September 29, 2011

American democracy is a myth, and when we proselytize our form of government to other countries like Iraq, we arrive on their sandy shores like a headless horesman, more macabre warning than helping hand.

Let’s look at the year 2000, it’s November and there’s a presidential election brewing.  Al Gore has just won the popular vote by over 427,000 votes, but the Supreme Court (aka a group of mysterious unelected individuals who are accountable to no one and are appointed for life) elects Bush.  This is a democracy, after all.

Cue 8 years of gross executive mismanagement, a staged Pearl Harbor, a mistaken war, and financial collapse for the vast majority of consumer-citizens.

In an interview published yesterday morning, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said, “I think Bush v. Gore was wrong.”  Breyer’s dissenting opinion here is more disappointment than anything – when reasonable minds differ, shouldn’t we defer to the popular vote?  Why did they do the reverse of the popular vote by electing Bush?

Wikipedia suggests that “Democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives.”  Words to not miss here include “equal,” which will be an issue here in a moment.

The Electoral College

The electoral college neither serves its original function, nor serves any added function today.  It simply gives more of a voting share to residents of smaller states.  Individuals from Wyoming have more vote than I do under the electoral college.  This isn’t a democracy, then.  The electoral college should be repealed immediately, in favor of straight, pure Democracy.  Pure Democracy may not be perfect, but it’s better than the electoral college.  And I’d rather face the problems associated with too much liberty than too little.

Our Presidential Primary System is Broken

Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have decided the primary election after election, and none of the voters in any of the 3 west coast states I’ve lived in have had any say.  We could easily fix this by having an internet-based national primary day, where we do it all at once, online.  HTTPS, baby, it’s a powerful thing.

But no, instead, we choose to cling to the system that’s powered us for hundreds of years, looks every day of its age, and is absolutely powerless to fight the exponentially more powerful enemies of the state which exist today.

Additionally, Justice Breyer said that “If there’s too much cynicism, then the Constitution won’t work, it can’t.”

Too bad for the constitution.  I control my cynicism about as much as I control rigged presidential elections.

“The most remarkable thing about Bush v. Gore was that people disagreed, but they followed it.  No sticks and stones, no riots.  I think that’s good.  Turn on the TV, you can see what happens in other countries where people decide their problems through sticks, stones, riots and guns,” added Justice Breyer in the interview yesterday.

I’m dedicating my participation in today’s SF protest to Justice Breyer, who thinks that protesting means nothing.  Quite the contrary, Mr. Breyer.

My vote means nothing, so I protest instead.