The Virgin Prince's War Journal

The grim and gritty side of things. If everyone had a soundtrack to their lives, mine would be the best.

Friday, October 29, 2004

Why John Kerry Isn’t Winning In the Polls When He Should Be

It’s no secret that elections in the powerful country of America are rigged. They always have been, it’s just a fact that we as Americans have learned to accept, and it more than likely is tied on some level to our continually reducing voter turnout in every subsequent election. Election rigging is a cornerstone of American government, insured at the very creation of our own sovereign government by our forefathers, notably in the creation of the Electoral College. The reasons behind the creation of the Electoral College were two-fold. One reason was logical, basically, at that point in time it simply wasn’t feasible to quickly and efficiently count the vote of every American voter. This was the era of horses, colonies, unpaved roads, and Federalists. The second reason for the creation of the Electoral College was a bit more insidious. Quite frankly, the men in power didn’t trust the masses. Whether the reason was because they believed the general public was too dim-witted and uneducated to vote wisely, or whether they merely wanted to ensure that the candidates they preferred were always guaranteed victory in every election is unclear. What is known is that the Electoral College exists to this day, which essentially means that the individual vote of each voter is, in actuality, not counted.

These days, it is possible to quickly and efficiently count the vote of every individual voter. Nevertheless, the Electoral College has stuck around. Since the first reason for the inception of the Electoral College is no longer valid, this in itself is a telling statement of how our government and our elected officials view the voting masses today.

One of the especially despicable aspects of the Electoral College is the fact that every state is counted as a whole in terms of voting. What this means is that if 50% of a state votes for one candidate, and 49% of the state votes for another, the Electoral College representatives for that state give 100% of that state’s votes to the guy that actually only got 50% of the vote. Keep in mind if there were three or more candidates, and the candidate with the majority of votes only got 36%, or 29%, or 15%, all the way down to 1% (assuming that 1% was still the majority vote), the Electoral College would still grant that person 100% of that states’ vote. So already, in each state, the vote is misrepresentative of each state’s actual voters.

What makes it even more ridiculous is the matter that despite the fact that each state has a different number of electoral votes which are based on the populations of each individual state, still, the electoral votes are not based by voting district, or by any kind of actual population percentage. All electoral votes for the state go to the candidate that won the majority of votes in that state.

This made even more confusing by the fact that it isn’t even the actual majority vote of the population of any given state that chooses the candidate that gains the state’s electoral votes. No, what happens is they tally up which candidate won the most votes in each district, then count that district as voting for the one candidate. Then the districts are tallied up and the candidate that won the most districts gets all the Electoral Votes for the state.

Every vote counts?

To sum this all up, this is why Republican votes will essentially always be worthless in California because they are the overwhelming minority of the state, while Democratic votes will consistently be worthless in the states where NASCAR Racing rules, the overall skin-tone of the population is white, and literacy is a minor concern.

Okay, perhaps I’m not being fair to the Republicans (though my better judgment tells me otherwise), but then, when have Republicans ever been fair about anything?

I could go on a huge rant about how, sadly, the biggest weakness of the modern Democrat (and thereby, the Democratic Party) is their willingness to look at things objectively and fairly, while their opponents in the Republican party see things as they want to see them, but I won’t. I will say, however, that contrary to what Nixon said, the majority of the American population does NOT lean the right, it is merely that people on the left tend to take more seriously the opinions of the people on the right, while the people on the right generally offer no such considerations.

But I digress.

Back to the Electoral College, it is clearly undeniable that Al Gore lost the election to George Bush due to the Electoral College. After all, it is undisputed that Gore did win the majority of votes in the United States of America. In a fair election without the presence of an Electoral College, Al Gore would have won. For that matter, in a fair election, Al Gore would have won. There is some question after all over whether Al Gore even lost by the Electoral College. All the confusion came from Florida, the state run by George Bush’s brother, Jeb. The state where ILLEGAL butterfly ballots were deliberately used in a democratic majority district, and where many black voters were illegally prevented from having their votes count due to the evil machinations of Katherine Harris. Of course, all evidence indicates that Gore actually won the vote in Florida anyway, but of course, the Supreme Court stopped the recount of the ballots.

The Supreme Court, which has seven Republican-appointed Judges to the two Democrat-appointed Justices.

Can someone tell me how the Hell it’s unconstitutional to count votes in an election where the winner is debatable?

I suppose it goes without saying that I want the Electoral College abolished.

