Hope for Democracy (8/22/05)

by Dean Hartwell

 

In a democracy, the people make decisions.  Although the United States is ostensibly a republic, where people elect others to make decisions, its people have strived for more than two centuries to become a democracy.

 

Recent events have given many of us in the United States pause for concern over the future of our democracy.  We had another disputed election in November, we had a Bush Administration official, possibly Karl Rove, “out” a CIA operative and we have opinion polls saying that most people oppose the war in Iraq.

The election of 2004 left much to be desired in terms of its reliability, especially in the crucial state of Ohio.  Official results there, and in several other key states, contradicted exit polls that showed John Kerry the winner over President Bush.  Exit polls have long been accurate in presidential elections and are often used by the United States to determine if other nation’s elections are fraudulent, as was the case recently in the Ukraine.

 

In Ohio, countless would-be Kerry voters waited as many as ten hours in line before giving up.  Other voters who used “touch screen” voting voted for Kerry but had their vote counted for Bush.  Also, several precincts recorded more votes for Bush than there were registered voters in the precinct.[1]

 

The first problem in particular can be traced to the decision made by Ohio Secretary of State and state co-chair of Bush campaign Kenneth Blackwell to give proportionally more voting machines to areas with high Republican registration.  That left areas like Kenyon College, mostly Democratic, with just two machines for its 1300 registered voters, far below the level recommended.  And in the mostly Democratic Columbus area, between five and ten thousand voters left without having voted.[2]

 

No one has come up with credible explanations for the vote-switching and the so-called “phantom votes.”  Although they could be innocent machine glitch, the influence of Blackwell and his refusal to answer any questions about the election to either a House of Representatives investigation or to a court suggests criminal malfeasance.

 

In a democracy, people have the right to expect that the act of voting will be relatively quick and that their vote will be counted.  Waiting too long, seeing one’s vote get switched or hearing that extra votes got counted frustrates the hope we have that we will be treated fairly by our government.

 

Valerie Plame’s name and CIA identity became known two years ago in a column written by Robert Novak in 2003.  A federal grand jury has investigated the matter and information has become available that points to Rove’s involvement.[3]

 

At first, President Bush promised to fire anyone in his administration who was responsible for the outing, but he has recently said he would only fire anyone found guilty of leaking Plame’s identity.  If the grand jury finds Rove involvement, Bush must fire him.  Any refusal to do so undermines the democratic tenet of accountability to the people for whom they work.

 

The polling gets worse and worse for President Bush.  His personal approval ratings keep falling and now a majority of people in the United States opposes his policy in Iraq.[4]

 

Why is our supposedly elected President pursuing a war that most people do not want?  If he could articulate a reason for it, we might be able to understand why soldiers must die.  But he has changed his reasons several times, from the threat of weapons of mass destruction to ousting Saddam Hussein to liberating Iraq.

 

These problems, and others, make people in the United States fear that we are moving away from democracy.  This fear represents a point on the continuum of how people handle adversity: shock/denial, fear/anger, depression/grief and ultimately, understanding/acceptance.

 

We must not get stuck with our anger.  As bad as the current situation may be, the only way to improve it is by grieving the loss of democracy and by understanding that bringing it back can only take place when he have the hope in our hearts to believe in something that may never exist.

 

Endnotes:

 

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