Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Only the shallow know themselves." -- Oscar Wilde ( swiped from queenseye)

"The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no other country had such a complex national election system."

Hmm. The last two say more about the underlying political structure of the US than anything else -- they affect implementation of elections but are not caused specifically by implementation decisions. The first can be argued about in terms of secret-ballot issues as well as "don't want outsiders looking" feelings. The second is the most troubling alone. Taken all together, even the ones that can be explained away add up to a "gee, maybe we could find a way to do better".

If we're doing okay and have nothing to hide, why not let the world take notes and learn from us? If we're really concerned about doing things as fairly as we can -- more interested in improving what can be improved than in protecting an image that we've never had any flaws to improve -- then should we not welcome insights from those who've seen lots of examples to compare with? But note the contrast between these two quotes from the same article:

"The United States has long been a model for the world," said Richard Williams, a poll watcher officially designated by the Democratic party. "If we allow international observers, we will continue to have a leading role."

Not everyone agrees. Jeff Miller, a Republican congressman from Florida, considers the monitors an insult and has publicly urged them to leave. "Get on the next plane out of the United States to go monitor an election somewhere else, like Afghanistan," he said.

There are larger issues and smaller issues, immediate ones and longer-term ones. Whether it's right to press, press, press for an immediate answer without taking the time to complete the process is one that's both now and long-term -- and yeah, I can argue both sides of that though I know which side I agree with. Who won this one is an immediate concern -- Counts, maneuvering, lawyers ... the faint, almost not dared to be asked question in the background (if the reason it's this close is because of tampering with poorly designed machines, would we ever know it? (Though pre-election polling was close enough for this outcome to be be very much believable without tampering -- my point is not that I believe it was rigged, but that the machines are designed in such a way that we cannot find out))[*] ...

Larger, and longer-range issues: when one party wants more people to vote and the other party tries to find way to prevent people from voting, what does that say about which party trusts the voters or really believes it has convinced the voters? And when one party says either, "we have nothing to hide, so let the world learn from us," or "let us see whether the world can teach us anything," and the other party says, "It is an insult to have anyone look over our shoulders," what does that say about whom we should trust?

There exist good Republicans. Honest, honourable, smart. But I do not trust the Republican Party. That I and others may have failed to convince enough people not to vote for Bush is an immediate -- well, past, really -- issue. Worrying about a block of powerful people who want to suppress the vote is a longer-term issue.

In the meantime there are: wondering how to have a voice, limit the damage done in the next four years, and -- since the country is still split nearly 50/50 in so many ways -- make the disagreements and division less poisonous.

[*] What's done is done -- or not-done, as the case may be; I don't want to start conspiracy theories or plant the seeds of a "Bush only won because of Diebold" meme to replace the "He didn't really win the election in 2000" meme of the past four years. If there is no way to know, then we don't know, and unless someone did something so clumsily that statistical analysis lights it up or someone makes a surprising confession, we've got no evidence that anyone actually took advantage of the opportunity[**] (though we do know of various voting machine malfunctions). My concern is for the future, something we can still affect. While no system is foolproof, I do wish we could say with much greater confidence that vote tampering was unlikely, and I'd like for this not to be an issue any longer by the next election. Voting machines can be designed in such a way that we don't have to wonder.

[**] As opposed to old-fashioned, low-tech election fraud and dirty tricks, which have been well documented. Were the number of votes blocked by fraud enough to have changed last night's results? Anyone have meaningful estimates?

I heard this for the first time on Sunday, on the radio. Now it's stuck in my head.

For The Good Of America

©2001 Rod MacDonald

Have you ever noticed, when you're being disregarded,
there's a singular phrase the politicos say
For the good of the country pretend nothing's happened
Just close your eyes and make it all go away, hear them say

  "For the good of America just forget it, cause it's time to move on"
  but the truth is, you know it when you hear it
  their lips are moving but they're doing you wrong

( five more verses )

So remember sometime in your future
some pretender will want to be your leader one day
first he'll tell you how all your votes just disappeared
then step up to the microphone and give himself away when he says,

  "For the good of America just forget it, cause it's time to move on"
  but the truth is, you know it when you hear it
  their lips are moving but they're doing you wrong

Give me a little while to work out the balance point between "being a good sport" about the results of the election, and not letting people get away with malfeasance. I do not want to turn into the mirror image of the anti-Clinton dogs who went looking for whatever flimsy excuse to harrass him; but neither do I want to roll over and accept actual wrongs perpretrated by Rove and others. I may fumble a bit while figuring it out.