HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Liverpool Indymedia

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Letter to America . . . . Is democracy winning ?

x | 04.11.2008 12:23 | Climate Camp 2008 | Education | Globalisation | Other Press | Liverpool | South Coast

I was thinking about the campaigns, the coverage, people stepping up.
The spins, the "subtle" spins, the hardball politics,
the apolitical machinations, the vote frauds -
(registration / computers / postal) - all those failed cunning plots - etc!
but . . . . then I got this grin on my face from somewhere . . . .

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



x



ps, yes, "remembereacheleventh" - Igotmypoppytodaytoo

x

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

[navigation.actions2016]

[navigation.actions2015]

[navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Actions 2013

G8 2013

Actions 2012

Workfare

Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech

Publish Your News


Temporary Scroogle search

-->