Today’s US election will affect all of us in this blog/forum community: even those who are not US citizens are affected by the policies of the US government. For those of us who still carry the blue passport with the golden vulture on the front, that influence can be overwhelming, even if we have consciously distanced ourselves from it.
Today, the fate of the whole world will be affected by an election in which, at best, a small majority of voters will decide who wins most elections. That majority will be drawn from a pool of electors from which , at best, a bare majority will vote. Those electors will be drawn from a pool of eligible voters from which, at best, about half are registered to vote.
55% x 51% x 50% = 14%
If 14% of the eligible voters makes a majority, where is the democracy?
What has happened to the process so that so few people participate? Is this really what Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and the other framers of the Republic envisioned?
I grieve for America.
I love Uruguay and I am grateful to Uruguay that it has provided a home for me.
But I will always mourn for an America that no longer exists…
I must sadly agree,while this once great country spirals downward our state of denial seems to intensify.In Louis Black’s (comedian) most recent diatribe he asks the question how in the hell can we continue to shout we’re #1 when we rank so low as a nation in cat egories like health, freedom of speech, reading, science,math skills,voting rights etc.when compared with our so called third world neighbors.
I’m 64 so my time left is shorter than most and my heart aches for the young and what will be left them. Some how, some way this country must awaken from it’s stupor for history has a way of repeating it self. Roman empire anyone?
Left by mikereznm on November 7th, 2006