November 14th / 16th, 2008
"The Irony of Obama’s Victory"
In the months leading up to November 4, the media relished in reporting that
Barack Obama had inspired legions of liberal Americans to register to vote
for the first time, and others to come out of their shell who had not voted in
recent memory. What wasn’t widely reported was that a good number of Obama’
s army had a limited knowledge of the candidate and his views, and simply
planned to vote for the man because he was Black, or young, or Democrat.
Evidence of this problem surfaced earlier this Fall when radio shock jock
Howard Stern sent a reporter to Harlem to conduct experimental polling.
Every person interviewed by Stern’s minion said they planned to vote for
Obama. That said, the reporter then asked questions in which he assigned John
McCain’s views and actions to Mr. Obama. Example, “So you’re OK with Obama
picking Sarah Palin as his running mate?” “Yes” came the common reply.
Example: “Are you voting for Obama because he wants to keep our troops in Iraq?”
Again, the reply was “Yes”.
To be fair, Stern’s exercise could have also netted similar results in any
number of white neighborhoods in the South, where ignorant Caucasian McCain
voters think that thespians are gay women. In fact CNN’s data collectors made
frequent references to how McCain was leading among non college graduates and
rural voters. That’s elite journalism code for “white trash”.
At the same time, the mainstream media was ever vigilant in advocating for
potential Obama voters and feigned outrage whenever they learned of so-called
scandals, like the one that occurred in Virginia just days before the
election. It seems that someone (or some group) distributed bogus government
fliers to heavily democratic neighborhoods, telling residents that, due to an
expectation of high voter turnout, only Republicans would be allowed to vote on
Tuesday, and Democrats on Wednesday. The fact that the State Police had to
investigate this prank is indicative of a society which has grown so dumb that
the government is compelled to protect them from acting on their ignorance.
I’m sorry, but anyone who would have fallen for that flier scam, doesn’t
deserve to vote. And that brings me to the irony of Obama’s great victory.
His campaign was all about change. It was all about needing to undo the
damage done by George Bush over the past eight years.
Yet Obama was elected, in part, by people whose ignorance or apathy had kept
them away from the polls in the past. Some of these stupid, lazy people
(whites, blacks, young and old) who have suddenly been energized to get engaged
in politics, could have showed up to vote in 2000, and we would have never
invaded Iraq. We would have never left thousands of victims stranded after
Katrina. We would have never trampled on due process or right to privacy, and
we would have never let Wall street cronies nearly bankrupt our nation.
Instead, these new Obamaites stayed home in 2000 and 2004, and are, therefore,
directly responsible for the disasters that Bush wrought.
But there’s plenty of blame to go around for the failures of the past eight
years. GOP Congressmen, for example, had the chance to join with Democrats
who wanted to impeach Bush. Instead, they stuck by their President, that
is, until his popularity dropped below that of a sex offender, at which time
those same loyal Congressmen distanced themselves from Bush in hopes of
getting re-elected.
Anyway, I seldom rant without offering a solution, so here’s my two point
plan for reforming the election process. First, I would abolish the practice of
straight party voting. Under my plan, voting machines would no longer
provide a lever or card option which would allow people to blindly vote straight
party. This option promotes ignorance. And that brings me to point number
two.
On election day, immediately following sign in and identification, the poll
worker would administer a simple written test to the voter. The test would
consist of four questions:
- Who is the Governor of this state?
- Name one of our two United States Senators
- Who is your Congressman?
- Who is your Mayor?
All questions must be answered correctly or else the person would be sent
home without being able to vote until the next election.
I have high hopes for President Obama. I hope that he flip flops back to
his original pledge to end the war in Iraq immediately. I hope that he flip
flops back to his earlier promise to pass universal healthcare for all
Americans.
And I hope that his cabinet selections reflect change. (so far he’s failed
in that regard by picking Joe Biden as his VP and Democrat attack dog Rahm
Emanuel as Chief of Staff). But unless we can start to require our
electorate to be educated, then Obama’s victory rings hollow. Maybe we’ll get
lucky with Barack , and it won’t matter that many of his supporters don’t know
feces from shinola, or that his win was easy because his opponent was so angry
and out of touch.
But we can’t afford to sit back and hope that stupid people will continue to
luck into good decisions. After all, it was stupid people who voted for
George Bush.
That’s why we must reform the voting system now. It’s change we need.
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