[Vision2020] polarizing and the two-party system

[Ted Moffett]

Paul wrote:



>  With the
> Internet tearing down what would have seemed to be rock-solid
> institutions, the landscape will probably be a whole lot different in a
> few elections from now.


This seems logical, yet certain facts contradict this hope.

I approached a very committed local anti-Iraq invasion activist recently
asking how they might explain the US public and US Congress pathetically
buying into the yellow cake uranium from Niger, aluminum tube centrifuge
nuclear fuel processing, remote controlled air plane drone dispersing bio or
chemical weapons, etc. fabricated WMD "mushroom cloud over America" scare
tactics, sheepishly accepted as it was insisted Iraq presented an immanent
threat of attack against the USA via WMDs, in the age of.....INSTANT
INTERNET FACT CHECKING OF GOVERNMENT
PROPAGANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I abandoned using caps in Vision2020 posts long ago, but I could not resist.

The conclusion?  The Internet made no substantive difference, for reasons
that were hard to decipher, though anyone with a limited effort via the
Internet could have determined that Bush, et. al. were spinning better than
Lance Armstrong...

Paul also wrote:



> It's my guess, and my hope, that the money will matter less and less in
> this process as time goes on.  It doesn't cost anything to vote,
> regardless of how much money your candidate has spent.


Actually, it costs a lot to vote.  Taxpayers pay for voting.  And for easily
accessible, fair, well monitored and maintained voting systems, it will cost
far more than we are now spending.

Often voting systems in the USA are so ill prepared, underfunded and
understaffed that there are lines around the block on a Tuesday afternoon,
frustrating voters into abandoning their efforts.

Why don't we vote on Saturday, or have a national holiday, for the most
important act in the functioning of democracy?  We have a national holiday
to eat turkey!  What is wrong with this picture?  Why vote on a working
day?  Does this not discourage participation?

Voting machines are sometimes in poor condition or malfunctioning, or
susceptible to tampering, as it seems clear applies also to the new computer
voting machines.  Ensuring voting machines are reliable and not subject to
tampering costs money, both for the machines and the monitoring.

I won't even start with Ohio in 2004...

There are numerous problems with US voting systems that require more funding
to address.

Even a libertarian should be able to accept the essential need for full
government funding of well monitored, non-partisan, easily accessable and
well constructed voting systems everywhere in the USA.

Ted Moffett
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20061014/b8b28f94/attachment.htm