This brings me to the second government-approved method of election-tampering, Gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is the process by which voting districts are continually reshaped and redrawn in order to secure a clear voting majority in each district, be it Republican or Democrat, depending on which politicians are in power at the time.

A resent example of this occurred in 2003, when the Republican governor of Texas and select Republican members of Texas legislature decided to redraw the voting districts in Texas to make them, shall we say, more Republican-friendly. The few Democrat legislators in the state attempted to legally halt this process, a clear abuse of overwhelming Republican power, by not attending meetings of the legislature, since they would clearly be out-voted if they attended the meetings, though no vote could be had whatsoever if they failed to show, and thus, quorum was not attained. This attempt at civil disobedience was met by the governor putting out warrants for their arrest in Texas. This led to the Democratic legislators having to flee to Oklahoma and New Mexico in an attempt to flee jail-time. Modern democracy at work!

Now we move on to a popular and potent tool in the matter of election-rigging: Money. This one is particularly important to me because it’s especially relevant to me. In short, it’s well known that the Republican Party tends to look out for the interests of those with lots of money, while the Democratic Party tends to look out for the overwhelming majority, the working class. This tends to give an automatic financial advantage to the Republican Party when you consider the fact that the nation’s wealthiest 5% own roughly 60% of the nation’s wealth. So the members of the working class already can’t hope to compete in terms of advertising when supporting their political parties, even if they do pool their wealth.

As for myself, I would have loved to have been able to donate some money to the Kerry campaign or towards the Democratic Party, since I’m so desperate to see Bush removed from power, and would rather like to see John Kerry as president. The tragedy is, I’m unable to. I’m broke. I have no money because I’ve been laid off. I’ve been laid off TWICE during this crummy administration. Now you see the plight of the common man; why it’s so difficult to help enact change while the incredibly wealthy can afford to keep throwing money at terrible presidents for the sake of their own tax-cuts.

In terms of this election, George W. Bush has been blessed with three times the donated campaign budget of John Kerry, which is why the television has been plastered with nonstop pro-Bush advertising, and even my internet-viewing has been constantly interrupted by a steady stream of Republican pop-up windows.

How else are the minds of the voting public and the outcomes of public elections influenced? “The Liberal Media”.

Okay, anyone with half a brain knows “The Liberal Media” is a complete myth. It’s just a catchphrase invented by Rush Limbaugh and other rightwing extremists to scare the dimwitted majority of the nation into believing that they’re actually the oppressed minority. In truth, many of our modern movie stars and celebrated musicians do tend to lean more to the left, though this is largely due to the fact that they largely reside in New York, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, all liberal-leaning areas, places where people are forced to accept the reality of living amongst many other very different peoples as opposed to enjoying sheltered, solitary existences, sitting in their rural backyards watching the fly-zapper on hot Kansas nights.

It’s that simple. The more you open your eyes, the more “liberal” you become. Once you start to consider the rights and needs of others different than yourself, you cease to be “conservative”, and the more you feel the plight of others, the more “radical” you become.

This all said, for every instance of REM’s Michael Stipe wearing a shirt proclaiming that “Fur Is Murder”, or the rather simple Richard Gere begging for peace in Afghanistan, it really doesn’t change the fact that all the media is owned by huge corporations, for example, General Electric (GE) owning the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). We all know that at the very top of every corporation are very wealthy people running it, and we all know what political party wealthy people like to support.

If you don’t agree, consider the Clinton years, and how incredibly scrutinized President Bill Clinton was during his entire eight year run. No stone was left unturned; every aspect of his life was investigated, reported, and mocked. When only theories existed, those theories were presented to the public. Failing that, he was outright slandered and insulted in all forms of media. Extramarital affairs were uncovered and reported to the world, tax-scams were reported and investigated, and claims of conspiracies and assassinations were woven every time one of his childhood friends died. Ultimately, the biggest dirt ever uncovered on President Clinton was the fact that he received consensual oral sex from an intern while he was in office (a personal problem, not a professional one), this became the focus of huge media circus, and for this he was nearly removed from office.

To this day it is largely ignored how much better the economy was during his years in office, his efforts in Israeli-Palestinian peace-talks, how he improved the standing of the United States of America with the rest of the world, the noticeable decrease in assault weapon violence as a direct result of his assault weapons ban, the acres of trees saved throughout the U.S. as a result of his efforts to spare the environment, oh, and the noticeable and undeniable improvement of the conditions in Ireland today as a result of efforts he’d made in mediation.

