The great election charade

Americans, whether in large numbers or small, will dutifully march to the polls in November and the majority will cast ballots for either the candidate from Column A or the candidate from Column B. If the majority feel they cast their votes for the Column A candidate and the Column B candidate is declared the winner, they will be stunned, as they were in 2000 and 2004.

What they can’t wrap their heads around is the system is rigged—rigged from the get-go. It is not the voters who choose even the major party candidates nor the victors. The choices are made by the Big Money people—the corporations and banksters—because their corporate buddies own and control the voting apparatus—touch screens and optically scanned ballots—that can flip votes without leaving a trace.

Yet people go on yammering about the importance of voting in the delusional belief their votes can make a difference. And when the outcome seems so outrageous to them, they berate their fellow voters—“How could you have voted for (fill in the blank)?” Blind blame is a soothing balm for their denial that their votes have been stolen.

It isn’t easy to face up to the fact that the electorate is merely window dressing for the bought and controlled candidates, whose multi-billion dollar campaign charades are for the enrichment of the corporate media, while leaving the duped voters to think they matter.

While it’s important to get the money out of political campaigns and take away the Supreme Court’s gift of personhood, wrapped up in the pretty package of money being speech, from the corporations and banksters, that alone will not fix the problem—if indeed the problem can be fixed without dumping the current system of capitalist governance and starting over. We must return to hand-counted paper ballots.

Some of us have been hammering away on the need for hand-counted paper ballots since the so-called voting “reforms” following the 2000 election debacle. But it’s as if we’re standing in a long, dark tunnel, shouting to each other, not seeing any light at the end of it—not even an oncoming train.

The Soviets had a saying: “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.” Americans should be saying: “We pretend to vote and they pretend to count them.”

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28—William Shakespeare

Bev Conover is the editor and publisher of Intrepid Report. Email her at editor@intrepidreport.com.