US Elections

Whoever wins the US Presidential Election today it looks certain that the lawyers will once again be big winners. The Democrats claim to have 5,000 lawyers on hand in Florida alone, ready to launch legal challenges against any malpractice or funny business. And let's face it you can't have a US election without a hell of a lot of malpractice and funny business. If the goings on in US Elections happened in some Third World country the US would be the first to want to lecture them about their wayward tendencies.

This is a country where you can register as a supporter of one Party even though you actually support their opponents, simply in order to vote in that Party's Primary elections with the intention of landing them with the least electable candidate. The basic democratic principle that you should actually be a MEMBER of the Party whose candidate you are selecting is unthinkable in the US.

Although, we are told that the "American Dream" is manifest in the fact that even those from the humblest beginnings can become President, the hundreds of millions of dollars raised by the Parties to fight elections, the tens of millions that any individual candidate has to raise to have a chance of becoming the Party's nominee - Obama has raised $650 million - the fact that almost all of the US Political elite are born or married into some of the richest families in the country illustrates that its not so much a dream as a delusion.

This is a country where one of the most detested, least popular Presidents of all time, a President with his finger on the nuclear button of the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and who has taken the country into two wars, actually polled in his first election less votes than his opponent! This is a country where elections like that can be decided not by the electorate, but by top juges, who are themselves tied by a thousand golden threads into the country's richest families.

This is a country where an election like that could be thrown into doubt, because although it is the richest country and most technologically advanced country on the planet, it is incapable of even carrying out the basic administrative requirements of an election effectively. Even India with a much larger population spread over vast rural areas is more efficeint in that regard. Venezuela, which the US often refers to as a Dictatorship, has a far more democratic system than that which rules in the US.

This is a country where local political leaders play a significant part in the organisation of the electoral process, and where not surprisingly therefore, there arise accusations founded or otherwise of partiality in the election process. A country where 40 years after the Civil Rights Movement large numbers of Black people are disenfranchised by one means or another.

This is a country, where we might see in coming weeks the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate - whose popularity has fallen in proportion to the degree to which the voters have learned what she stands for - could be part of a losing ticket, yet find herself part of the Country's Legislature, if she decides to appoint herself Senator, in place of an Alaskan Senator who may be sent to gaol. In Venezuela at least the electors have the right to recall their elected representatives, and hold an election to choose someone else!

In recent weeks there have been challenges against the electronic voting machines introduced to overcome the farce of the "hanging chads" from the 2000 Election. Apparently, voters were casting their vote on the touch screen for Obama, but the machine was mysteriously showing the vote as being for McCain! The fact that the Company that makes the amchines is connected to the Republican Party is, of course, purely coincidental.

In order to assist with the election process voters have been able to vote early over the last couple of weeks. One wonders whether the same principle might apply as used to be the case in Ireland where the slogan was raised "Vote early, Vote Often". But, its perhaps, as well that such an opportunity has been given, because voters have still needed to queue for several hours in order to cast their votes. How many people who need to earn a living or look after their kids have simply given up we don't know. The whole process certainly seems geared to dissuade peoplef rom voting. Instead of spending tens of millions of dollars on Soap style adverts trying to persuade voters that their is some real difference between what is in the different packets, it might have been a good idea to actually spend some money on having sufficient polling stations to enable voters to exercise their democratic right effectively.

The greaest beneficiaries of the election will undoubtedly be the lawyers in a plethora of lawsuits over coming weeks and months arising from the quite honestly disgraceful spectacle. The other main beenficiaries have already been the advertising companies. Have you ever wondered why you don't see advertrs for Rolls Royce? The answer the car itself is advert enough. It is so different from every other car that it requires no advertising. You only need advertising when you are trying to persuade consumers that your product is different from all the other similar products available. The more competing products are the same, the more companies need to advertise to con people into beleiving there is some difference. That is why so much money is spent in US elections.

The main losers will, of course, be American workers.