Election Reflections

by Mary Shepard, WAMM

Consider the frustrations of a South African mother walking two or more hours in the hot sun with her baby on her back to cast her newly earned vote in a national election. Does she know that her vote in Johannesburg will not be as important to her child's future as the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in which she will have no voice?

Whatever the conclusion of this bizarre presidential election, half the voters in the U.S. will feel that their votes did not count either. This time even whites will know how it feels to have their ballots ignored. The fate of many people throughout the world is dependent on the wishes of a few very partisan Floridians. There has to be a better way to run a world.

Half of the U.S. citizens eligible to vote did not think it worth going to the polls at all. American voters, with a few passionate exceptions, regard elections as a spectator sport rather than a civic duty with consequences for them. This attitude is fostered by a media that reports elections like horse races. Besides, when they do go to vote, the choice has already been narrowed to two candidates pre-selected by corporate interests. During the campaign these candidates barely discussed the issues which concern the general public.

Furthermore, countless numbers of voters have been disenfranchised for years but could not challenge their disenfranchisement until they could prove that their votes would have changed the results. Now the aggrieved voters have legal standing. They can go to the courts.

The poor and people of color have even more reason for outrage. Clinton's "war on drugs" has resulted in many jail sentences for minor offenses--sentences disproportionately handed down to people of color and those who cannot afford adequate legal representation. The hard-won voting rights of African Americans have been lost to many who have been labeled felons. In Florida, a convicted felon may never vote again.

Worse than that, the shocking number of violations of the Voting Rights Act has revealed the incredible level of racism that pervades Florida officialdom. The Sunday following the election, the NAACP held hearings and took testimony from many eligible voters who were prevented from going to the polls or who, on arrival, were denied the right to vote. These instances were violations of Federal law and carry a penalty of five years in jail.

When all the media concentrate on such things as pregnant dimples and hanging chads to the exclusion of everything else, one becomes suspicious that we are being distracted from something far more important. Day after day we were subjected to analyses of legal jurisdictions and machine versus hand counts, but rarely were the Voting Rights Act and its violations mentioned. Had all the eligible voters been allowed to vote, the Florida election would not even have been close.

It also seems that most reporters did not find it curious that there were so few people of color involved in the recount at any level. Florida is a state where whites will soon be in the minority. Does this panic to insure a Bush victory have anything to do with the fear that the white establishment will lose control? And why didn't Gore protest the ongoing violations of Federal law?

Do not expect the press to provide answers, or even to ask the questions. The media have demonstrated that they consider their function is not to report the news, but to protect the interests of those who support the status quo. Given that they are in the employ of major communications conglomerates, we should not be surprised by the way they spoke in unison like a Greek chorus. They demonstrated amazing discipline. No one broke rank.

In lock step they ignored Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Then, almost as if a signal had been given, they all acknowledged Nader, but only in the role in which they cast him: spoiler. Then, on election night, in lock step, they announced Gore's win in Florida. In lockstep they retracted that announcement, "elected" Bush, and then proceeded to present Gore as a sore loser. In truth, no one could adequately be declared the winner in Florida, nor the president-elect of the United States.

As for Nader, the corporate media again ignores him. In the newspapers, if he is mentioned at all, it is with vituperative language in the opinion columns and selective quotes from hostile politicians in the news columns. The electronic media assumes that, having lost his chance to achieve the five percent of the vote he needed for the Green Party to be certified a major party, he is now irrelevant.

There is some humor and hope to be mined out of this shameful election. Embattled emerging nations are having a good--and well-deserved--laugh. Offers of assistance, either in showing us how to hold an election or, on the other hand, teaching us how to steal elections properly, have been coming in over the Internet. Our self-righteous attitude toward "emerging" democracies has made us an easy target for ridicule. Perhaps it will result in a dose of badly needed humility.

This fiasco has opened our eyes to our own flawed democracy. If this election shakes us up (as it should), there may be new opportunities for the profound change needed to save us from self-destruction. As we impose our unsustainable political-economic system on the world, we are setting the world on course toward ecological disaster and mass upheaval by victims of economic injustice.

Unfortunately, the only dialogue fostered by the corporate media during the election did nothing to give us a vision of a better plan. The deep division in the U.S. and the world is between rich and poor. The division in the election was between two politicians primarily interested in winning power.

Now the most powerful nation in the world's history has rendered itself powerless. Not just the presidency, but also the congress and the judiciary are deadlocked. Worldwide there is a huge vacuum of leadership, good or malevolent. This presents us with an unprecedented opportunity and an unprecedented danger.

What is coming next? Will it be possible to shake off the grip of faceless, invisible, corporate powers that have been driving us to destruction, or has a way been opened for something new?

Election Resources

Center for Voting and Democracy
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 901
Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-4616 (phone)
301-270-4133 (fax)
cvdusa@aol.com
www.fairvote.org

Fair Vote Minnesota
P.O. Box 19440
Minneapolis, MN 55419-0440
612-724-5540 (phone)

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
130 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
212-633-6700 (phone)
212-727-7668 (fax)
fair@fair.org
www.fair.org

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW - Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
202-662-8600 (phone)
admin@lawyerscommittee.org
www.lawyerscomm.org

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
4805 Mt. Hope Drive
Baltimore, MD 21215
410-358-8900 (phone)
410-521-4939 (information hotline)
www.naacp.org