Compare this to the past four years, during which time George W. Bush’s cocaine addiction and drunk driving conviction have been swept under the rug, and Bush’s failures as president have gone largely unreported. Little has been mentioned of horrific abuses of power that took place in Florida during the previous presidential election (for example, every black voter with roughly the same name as a convict being made ineligible to vote), or the fact that key members of the Bush administration were discussing the necessity of a “Pearl Harbor-type catastrophe” prior to September 11th. Nor does anyone mention how Bush had already started bulking up the military and building new missiles just weeks after his inauguration, in preparation for war when we hadn’t even been attacked yet. The entire year that Bush spent absent from his post in the Texas National Guard (which he was put into to avoid being sent to Vietnam) has been largely uninvestigated and unreported.

The news seems to be ignoring the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq nor has any tangible link to Al-Qaeda, the two factors Bush cited as his reasons for invading Iraq in the first place. Very little attention is being paid towards Bush’s relationship with Enron, or towards the underhanded favors he’s still granting towards Halliburton even now. The media certainly hasn’t paid much attention these past few months toward the fact Bush was unwilling to sign the bill renewing the assault weapons ban, or to the clear violation of the Constitution’s provision about the separation of church and state that was perpetrated when Bush sent messages to churches asking them to tell all their parishioners to vote for him during this upcoming election.

The media hasn’t even touched on such valid issues and stories such as the increase in wealth inequality in the United States (the fact that the rich ARE getting richer and the working class ARE getting poorer), or the fact that the Bush administration has been manipulating science and censors scientists. Ignored are the stories of the high levels of uranium found in troops and civilians and the birth defects found in two-thirds of children born to Gulf War veterans due to the use of depleted uranium in British and American weaponry or of the old-growth trees being given to logging companies by Bush and being chopped down at an alarming rate. Of course the media is silent on the issue of electronic voting machines, many of which are already in use across the nation and are built by Republican-backing companies, or of the fact that Republicans tend to show incredible last-minute swings which win them the elections when these machines are used, yet only the Republican designers of these machines know the codes and operating systems for them and are keeping these a closely guarded secret, while it’s a felony for anyone else to even inspect these machines.

The single suppressed story that bothers me the most is the culpability of the Bush administration in the attack on September 11th. Even with people such as Ellen Mariani filing lawsuits against Bush and company, charging that they were more aware of the impending terrorist attack on New York than they claimed to be (and that quite possibly, they allowed this attack to happen for political reasons), the media has gone absolutely out of its way to ignore, suppress, and not investigate this story. This is despite the fact that her complaint contains 40 pages of evidence. This is despite the fact of how noticeably uncooperative Bush and Cheney were during a congressional panel’s investigation of the events of September 11th. This is despite the fact that Dick Cheney already had maps detailing oilfields, pipelines, refineries, and terminals of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates PRIOR to September 11th. This is despite the fact that the Bush administration sent a gift of $43 million to Taliban leaders in Afghanistan in May of 2001, just four months prior to September 11th (supposedly for the war on drugs). This is despite the fact that the airliners commandeered on September 11th roamed the skies without interference for over an hour while normal intercept times by NORAD for errant domestic flights are between 10 and 20 minutes.

Yes, it’s quite clear that in terms of media attention, George W. Bush has had it quite easy these past four years. For all of you still concerned about a possible Liberal media bias, keep in mind that there have been Republican-themed radio stations for years, stations which have played the likes of such Conservative hate-mongers as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Reagan, and Michael Savage. There hasn’t even been a Liberal-themed station until this year, and it’s not even national! Our nation’s single Liberal station is only available in about a dozen cities. As for those of you concerned about this nation’s celebrities all being Liberals, keep in mind that the Republican Party still has staunch supporters in Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Kid Rock, and Ted Nugent. Granted, they’re all vapid morons, but then, who else would support Bush?

This brings me to the very last tool used by the very powerful to shape public opinion and manipulate the outcome of elections: Propaganda.

Propaganda has always been a popular tool of the Republican Party, and without question, George W. Bush and his handlers are masters of it. It is because of a masterful manipulation of people’s fears about an impending and devastating attack that George W. Bush is currently leading as the frontrunner for president in the public opinion polls. This is despite the fact that in the very same polls Bush doesn’t even have a 50% approval rating from the public in terms of the job he’s doing and has done as president.

What this means is that the overwhelming majority of American people know that Bush has done a ridiculously terrible job as president, yet they want to re-elect him anyway because they’re too afraid not too.

