A few US political thoughts

[redbird]

• Dubya has made it clear that, in his mind, the Muslim has no rights that the Christian is bound to respect, and his administration has argued in court that nobody has any rights that the President of the United States is bound to respect. What was that about the Dred Scott decision, again?


• The people of the United States have the right to know whether their president is a crook.


• No, Kerry isn't perfect. That's not the standard. The standard is that he is the best available choice. It doesn't matter that I think my mother might do a better job--she's not eligible. It doesn't matter that I'd rather be voting for Howard Dean. The point is to get Bush out of there, so we can have a chance to choose again in 2008.

Comments

[snippy]

Seems to me I saw a lot of people (perhaps you weren't one of them) suggesting that we wouldn't have an election *this year.* And yet, we seem to be having one.

Re: A few US political thoughts

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i don't believe that the US is likely to lose its elections either this year or in 2008, not by design. i think this regime and its backers don't work like that.

but while i am not worried about the neocons turning us into a dictatorship just now, i am worried that something might happen to affect these elections, and anything like that will IMO strengthen bush. there are enough terrorists out there wishing the US ill that they might have plans, and there are also enough nutcases native to the US to get it into their skulls that this might be a good time to grind their axe. and if that happens, i wonder what this government would do, and i do not trust them as much as i would like. neither do i trust the electorate to keep its calm.

that's new for me. i've never before been worried that elections would be screwed with in any western democractic country i've lived in. i've been worried that things would happen (i grew up with an active terrorist threat), but not that any such action would seriously disturb the democratic process. i think elections in the US can ill afford that; they're still limping from the florida disaster, and if anything, they need the opposite -- an extremely well-run, accountable election without scandal and without fear. i am definitely hoping for 2008 in that regard, and i am sure wishing that all the bad pre-election press doesn't indicate that 2004 will be as scandal-ridden as 2000.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I know what I said, that you'd have the accidents of an election, without the substance of one -- the race, the voting, but without any chance of the outcome changing who holds power.

I'm not at all confident this isn't the case. It seemed to me that the only hope would be a landslide against the incumbents, such that it wouldn't be plausible for electroral chicanery to determine the result.

I really hope I'm wrong.

[snippy]

Even though I'd rather Bush remained president than that Kerry became president, I'd also rather see Kerry win by a landslide than Bush win it by lawsuit.

However, I don't agree that there's no chance of the outcome changing who holds power, because it's clear that Kerry has a good chance of winning. That's part of the problem: the race is so close, people get even more excited and agitated about making sure their side wins.

[snippy]

I really have trouble believing that the substance is missing; I see those elections from a distance, and they don't look at all like what is going on here. Kerry has a reasonable chance of winning, and countries that only pretend to have an election don't have such a strong opposition candidate; the electorate when polled is close to evenly split, and that much opposition isn't tolerated.

Is it so far from believable that a slim majority would elect Bush? It was only a slim majority of the popular vote that Gore got, last time. There really are a lot of people in this country who are more accepting of Bush than of Kerry. We'll see whether it's a majority or not.

Even though I am voting for Bush, I would still object strongly to the electoral chicanery you fear. I want a fair and clear win for the next president, whichever it is.