I don't know what to think, or what's going on in America. I'm afraid, and I'm not sure what's going to happen anymore. I don't know what to think about our country, or whether I have faith in most of America anymore. I don't know how things went so wrong. Perhaps this, more than anything else, indicates that the founders were correct in limiting who could elect the president.
A bottle of single-malt scotch does little to dull the pain, especially when you need to be able to drive home afterwards. Even after I'm done driving, I don't see how even the strongest of spirits could improve mine.
So the question exists on what went wrong. What has happened to cause this to happen again. This election season featured mudslinging, stretching of the facts, and blatant lies; more so than any campaign since the related campaign of 1988 showcasing Willie Horton. A large portion of the campaign, in fact, seemed to be designed to mislead the American public. More people voted in this election than any other U.S. Presidential election, so voter apathy is not even a question; voter naivety though did play a large part and studies leading up to the election indicated. Moreover, indications with problems trying to vote, and attempts to confuse voters, also caused problems. There have been many discrepancies that have yet to be accounted for causing some to raise claims of tampering.
In the modern world, where seemingly everything from ordering groceries to getting a college education and earning a living can be done over the Internet, the topic of Internet voting comes up frequently around election time. Advocates indicate that this would be the perfect way of addressing the apathetic American electorate by making it easy for them to vote--opponents argue the same thing. The problem would be that many people voting would be uninformed and would not be able to make an intelligent decision when it came time to cast their votes. Even with our system as it is, it seems that somewhere between 25% and 50% of our electorate votes while being dangerously misinformed.
A report by the Program on International Policy Attitudes indicates that as much as three-quarters of those who supported Bush were out of touch with the reality of world events and world attitudes. Despite conclusions by Congress which indicated that Iraq neither supported al Qaeda nor had weapons of mass destruction, 72% of Bush supporters believed that there were WMD or a major program developing them and 63% thought that the Congressional committee had concluded that Iraq had supported al Qaeda. The report also indicates that Bush supporters do not believe that Bush would have gone to war without there being a link between Iraq and al Qaeda.
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information," according to Steven Kull, "very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters." -- PIPA report
The report also indicates that Bush supporters assume that Bush has the same stance on an issue as they do, frequently despite evidence to the contrary. Despite repeated reiterations of being opposed to the Kyoto treat, over half of Bush supporters still believe that he is in favor of it. Similarly, the report indicates that 74% of Bush supporters incorrectly believe that Bush shares their opinions and favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements.
"Values" [ update: vis-a-vis ] were apparently the deciding factor in this election which brought a large proportion of the religious right to the voting booths. The two hotly contested topics were same-sex unions and the ever-present issue of abortion. Despite the large influx of voters voting for Bush because they disagreed with both of these topics, Bush even during the debates, stated that he was for same-sex unions. Both Senator Kerry and President Bush said the same thing: they are both against same-sex marriages, but for same-sex civil unions. Even more interesting is that abortion was at a 24-year low when the last Democrat left office and Bush took over, declining 17.4% throughout the previous decade. It increased by approximately 14% during the first three years of Bush's presidency, 2000-2003.
To complicate the matters of a naive electorate, there were many reports of less than honest tactics employed, as well as questionable results and accurately of the new electronic voting machines used in many districts across the country. Many of these machines only leave questions, since they are designed not to give answers. [UPDATE: Of course, it doesn't help that people seem to be intentionally sabotaging the elections.]
Electronic voting systems in the U.S. have had a short history plagued with problems [which are outside the scope of this document, but you can look at this report for some technical problems]. In January of 2003, the head of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned after he neglected to indicate that he owned a substantial portion of electronic voting machine manufacturer Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The machines made by this company were the only ones to count the votes when he ran for election in 1996 and in 2002. Later that same year, in August of 2003, the CEO of Diebold Inc stated that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president" eliciting cries of impropriety. Two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich, own both companies which counted the majority of the votes during the election (80% according to that link).