Not since Hitler has there ever been so powerful a world leader who is so incredibly gifted at the art of propaganda as Bush. There are even noticeable similarities between the two men and the things they’ve accomplished.

1. While German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, the Supreme Court ended the recount of votes in Florida and effectively placed George W. Bush as President of the United States of America.

2. Adolf Hitler used the Reichstag Fire of February 1933 to increase paranoia amongst the people and politicians of Germany, causing them to fear an impending danger from Communists.

George W. Bush used the events of September 11th, 2001 to increase paranoia amongst the people and politicians of the United States of America causing them to fear an impending danger from terrorists (Middle-Easterners/Muslims).

3. Adolf Hitler used Germany’s fear of Communists to restrict the civil liberties of people in Germany and pass the Enabling Act on March 23rd, 1933, giving himself legal dictatorship of Germany.

George W. Bush used America’s fear of terrorists to pass the Patriot Act on October 26th, 2001, which similarly restricts the civil liberties of American citizens and grants Bush greater power than he had before.

Of course, I probably don’t need to mention how both men have authorized prison camps for incarcerating people without the necessity of trials, charges, or access to lawyers for those imprisoned.

It’s amazing how much a little smooth-talking and the careful manipulation of people’s anger and fear can accomplish.

Following the events of September 11th, the Bush administration (with some help from the Republican Party) has fostered the idea that it is un-American and downright unpatriotic to speak out against your country and your governmental officials, regardless of how inappropriate, immoral, misguided, or outright nefarious they might be acting. Before the start of the war on Iraq, people were encouraged not to protest as that would be acting against our government. It’s no secret that the government has never responded well to protests, particularly when the protests are counter to whatever policy the government is pushing. Still, this is the first time in my lifetime I can recall ever being told that it was unpatriotic to stand up for what you believe in. So while I was busy trying to hold down my day job, a bunch of my friends went protesting and got arrested, and once released, continued to have legal problems for a few months afterwards. They got off easy compared to other non-violent protestors.

Of the roughly 300 human shields that went to Iraq to try to prevent civilian casualties, about 20 were American. Those American human shields that have returned to the states are now facing a penalty from the government of $10,000 dollars or 12 years in prison. The great thing about this is the government can’t prosecute them for non-violent protest, so instead it’s prosecuting them on the basis that these people bought food and first-aid supplies while in Iraq, and therefore helped support an enemy economy. This law is actually intended towards corporations, businesses, and businesspeople, and not generally used to prosecute individual visitors. But then, most American visitors to Iraq don’t generally have an anti-war message with so much positive media attention.

It’s not just people protesting the war that are getting screwed by the government. Whistleblowers aren’t safe either. In April 2002, two Greenpeace members boarded a boat that was transporting endangered mahogany that was illegally logged in the Amazon Rainforest. After hoisting a banner that protested the illegal importation of endangered wood into the United States, the two were arrested, charged with misdemeanors and briefly jailed. 15 months later, Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department brought them back to court and charged them again, using a law that had been dug up from 1872. Though the law was intended for brothel and bar staff, to prevent the luring of sailors off-ship, it is instead being used to prosecute Greenpeace. The result of this abuse of power to prosecute is that now Greenpeace may be looking at $10,000 in fines for the act of TALKING TO SAILORS.

Meanwhile, as the civil liberties of Americans everywhere are being stripped away one by one, Bush’s propaganda machine has managed to convince many Americans that the Bush Administration has actually been keeping people safer than they would normally be. The fact that the media has been unwilling to investigate and report on most of the current administration’s blunders and wrongdoings hasn’t helped much. But the facts of the matter are these:

1. Bush was asleep at the wheel in the months prior to September 11th, up to that very date, allowing the worst terrorist attack in American history to occur, killing thousands. Bush even spent the entire month prior on vacation. The Clinton administration held meetings about the threat of Al-Qaeda nearly weekly, and Twin Towers stood tall throughout all eight years of the Clinton presidency as opposed to seven months for Bush.

2. There have been more than a thousand United States citizens killed in Iraq and between 15,000 to 30,000 (make that 100,000, whoops)Iraqi civilian deaths and the occupation is far from over. There are still constant attacks from insurgents.

3. In the United States, the draft boards have begun filling in their vacancies, leading to speculation about an impending draft of the nation’s youth. Every step prior to an actual draft has already been taken, including the removal of National Guard soldiers from the United States in order to facilitate a larger presence of American soldiers in Iraq.

