darkoshi | Entries tagged with democracy

I've had a realization, after many times noticing how Fox News in almost every "news" story bashes (and/or subtly or not-so-subtly puts down) Democrats and liberals - even when Republicans are/were in charge of the government.

Fox News isn't only a channel geared towards Republicans and conservatives. Its intention is to sway and convince people to *vote* (and keep voting) for Republicans and conservatives.

If you are a very wealthy conservative Republican, how can you influence elections in a democracy? Among other things, you can give money to candidates and PACs, and you can fund advertising in hopes of swaying the electorate.

Fox News is basically an on-going 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week political advertisement, designed to convince and keep people voting for Republicans (or whoever they choose to laud on their shows) and against Democrats. It is only disguised as a "news" channel.

Perhaps that is obvious, and perhaps it has been apparent to me in the background of my mind before. But in general I try to pay as little attention to Fox News as possible because of how much it upsets me when I do pay it attention.

Over the past week, my thoughts have been see-sawing back and forth about Trump's win. Between, on the one side, a great fear of very horrible things that may be coming (!), and on the other, hoping that maybe it won't be that bad (~), maybe no worse than past administrations we've lived through.

! human rights abuses, loss of liberties, breakdown of democracy, dictatorship, rolling back of health care progress, complete outlawing of abortions, etc.

~ even though the Republicans have the majority in both houses, doesn't mean that they will support Trump on all issues. Republicans have been greatly divided about him. Then again, he'll probably support most of the awful things they'll want passed.
~ Maybe now that he's won the election, he'll back off on some of the things he proposed. Yeah, right.

Anyway. There's not much point in me going into many details on that, as I don't think other people really care what I think, and they have their own thoughts and worries to deal with. And so many other people say it so much better than I can.

About the protests that have gone on, I sympathize with people being upset, fearful, and worried, and wanting to demonstrate and protest. But what do the protesters hope to achieve? To somehow prevent the president-elect from becoming president, through something other than the rule of law? That would likely be the end of democracy in this country, so I can't support that. It would be our demise.

(I had had a slight hope that Trump would be convicted of some major crime before he was sworn in, preventing him from becoming president in a legal manner, but that hope seems ever more remote. And I don't even know what the law says about such a scenario.)

Likewise, I'm all in favor of getting rid of the electoral college and instead electing the president by popular vote. But I'm against the idea that Hillary should be made president *now* based on the popular vote, scrapping the electoral college. Again, that would likely be the end of democracy in this country. The electoral college needs to be disposed of by changing the law, and for the next election, not one that has already happened. Unfortunately, that will not likely happen anytime soon, as the party who benefits the most from it has a majority in Congress. But anything else would result in a civil war or a complete downfall into chaos and loss of government stability. How would Hillary's supporters be feeling right now if she had just barely lost the popular vote, but had a majority of electoral votes? Would they be willing to hand over the election to the other side based on the popular vote? I don't think so.

(I'm not totally against the idea of electors switching their votes, as from what I understand, that wouldn't technically be illegal. If a bunch of electors did that, at the very least it might give Congress more impetus to get rid of the electoral college sooner than otherwise. But if enough electors did that to change the outcome of the election, I worry that would also lead to extreme violence and rioting nationwide, and a breakdown of government.)

I sort of wish that the people who've been protesting in the streets would be saving their energy and outrage for later on. Right now, the protests give the impression that the demonstrators are protesting against democracy, against a fairly elected president*. I don't see how that can do us any good. It would be much better to protest later on, if and when the people in charge try to pass bad laws, or try to issue bad edicts. Then the protests would be against something concrete and real, not based on dislike of a person, and fear of what that person *may* do.

*I haven't heard any reports of election fraud, so I have to assume the election results are accurate.

Before the election, I heard someone on the news talking about how American democracy is so good, compared to many other countries, because we have a peaceful passing of power from one administration to the next. In many countries, such things are always marked by bloodshed and fighting and violence. In many countries, political opponents are assassinated. I don't want to live in one of the latter kinds of places.

Yes, I do think the Trump presidency is likely to be a big step backwards for us. But I think the alternatives now would be worse. Obviously, depending on what may come in the next 4 or more years, I may change my mind.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/674164.html

I've been thinking of an analogy in regards to how the media announces the presidential election winner before all of the votes have been counted, in fact before all the votes have even been cast.

It's like a sports game is in progress - let's say American football (forgive me if my terminology is off; I don't pay much attention to sports). Suppose Team Hackensack is playing against Team Puckenball. Suppose the game is in the beginning of the fourth quarter, or maybe even in the middle of the third. It's as if, while a player is in the midst of throwing the ball across the field, the loudspeakers blare out, "The game is over! Team Hackensack has won! Congratulations to the Hackensacks!" The spectators jump up, cheering in glee and/or groaning in dismay. Then they start filing out of the stadium. Meanwhile, the players on the field are left standing and scratching their heads, wondering what happened.

I mean, really. Even if one team has a large lead, and the other team has a poor track record, it's standard practice to wait until the game is over, before announcing the results. Even if there's no way that the losing team could possibly win enough points in the time remaining, to gain the lead, the winner isn't announced until the end. The media may say that one team is winning, and is nearly certain to win the overall game. But they don't announce that the game is over before the game is actually over. Whereas, with the presidential elections, they do.

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(The below was a comment I posted on another journal, but I originally intended to post about it here on mine.)

