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11/8/2000

BLASPHEMY
"freedom of choice is what you got
freedom of choice is what you want
then if you got it you don't want it
seems to be the rule of thumb
don't be tricked by what you see"
Excerpt from Devo's Freedom of Choice

You think you helped get ______ elected with your vote? Or you wish more folks had voted for ________ or even ______? Well, don't fret. You didn't have anything to do with it. It's all actually done by the electoral college. If you've forgotten your high school civics, as I have, this article helps explain how it works:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/02/electoral.college/index.html
There's also a brief article about what happens when this system fails, written just before this whole mess got started:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/11/columns/cossack.election.11.06/
Of course, it's a moot point now.
The anchors on CNN keep bringing up the question "Can a president who's elected by such a small margin govern effectively?" And it pisses me off every time they say it because they KNOW the truth. The reality is it's a winner-take-all fight. It's not like the (at last count) 1,784 voters in Florida that made the difference can change their minds in a few months when Bush/Gore makes a mess of things. No, the reality is the loser goes home, period. But we'll be bombarded for weeks to come, then again come January, about how close it was and how if only "we" had gotten the vote out "we" could have beaten "them."

"Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do
"Forward" he cried from the rear and the front rank died
And the General sat, and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side"
Excerpt from Pink Floyd's Us And Them

But the split only shows to me just how low we've sunk - nobody in their right mind would say "They're both so good we just couldn't decide." No, the reality is, "They both sucked so bad we couldn't decide. In fact, the one I don't like sucked so bad I had to make sure to get out and vote for the lesser of the two evils." We had good turnout this election. Well, at least good turn out for the U.S. And apparently none of us like the choices much.

"Nader, the liberal, pro-environment, anti-corporate crusader, may well have cost Vice President Al Gore the White House."
Excerpt from http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/election_third_parties.htm l

This result actually wouldn't bother me that much. Oh, I hate Bush. The guy is a fuckin' moron. But this might teach the democrats a lesson - there are a few of us, like 3% of the general populace, that aren't willing to give up our ethics and beliefs for the "good of the cause." There are a few radicals out here. There are a few free thinkers. There are still a few liberals. So while we have no chance of electing our own candidate due to the two-party system and the electoral college they control, we do have a chance of wrecking your efforts to pull the party to the right, or "center" as you call it.

"As the Republicans and Democratic parties take more money from the same sources, they morph into one corporate party with two heads. We'll be back," Nader vowed.
Excerpt from http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/election_third_parties.htm l

Unfortunately, Ralph Nader did not get the five percent result he needed for the Green Party to gain federal funding for the next election. But the man has heart, and he's famously stubborn. While he may be back, I may be gone. I'm tired of the strip mall mentality of this country. Tired of the sameness, and the wonton destruction of the landscape to BUILD the sameness. I saw an interesting article somewhere that I can't find now, but it said something like our income in this country has risen 45% since WWII, but that our happiness has decreased by that same amount. Gee. The more shit we say we need to make us happy, we get, yet the less happy we become in reality. So I'm saving my pennies and taking Spanish lessons. No, I don't think I can escape it all, capitalism is rampant on this planet, but perhaps I can find a place where a person's life and worth, instead of their SUV, is their status symbol. And the rest of the pundits can stay here and complain, "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos." (Thanks to degenerate JDP for the bumper sticker idea!)

"I see a yellow man, a brown man
A white man, a red man
Lookin' for Uncle Sam
To give you a helpin' hand
But everybody's kickin' sand
Even politicians
We're living in a plastic land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah"
"Living in the U.S.A.
Come on try it, you can buy it, you can leave it next week, yeah
Somebody give me a cheeseburger"
Excerpts from Steve Miller Band's Living in the U.S.A.

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