American Democracy

Thursday Oct. 30 2014

Move all done.  Took the whole of Tuesday to transport my stuff from the boat, and settle it and myself into the cabin.  Wednesday was spent draining, flushing and stowing, and otherwise winterizing the boat.  Felt too warm to be doing it, but better sweat than sleet.  Have tempted the weather gods a few times over the years, and inevitably they pull the old bait and switch—cloudless late fall warmth for gale driven icy rain.  The work still has to be done, only it has to be done with frozen hands in soaking clothes while storm swells make what should have been a few easy hours of pleasant tasks into a day or more of torture.

Enjoying my week off.  Only get a couple a year, my time to become vegetative.  Gives me time to peek over the coastal mountains for a glimpse of what the rest of the planet is doing.  One of these times I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but not this week.

With the American mid-term election less than a week away, it seems that democracy’s “Shining city on the hill” has become a ghetto.  With electoral districts gerrymandered to ensure maximum power for powerful groups by locking minorities into meandering patchworks of districts, there is no chance that the Democrats can retake the House of Representatives now or at any time in the future. 

Making matters worse is the campaign to change voter registration processes and the rules around advanced voting.  Without exception, the registration changes have made it more difficult to vote, particularly for the poor and the elderly, both Democratic constituencies.  The advance voting rule changes have also impacted these groups, but reducing voter access to alternative times and means for casting a ballot.  

And if all this wasn’t discouraging enough, there is the spectre of the Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that essentially opened the flood gates for special interest money—read “corporate”—to spend as much as they want to influence the outcomes of elections.  

Congratulations America!  At a time in human history when oligarchy, ideological, political and corporate, is making its boldest move since Mao and Stalin, you have managed to discredit the best hope we had against these powerful forces. 

There are times when I wish the mountains were higher.