I came across the below document, which fascinates me and also disturbs me in how precisely legislative districts are drawn to meet desired criteria. From what I was able to glean from it, there was a lot of redistricting going on in the 1970s and 80s. Somewhen in the 80s or early 90s, the Department of Justice told the SC legislature that it had to create more black-majority districts. This was subsequently done by means of racial gerrymandering. A district court then declared the new districts invalid, as districts should not be drawn on the basis of race, except under certain conditions which were not met.

Smith v. Beasley opinion

"Gerrymandering has been a part of our political system since the word was coined more than 175 years ago. The drawing of district lines for political purposes has often been criticized, but it is not illegal. However, the Supreme Court has determined that gerrymandering which divides voters according to race violates the Equal Protection Clause. In Miller, the Court explained, "When the State assigns voters on the basis of race, it engages in the offensive and demeaning assumption that voters of a particular race, because of their race, 'think alike, share the same political interests, and will prefer the same candidates in the polls.' "

"Constitutional prohibition against dividing or segregating citizens by race applies equally to districting cases, and state's assignment of voters according to race is subject to court's strictest scrutiny under equal protection clause."

"Both the Senate and the House had sophisticated computer equipment that was maintained for the purpose of drawing election district lines. These machines were equipped with software that showed precincts, streets, population and racial composition of all areas based on the 1990 federal census data base. Technicians could show legislators how moving district lines could increase or decrease the racial makeup of a particular district."

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/491553.html

It bothers me that they declare the election won so early. Why can't they wait until most of the numbers are in?
From what I currently see, Ohio has 49.2% Obama, and 49.1% Romney, with 80% of precincts in. A 1500 vote difference. And yet they already declared it won by Obama, therefore determining the whole election. What if they are wrong? What if it goes .2% the other way? Crowds of people on TV jumping up and down, cheering, crying... Why can't they wait to be sure?

Oh, look at it now. 49.2% vs 49.2%. 1046 vote difference.

I'd be less anxious if they hadn't called it already.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/491062.html

Problems frustrate Richland County voters

Lines get longer as machines break down

It seems I was lucky only having to wait 2.25 hours in line to vote. In some places, there were waits of 5 to 6 hours!

As Qiao is in a wheelchair due to his foot, he got to go to the head of the line. Apparently if I had gone up with him, they would have let me vote right after him. But the poll worker who lead him ahead didn't say anything to me, so I decided to stay in line. I would not have felt uncomfortable cutting ahead of everyone else, anyway. After voting, Qiao waited on the side while I stood in line for my turn.

The poll worker who addressed us all at one point about the low number of voting machines said that they had expected a large turnout and had asked for more machines, but had been refused. He told us that we could/should make complaints to the Election Commission. He also urged us to be patient, and above all, to make sure we stay and vote in spite of the frustration, and regardless of who we intended to vote for. That part of the speech almost made me teary-eyed. I was thinking, he's probably a pastor; it seems everyone around here who is good at public speaking is a pastor. Sure enough, near the end of his little speech, it turned a bit religious, in terms of "god will get you through this ordeal and any others", or something like that. But at least he prefaced it with "If you believe in..." That made me feel he was at least acknowledging that not everyone does believe.

(from 1st link above)Richland County elections officials said they had the same number of machines as in past elections, though they acknowledged many of the machines at precincts were breaking down.
Many poll managers throughout the county, however, said they had to make do with fewer resources than during past elections.

I wonder what the truth really is, about the number of voting machines at the precincts.

They said cell phones were not allowed to be on in the building, not even in silent mode, and that otherwise they might make you leave. I could see several people using their phones anyway. It doesn't make sense not to allow people to use their phones, when they are standing in line for hours, bored and with nothing else to do.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/490757.html

Voted. Got there about 5 minutes til 7am, and then had to stand in line for 2 and a quarter hours. At least most of that time was inside the building, not out in the cold. One of the poll officials said that usually they have 9 (or maybe it was 6?) voting machines, but this time they were only given 4.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/490583.html

( .......... )

Listening to the tv or radio recently, they were talking about democracies and "being able to choose one's leaders". My immediate thought was, "wouldn't that be nice, to be able to choose my leaders"... then i (remembered) that this is a so-called democracy, and that supposedly I/we do choose our leaders. But it's not me choosing my leaders, it's me casting a vote, like buying a lottery ticket, and hoping to win. But losing all the time, and being stuck with leaders that other people chose. The effect isn't all that different from
not having a vote at all, from living in a non-democracy. We've been brought up to believe that we "live in a democracy" and that we "choose our own leaders" and that "everyone has a voice in the government". (Hopefully it is true. It doesn't feel like it lately.) So even when our leaders aren't ones of our choosing, we accept it and are complacent, trusting in the democracy and waiting for the time when we will get lucky and win the vote.

My taxes are being used for things I don't agree with. I'm funding things I don't want to be funding... Taxation without representation? Where's my representation?

It might be a little better at least if it were like in some countries, where the parliament is put together in proportion to the percent of the vote that each party gets. Then at least I might have some representatives that actually represented me.

I could be more active. I could harrass my South Carolina "representatives" and other government officials with letters and phone-calls and emails every day instead of just every so often... I could stand outside of the state capitol with a big sign saying something sign-worthy. But I don't think it would make much difference. And I don't want to waste my time doing such non-fun stuff when it doesn't make much, if any, difference.

Current Mood: whatever
Current Music: neighbors' hip-hop music... at 2 am... could be worse.