> 1. Fighting any perceived compromises in the vote tallying system
> peddled by Diebold & Co is rather easy - all it takes is to ask the
> voters to request absentee ballots. Absentee ballots do leave a paper
> trail and subvert the paperless electronic system. And they are
> perfectly legal and do not require any action on the part of the
> so-called "elected representatives."
This is a completely impractical idea. Most Americans who are inclined to vote (not too many, these days, it seems) are not likely to switch from their regular practice of voting on Election Day to absentee voting. The latter is more complicated, and not a procedure they are used to. This would be a step backwards from where we need to go -- getting more poor and working-class people to vote.
> 2. Focus on the real or perceived dangers of the electronic vote
> tallying obscures the fact that US elections are already a farce - they
> are mostly a public ritual similar to those in x-Soviet countries
> design
> to create a perception that the ruling clique has a popular mandate.
And so on and so on. Yes, yes, I've heard all this many times, but I'm starting to lose my patience with theorists like you who don't have any solution to the political problems we face besides turn your backs on electoral politics. Need I remind you who scream so loudly about this country being Nazi-like or Weimar-Republic-like that a major reason for the Nazi accession to power was the scorn heaped on electoral politics by the Left as well as the Right? Let's not make the same mistake again, for Pete's sake. Even though it's hard work (much more trouble than sitting in our ivory towers making smart cracks about how the corporate elite rigs elections), we have to defeat these bastards at the polls, from Bush on down, or it is they who will have the power from now till the end of time. How are we supposed to get them out of power -- a Leninist revolution? Good luck!
I'm just getting fed up with this superior, "I, with my great intellect, understand the whole process so I'm just turning my back on it and letting the proles get what they deserve" attitude.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." -- Samuel P. Huntington