Democracy – 2018 –
California is burning. Mid-term elections seem largely forgotten. A few candidates hang by a chad, screaming foul. Charges fly. Voter suppression. Illegally handled ballots. Racism! Existing laws broken and court orders ignored. Is this politics, mommy?
Politics concern the whole world around us, from what we teach in schools; to where we send our military; to whether we fix our roads; to how we handle crime, poverty, addiction, mental health, and the homeless; to whether pink slime can be included in our burgers; to a hospital’s obligations to the uninsured. Laws. Products of politics. We live by them. Some work, some don’t. Some bad ones need to be changed, and some good ones need to be protected. Democracy turns on participation. Around the world, people continue to fight for the right, as did our forbears.
So we fight to make it work. In some areas, with clear majorities, it works quickly and efficiently. Where razor-thin margins appear, vote counting and recounting slows. Ballots are “found”. Tabulation numbers shift daily. Judicial Circuit Courts issues judgements, duly ignored. The process slows to a crawl.
It’s a really fine mess we’ve got ourselves into, when officials cannot publicly provide voter data as mandated by law. Hey, don’t rush them. Provisional, mail-in, and early voting ballots are mere suggestions of citizen intent. In the right hands, they can swing a national election!
Clearly, the honey tastes better on the other side of the fence. Call me when it is all over. 🙂
American Toolbox 