Elizabeth Drew looks at the changes in our voting laws since 2000 and finds that we may now have elections that are simply unacceptable to many voters, thanks to growing restrictions and the dominance of corporate money. Our elections can no longer be considered fair.
Citizens are now faced with evidence of the growing power of organized moneyed interests in the electoral system at the same time that the nation is more aware than ever that the inequality among income groups has grown dramatically and economic difficulties are persistent. This is a dangerous brew. Political power is shifting to the very moneyed interests that four decades of reform effort have tried to contain. The election system is being reshaped by the Super PACs and the greatly increased power of those who contribute to them to choose the candidates who best suit their purposes. But little attention is being paid to the fact that our system of electing a president is under siege. While the political press is excitedly telling us how the polls on Friday compare with the ones on Tuesday, little notice is taken of the danger to the democratic system itself. ...NYRB
Drew asks whether "an election that’s being subjected to such seriously self-interested contortions [can] be accepted by the public as having been arrived at in a fair manner? And what will happen if it can’t?"
Probably not a rush into the streets with our pitchforks. We are more mobile than we used to be. America isn't the only home to many Americans. I suspect that many may have decided, each for his or her own reasons, that they can do nothing more to prevent American democracy from dying slowly at the hands of financial and industrial interests that have an interest in perpetual warfare and in regular boom-bust cycles. Whole generations have grown up knowing there are healthier democracies and opportunities elsewhere.
The realization doesn't fit well with our naive pledge of allegiance. But in the hundred and ten years since that bad idea was adopted and sanctified, Americans' views of our nation as a safe and sane place have been seriously challenged by dirty wars, unleashed transnational corporations, a detached and predatory Wall Street, and the corporate media. Either we take them on in a serious fight (not a bad idea) or we move on. Who's working against legitimate elections? Maybe we all are, by default.
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