Several problems have in deed manifested themselves. 4,530 votes were irretrievably lost in North Carolina. Machines started counting backwards. In Ohio, the electronic voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra votes. There are reports of other electronic system oddities, but the strange thing that tin-foil-hat wearing theorists will point out is that there has not been a report of an error in Kerry's favor.
The single most interesting conspiracy theory right now pertains to the disparity between exit polls and the election results. Obviously, many sites are following this story including Common Dreams and Scoop. The Washington Post has an article about the exit polls that might put things in perspective, although without answering all questions. Exit poll data had Kerry about 5% (usually between 5% and 10%) higher that he actually scored where electronic systems were used. A table with rather interesting results from ES&S machines is also frequently referenced. It indicates an unprecedented crossing-over of party lines in Florida counties using ES&S optical-scan machines, sometimes having the results match the opposite of the party affiliation (despite having similar measures go as would be expected). Recall from an earlier link how one could swap one field before elections open and then back again when they close to have people vote for the opposite person, all without leaving a trace.
Bruce Schneier, author of severl security books and founder of the security firm Counterpane, has even more commentary on the problems faced with these machines both this year and in 2000.
There were quite a few stories about how black voters were again being prevented from voting. Allegedly, in some major urban centers in swing-states Republicans distributed fliers stating among other things, that if you voted for any election within the last year, or if you or your family had violated any law including a traffic violation, that it was illegal for you to vote. [I can't find any citations for this at the moment in the news. If you can find coverage let me know.]
Some results were tallied in secret, allowing neither the public or journalists to observe the count. In New Mexico, a swing state that barely went to Bush, 18,000 provisional ballots were given to primarily Democratic voters which will probably not be counted. Likewise, the following anecdote is contained in the article:
One voter reported a serious error with the touchscreen voting machine. He voted a straight Democratic ticket, but his presidential vote registered for Nader rather than Kerry. He complained to a poll worker, who said that she could not correct the error, and pushed his VOTE button for him. I have his name and phone number on file. -- Election Protection Report from New Mexico
I'm left with no better understanding of what happened--either in people's minds or during the election itself than I was when I first drafted this a week ago to the day. The Register has an interesting read from a Kerry voter to Bush voters. I'm left wondering if giving people direct access to elect a president was really the correct way of doing things. American voters just might not be able to handle the responsibility of choosing their leader. The founders might have been right after all.
There were a lot of things I wanted to mention above which I felt were out of place. I did talk to a Bush voter shortly after the election, hoping that he could explain his reasons for voting for Bush. The conversation was enlightening, but less than informative I am afraid. I am less concerned that Bush won than by why he won, and by how his campaign has been run since the 2000 primaries. Had his campaign not falsely insinuated that Sen. McCain had fathered a black child illegitimately, we may not be where we are today I suppose that we should have expected a term full of lies and quarter-truths.
It was definitely interesting writing this while listening primarily to Capital Steps oggs (yay random). When I began writing this, the first song that was the player chose randomly contained the lines which I'll end on:
These bastards stole their power from the victims of the Us v. Them years,
wrecking all things virtuous and true.
The undermining social democratic downhill slide into abysmal
lost lamb off the precipice into the trickle down runoff pool.
They hypnotised the summer, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Marched into the capital brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever,
mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
The information nation took their clues from all the sound-bite gluttons.
Nineteen eighty, eighty-four, eighty-eight, ninety-two too, too.
How to be what you can be, jump jam junking your energies.
How to walk in dignity with throw-up on your shoes
They amplified the autumn, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Calculate the capital, up the republic my skinny ass.
T.V. tells a million lies. The paper's terrified to report
anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon,
I'm just profoundly frustrated by all this. So, fuck you, man. (Fuck 'em)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
If they weren't there we would have created them. Maybe, it's true,
but I'm resentful all the same. Someone's got to take the blame.
I know that this is vitriol. No solution, spleen-venting,
But I feel better having screamed. Don't you?
They desecrated winter, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Capital collateral. Brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever,
mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-- R.E.M.
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