Republicans. And this time, only George W. Bush and the Republicans are to blame.
What went wrong is that the people who have no interest in fair elections in America were in charge. The good news is that despite their blatantly crooked (dare I say "criminal"?) attempts to sabotage the electoral process in the modern world's first and oldest representative democracy, the Republicans may actually lose this one.
It would be the ultimate irony, and the ultimate proof of incompetence.
Don't worry, though. The Republicans have plenty of lawyers (yes, the claim to hate lawyers but they have a whole lot of 'em on their payroll). Those Republican lawyers are ready to challenge everything they don't like. And the Republican spin-meisters will be ready to back up the lawyers in the media. After all, Republican lawyers and spinners won the last election, so naturally they're fully prepared to go down that same route to victory this time.
If we let them.
The sad truth is, the only way we can ensure free elections in America is to overthrow the current regime. If the Republicans can cheat their way to victory this year, it is guaranteed that they'll cheat in every election we have.
The founding fathers set up the original Constitution with severe limits on free elections. They didn't trust the people to make the right decisions. They set up the Electoral College to take the power of the vote away from the people. Over 200 years later, it seems the people in power don't dare trust us either.
Class dismissed.
Copyright 2004, Dan Jacoby
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