I’m going to bed; all your base are ably handled elsewhere. Just one thing…
It’s admirable that so many citizens were willing to wait for hours to cast their vote. But they shouldn’t have to. Four-hour lines shouldn’t function as inspiring symbols of human perseverance. They’re bugs in a voting system from which we have every right to expect better.
I can’t predict how this election is going to play out, but I suspect that we’ll all be too burned out to generate much interest in election reform for next time. That’s a shame.
{ 13 comments }
Sandriana 11.03.04 at 8:20 am
If you Americans have really voted Bush in, as your major networks are reporting (which I doubt: results are projections only, there are a million votes yet uncounted in in Florida alone) – well, then it deserves every bad thing that happens to it as a nation. A Bush victory means voters approve of, and want more of, the torture at Abu Ghraib, Guanatanamo and Baghram, the war crimes, the corruption, the despoliation of the nation’s natural resources, and the installation of a theocracy in a once-proud democracy.
I pity America, but I pity the rest of the world more. We don’t have a choice, and we will have to live with the consequences of American voters’ continuing shitty decisions. The rest of the world will wash their hands of the US as a civilised nation.
Shai 11.03.04 at 8:46 am
i suspect that’s true, and it would be interesting to speculate how this affects voter turnout..
but I’m not going to be a good citizen for a moment. I feel more relieved than burnt out. I feel like I now have my mind back. this campaign has invaded my thoughts as I lay in bed at night, caused many hours of aimless web browsing, manipulated emotions, made me angry and annoyed (e.g. RNC). but now, even with iraq and wondering about the new mandate, without the horserace I feel I’m free.
bad Jim 11.03.04 at 8:55 am
I never would have dreamt that so many of my fellow Americans are as ignorant or chickenshit as they have have shown themselves to be tonight.
How afraid of gay marriage can anyone possibly be? At the moment it appears that a constitutional amendment prohibiting it would pass easily. We’re on record as being afraid of everything. Please, pity us.
At this point, evidence of electoral chicanery can only make us look better.
mona 11.03.04 at 9:05 am
Come on, people, cheer up… It’s only a small majority. I for one am glad to know that so many Americans voted _against_ Bush policies, even if they didn’t win.
mona 11.03.04 at 9:15 am
Or, to be more precise, even if they haven’t won yet.
You never know!
But yeah, why all the queues? Are there not enough polling stations?
Russkie 11.03.04 at 9:35 am
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe US voters aren’t “ignorant or chickenshit”, or that they don’t “approve and want more Abu Ghraib” etc. etc.
If you tried to understand them you’d have a better chance of influencing them.
Don’t you guys at least recognize that the fact that US citizens are determining the direction of their country is an admirable thing in itself? Democracy is good even when we don’t like the result.
Keith M Ellis 11.03.04 at 9:43 am
Um, no, democracy isn’t good when the result isn’t good. It’s a means to an end, not an end to itself.
abb1 11.03.04 at 9:45 am
I think this happened pretty much because of the Beslan incident. Women switched to Bush, the ‘strong leader’.
A bunch of kamikazes, incompetence and corruption of a provincial government half the world away and boom – crazies get elected. Devil works in mysterious ways.
osama 11.03.04 at 9:47 am
I won it. You dumb assholes didn’t pick up my reverse psychology. I say Bush, you say potato, everyone’s afraid, the shrub is back and I’m in business.
Syd Webb 11.03.04 at 9:53 am
At the Federal election in Australia last month the queues at my polling place were 10 minutes long, and that was exceptional.
In the Territory election the following week there was no waiting.
(Of course Australia has compulsory voting, so there’s never a problem of larger-than-usual turn outs.)
But *four* *hours*? Yeah, that’s a bug.
RS 11.03.04 at 11:20 am
As well as the apparently ridiculous underprovision of polling stations (potentially disenfrachising), I think the thing that has struck me about the US election day (as UK outsider) is:
a) the extent of exit polling
b) the way that news networks appear to determine election results based on exit polling and candidates appear to accept their judgements, long before the counts come in
c) how long some areas seem to take to count ballots
Obviously concepts like the electoral college, and preventing released felons from voting are weird, but we already new about it.
abf 11.03.04 at 2:57 pm
“They’re bugs in a voting system from which we have every right to expect better.”
They’re only bugs if you lose; if you win, the system works.
maxpower 11.03.04 at 5:54 pm
“I pity America, but I pity the rest of the world more.” And most of all, I pity myself.
Comments on this entry are closed.