4. Terrorist attacks have actually INCREASED (to a 21 year-high) throughout the world since September 11th, with notable attacks in Spain, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

5. In April, utilizing the popularity of the Laci Peterson case, Republicans passed a bill making the murder of pregnant women a crime against two people, both victim and fetus, by establishing the legal status of unborn children. This was passed as a legal precedent towards removing the female right to have abortions.

6. George W. Bush has repeatedly proposed the addition of an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the right of gay citizens to marry. Not only is this the first time an amendment would have been added for the purpose of discrimination, it is also clearly in violation with “the separation of church and state” which is clearly outlined in the Constitution in its very own First Amendment.

7. Due to the Patriot Act that was passed at Bush’s insistence, the government can now observe, wiretap, harass, secretly search, investigate, and detain American citizens, religious groups, and political organizations without probable cause or having any charges brought against them. If that’s not enough, the Patriot Act also allows for communications between federal detainees and their lawyers to be monitored by the government, thus destroying the attorney-client privilege. What’s worse, Americans suspected of terrorism can be (and are currently) held indefinitely, without being charged and without access to lawyers. Non-citizens can be jailed merely on suspicion, and kept out of the country for engaging in free speech. It would seem that the price of increased security is the trampling of the rights granted us by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

8. Fearing the loss of both NRA voters and NRA financial contributions, George W. Bush allowed the Assault Weapons Ban to expire on September 13th. There are now 19 more kinds of semi-automatic weapons on the streets with which to be killed. Two days after the third anniversary of the terrible events of September 11th, 2001, AK-47s and Uzis are back on the market, making America a safer place from the threat of terrorists that don’t go to gun shows.

9. Despite the Mad Cow scare caused in Europe by the massive outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and the subsequent discovery of Mad Cow Disease in North American cattle, the United States government, under George W. Bush’s administration, has continued to fail to safeguard the American people from the threat of Mad Cow Disease. In fact, of the four recommendations made by the World Health Organization (WHO) the United States follows none. Despite the fact that instituting more thorough testing on cattle would only cost us mere pennies on the dollar, we continue to test roughly only one out of a thousand cattle. Austria was once considered as safe as America in terms of Mad Cow Disease, but it chose to preemptively institute thorough testing of cattle. An infected cow was found within 6 months. France, which has only a fraction of the U.S. cattle population, tests more cattle in a single week then the U.S. has tested in a decade. Europe is testing cattle at a rate of almost two thousand times that of the United States.

What the modern American really needs to think about and then ask his or her self is this: do you really feel safer with George W. Bush in office? I suppose perhaps if you’re white, you don’t travel, you’re too old to be drafted, straight, male, prion-resistant, bomb-proof, and bullet-proof, you might feel pretty well-off in today’s world. Of course, even still, it wouldn’t hurt if you were rich and preferred freedom from choice as opposed to the luxury of freedom of choice. But that’s just to be absolutely safe.

As for myself, under the Bush administration, the only times I’ve truly felt safe as an American have been during my times in Canada.

Despite all of George W. Bush’s blunders, he’s remained popular with a much larger chunk of the American citizenry than he probably should be. Perhaps not as much popular as much as citizens are just too afraid to vote for anyone else. This is because George W. Bush, as well as the Republican Party, has tapped into a primary human emotion, thus controlling the citizenry on an emotional level. Bush’s emotion of choice is fear.

There are three principal emotions by which people can be controlled: lust, fear, and anger.

Lust generally is a more powerful tool when used on small numbers of people; a main cause of this is the fact that the general majority of each gender are attracted to different things. Thus, something that would entrap the minds of most men would not work similarly well on most women and vice versa. A prime example of manipulating human lust to obtain a tangible result would be the success of Britney Spears as a singer. Thanks to the interest of pedophiliac old men and young boys hitting puberty alike, she remains a popular celebrity in the public eye despite her obvious lack of singing ability. People are actually oblivious to her inability to hit most notes and her mediocre acting ability, due to a few well-placed lesbian kisses and on-stage strip shows.

Other prime examples of success through lust-manipulation would be: Madonna’s rise to success and riches, the enormously profitable careers of The New Kids On the Block, The Backstreet Boys, and N-Sync despite their trite and infantile music, Valeria Messalina and her near-rise to power, and the successful spy career of Josephine Baker. Even the Beatles were more benefited by their grooming by George Martin (slick suits, shaven faces, and shaggy haircuts) than by the actual quality of their music.

