>>> "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb at jmu.edu> 05/31/00 03:15PM >>>
About a year ago the conservative US columnist George Will wrote a column about how in the early days in the US citizens would go to the polls and openly and publicly declare how they would vote. Will thought this was great and urged readoption of it.
Anyway, let me just remind folks of how things were done not all that long ago in the good old USSR (nostalgia! huzzah!). Everyone had to vote. You could either vote "yes" (for the one candidate) or "no." If you voted yes, you put your ballot in a box under a statue of Lenin and could then go over to the table where you were greeted with smiles from the lovely Party women who would then provide you with wonderful refreshments. If you voted no you put your ballot in another box and received a nice set of frowns.
So, is this the way to go? (At least in Will's case there was more than one candidate to vote for.)
(((((((((((((((((((
CB: I think the stories about the SU are essentially true, especially since Barkley has an eye witness account ( from what he has said about his spouse) . However, the key thing is that in the U.S. the system has been subverted because both candidates are for the same side, the $$$$$$$ 'ed interests. So, the U.S. can't claim that its elections make the country more democratic. The U.S. has perfected subverting the democracy of its own forms , such as elections and freedom of speech. The U.S. is as much of a dictatorship as the SU was.