USA 2008 . . . . is democracy winning ?
It aint won yet - but it aint totally lost either. . . . in fact, its lost a LOT less this time, with a fair few sparks of a bit more . . . . from all quarters.
Remember, the postal ballots dont send back a receipt.
Remember, the "opacity" of the computer voting machines or vote tabulators - without a paper trail - means they are hard to check if "glitches" or "irregularities" occur . . . . there WERE signs of this after the last election. ( seefreepress.orgs election update - scroll back! ).
There are also signs that certain types - if this is what they were doing - were trying to machinate EACH party - internally. Possibly for those that might take bungs, or submit to other pressures - but possibly, also for their "blindspots" or the extent that they could get influenced, or played as caricatures against others - if people pressed their "prejudice" buttons.
The media - of both "sides" doesnt seem that immune from this either - words saying one thing as the pictures or layout seemed aimed to twist certain peoples "gut reactions" - or playing that "repetition" of myths scam, to lower the debate - or if possible obscure it entirely. There was certainly a lot of "dont-watch -this- watch- that! " after the so-called "crunch" "bail-outs" to distract "main street" from the flaws of wall street, the "City" etc.
THEN there was the "hardball politics as usual" . . . . but often, media spin, acting as if they were the old plausibly denied "147" campaigns - but quite possibly - the worst of it WITHOUT the backing of either campaign - at least up to the point where some of McCains new "advisors" seemed to prioritise stopping him talking about the incompetent avarice of Wall Street ahead of letting him talk straight. Remember, he wasnt the favourite of the machinators that took current administration to the public opinion low that it has - they battened onto him after. To a great extent he WAS running AGAINST them. ( They seem to intend a bit of a quiet comeback in the week after the election - e.g. virginia, miami meetings - but one hopes actual serious G.O.P types with integrity wont let them - ( see "USA Post-election putsch ?" posted ukindymedia 1/11/8 ). Like Palin, he had shown he was up for speaking out against those vested interests - either way - post-election - it is hoped he shakes off the influence of those P.R. types - there IS much to do.
The opinion-influencers that - in actual fact - support NEITHER side - have tried to pretend that this election is all about "colour". Talk about a distraction ! But thats the "subtle" spin . GET THIS : Obama aint "black" - hes weird. But in a useful way. . . . for all of us. Hes the little kid at school that did all that saluting the flag bit, but then ALSO grew up to TEACH the constitution. Different, yes - good thing too. We ARE each a minority of one - the question is often more about how much you bridge to other people . . . . when you explain, are you trying to explain TO people, or ACROSS them . . . . that sort of thing. Faced with the fact that he DID mean it, the "hardball politics" tried to say that all he could do was "words".
Aint much of a retort, but it was something to say back. But the apolitical "cunning plot" types - who - it is said - hoped to allow him a fair wind, for a bit, then have the Dems trash him, so alienating a lot of one section of society from the voting process for DECADES - were MUCH lower, trying to whip up fears of people, playing the most tenuous "guilt by association" tag games - to the extent that McCain had to disavow them - in fact to speak against them - several times. But he did. This was all the way to keeping a secret for the last 72 hours that his aunt from Kenya - where there were those murderous internal wars recently - had stayed in the USA when her visa ran out. . . . All that meant was that she had to get sent back the 147$ or so that she had sent his campaign despite needing it too. "Cunning plots" aint always clever.
But the vote fraud threat is real . Like wi-fi - it often increases the sense of scope of dodgy types at the same time as diminishing their actual straightforward SENSE. ( see a few of the excuses for some of the Ohio set-ups last time ! ) But with a bit of media pre-scam result expectation massage, it means a few people think its possible to get away with shaving, weighting or swapping votes - but theres only a certain amount they could do that, then people question it, then spot it, then catch it. After last election - in some places people are in jail. Inquiries are ongoing in others. A lot of people are looking out for that these days - despite the fact that polls are quite possibly "got at" too, to some extent.
What is needed is the attitude from both leadership teams to investigate EACH dodgy trail, in ALL situations - keeping in mind that things might have got set up to seem to support some of their favourite senators etc - when they did have total integrity - so that they were either wrongly stained by investigations, or scammed into complicity. The encouraging thing is that this DOES seem possible. All this is about is a straight election - there is much more to say about "what next", about not getting seperated out from people whose voices we are told are "off limits" to listen to AT ALL - from "either" margins. ( The people warning about this so-called credit "crunch" were also on those margins ) There is more to say about having what it takes to let others shine too - like either Rooseveldt, or that police C.O. from Starsky'n'Hutch . . . . America was often most itself when it was adding support to the world as it sorted itself out, least itself when it was getting used by the sort of vested interests a lot of people got out of Europe to get away from. The world DOES need a fresh page - a fair election in the USA doesnt open that door - but it unlocks it. We need that. Good luck people.

. . . . please pass this to friends etc across the pond on this wonderful interweb thing . . . . cheers



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ps, yes, "remembereacheleventh" - Igotmypoppytodaytoo