Day 138: USA - Land of Liberty and Democracy?

Although the USA is often seen as the land of liberty and democracy, its federal election procedure is completely incompetent:

"The United States is an exceptional nation, but it is not always exceptional for good. The American voting system too is an exception: It is the most error-prone, the most susceptible to fraud, the most vulnerable to unfairness and one of the least technologically sophisticated on earth."

An ideal democratic election procedure looks as follows:
- You know the results as soon as the polls close
- Votes are counted electronically
- Every district and state has the same rules and the same organised procedure for voting
- The voting procedure is managed by an independent electoral agency

How does the USA perform on these parameters?

State and local laws cause big distinctions in terms of how elections are held in each region, making national standards impossible. In some states you don't even have to present your ID when you vote. Other nations use completely outdated technology and equipment. An example here were the 200 elections in St. Louis, Missouri. Because no investment was done to improve outdated equipment, creating long delays on voting day. At poll-closing time, people were still cuing to cast their vote all over the city. Because many inhabitants of St. Louis are democratic, Al Gore asked a judge to extend voting time with three hours in St. Louis. The judge granted this request. The Republicans however, appealed and the decision was revoked.

Yes - that's right -there is no independent election body that supervises the elections and politicians are able to interfere by asking possibly partisan local judges to make exceptions on their behalf. But parties' interference does not stop there. Politicians often schedule voting in a way that is in their advantage and in the disadvantage of the opponent. Voting places are moved around for the same reason. Elections themselves are just an extension of parties' campaigns.

So - the US scores badly on all four of the above-mentioned parameters. Now add to this that voting day always falls on a Tuesday, a working day, making it hard for many to actually cast their vote - and: international election observers present to make sure that the elections are conducted in a democratic way - were banned from nine nations - of which some threatened with arrest.

Democracy means that the country is run by the people and for the people. Considering the ridiculousness of the facts that people only get to cast their vote once every four years, that election campaigns are all about who's got the most money to run the best campaign and who has the best poker-face in making promises they never intend to keep and then the scandalously inadequate voting procedures - just how are the American population governing themselves?

Sources:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/14/americas-election-process-an-international-embarrassment/?iref=allsearch
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/05/opinion/frum-election-chaos/index.html

Related articles

• Day 108: Virtual Democracies
• Day 137: Greece: The Birth and Death of Democracy
• Day 105: Human Liberties
• Day 102: Liberalism
• Day 104: We have to Protect our Freedom!

Day 25: The Mockery of Democracy

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe that democracy exists

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe that a political system is in place where elected politicians represent and work for within the best interest of the population

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that the world is governed within a system of plutocracy (rule by the wealthy for the wealthy)

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that presidents and leaders are not brought forth into their position through true democratic processes – but are selectively chosen by the wealthy as their candidate – where the candidate has shown promise to serve and maintain the interest of the wealthy –and thus the wealthy will sponsor and fund their candidate’s campaign and place him/her in a position of power

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that money rules

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself that no democracy and sovereignty can exist when countries are indebted over their heads to other countries and private entities – and where the latter will dictate to the debtor what must be done to remain in the creditor’s grace

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see that there can be no political freedom within the current state of the world due to the current world economic system – as all decisions are based on money and one can only do so much if there is only so much money available and one is in massive debt

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that there is only power where there is money

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that a leader can only do as much as he is being supported to do financially by other parties – where these parties are the wealthy who will only support their leader if the leader supports their interest

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that at this stage it does not matter who gets elected during a political election – as the elected can only carry out policies if he has money and this money comes from the wealthy – and thus the cash flow from the wealthy will actually determine the course of a nation

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that although symbolic leaders change – those who actually govern do not change – as all they ever do is make sure that they do not lose their wealth and find ways to accumulate more wealth  – and thus no real change ever comes about

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that the leaders within this world and their cronies are all interlinked with the corporatocracy – as they all in some way or another have links with major corporations and will rule and run their politics in the benefit of the corporatocracy

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that the world isn’t run by politicians but by ruthless businessmen

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that we are currently not all “free citizens” with a “chosen leader” who will direct a society to what is Best for All – but where we are all employees to a symbolic leader who in fact works for the corporate elite and that we are freedom is only an illusion which is maintained so we won’t see what is going on and complacently remain in our position of slaves

I commit myself to expose the political criminalities that take place within the world

I commit myself to show that the current political system is works more like a criminal syndicate than a system which support the people for the sake of the people

I commit myself to expose that we do not have and never have had a true democracy – and that the first step towards true participation and representation of the whole is the Equal Money System

I commit myself to expose the money flow which dictates who gets to be a leader and who doesn’t and how leaders will only act in a way which benefits the wealthy

I commit myself to expose that we are not living in a democracy but in a plutocracy/corporatocracy – where only money counts and money votes

I commit myself expose how no nation, no being is in fact sovereign as all are slaves to the money system and have no actual freedom whatsoever

I commit myself to show that we as the human race have in no way evolved – we’ve only gotten better at justifying our behaviour and come up with clever, sophisticated ways to keep doing what we’ve always been doing while maintaining the illusion of “evolution” and “freedom”

I commit myself to an Equal Money System – the only system where all will in fact be FREE