This brings us to fear. Manipulation through fear happens all around us on a daily basis. Americans demand strict security on the Mexican border due to a fear of loss of jobs. The conservatives want a constitutional ban on gay marriage due to their fear of homosexuals and of their own suppressed homosexual urges. Congress passed the Patriot Act due to a nationwide fear of terrorists. Charlie Chaplin and countless others had their lives totally disrupted or ruined due to Joseph McCarthy’s successful manipulation of a fear of Communists. It was manipulation through fear that allowed for the Salem Witch Trials. Adolf Hitler even manipulated the Germans with a fear of Communists, thus allowing the passing of the Enabling Act which gave him full dictatorial power.

Fear is an emotion that Bush and Cheney know the power of and utilize as an effective political tool. The best thing to ever happen to the current administration was the terrorist attack on September 11th. The destruction wrought by that event left people with a tangible fear, a fear that caused people to stop looking at things with skepticism and objectiveness, a fear that caused them to blindly accept what their leaders said and cling tightly to the American flag. It was anger that allowed for the invasion of Afghanistan, but it was fear that enabled the invasion of Iraq. It’s a fear of terrorists that keeps people from questioning the legitimacy of Guantanamo Bay and the potential risk to human rights it represents. Sadly, but most importantly, it’s a fear of future terrorist attacks that has people too afraid to vote for anyone but Bush.

This is particularly sad. Bush doesn’t even have a 50% approval rating. That means more than half of the country thinks that George W. Bush is doing a particularly terrible job, yet roughly half of the country wants to vote for him because they’re afraid that if they don’t they’ll be killed by a terrorist. People are so racked by fear, they’re no longer even capable of thinking rationally. People don’t even consider the fact that it’s Bush’s fault that we were so dreadfully unprepared for a terrorist attack, or that he ignored several warnings, both from our own intelligence agencies and from the intelligence agencies of several other countries (notably Britain). People don’t even consider the fact that Bush was on vacation for a full month just prior to the attacks. That’s because they’re to busy worrying that they’ll be attacked if they vote for someone else, because that’s what Bush and his administration have been telling people. As matter of fact, on the issue of voting, Dick Cheney even said,

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

So if you vote for Kerry, terrorists will blow us up because they, like Republicans, hate seeing democracy at work.

The last and most powerful emotion that can be manipulated is anger. Anger is particularly powerful because it cancels out all other emotions and can work on the masses, regardless of individual differences. A person pushed too far knows no fear. Anger is simultaneously as dangerous as it is powerful; we’ve all heard the horror stories regarding angry mobs. Some of the worst events in human history have been caused by massive amounts of people all becoming slaves to their unchecked anger. Certainly, a carefully crafted riling-up of the people in Germany allowed for Kristallnacht to take place, and further set the stage for the Holocaust. There are even reported cases of angry mobs in China resorting to cannibalism while caught up in the frenzy of an anti-communist purge. Of course, who could forget San Jose, back in 1933, when the entire town, incensed over the murder of Brooke Hart, broke into the county jail and dragged out his killers, beating and lynching them, then leaving the bodies hanging for hours from trees in a public park, where children played underneath them.

As dangerous as mass anger can be, however, it can also lead to change, sometimes positively so. Every great revolution has been fuelled by the anger of the people. Certainly, the French Revolution led to France eventually becoming a free republic, and also can be credited for the current dominance of the metric system. The death of Crispus Attucks brought the anger of the American people to its boiling point, forming the impetus for the American Revolution. Furthermore, American outrage after the attack on Pearl Harbor got our nation involved in the Second World War, which is more than likely why the British aren’t currently speaking German. Even Fidel Castro, who was twice defeated militarily, eventually took power in Cuba, thanks largely to the people’s anger at Fulgencio Batista, and is largely considered by the people to have improved their quality of life, having instituted education and free health care for all.

My point is this: John Kerry could have had this election won with little effort if he’d just made a point to utilize the anger of the people.

There’s no question Bush’s tenure as President has really just been a collection of screw ups starting the very minute a small majority of the Supreme Court put him in office. During his four years, Bush has had no qualms about alienating or angering others to get what he wants. Even as Bush and his cronies continue to try to control the American people through their fear of terrorists, the fact remains that the basis for this fear, the events of September 11th, more than likely occurred in the first place due to Bush’s complete incompetence. Add this to his theft of the 2000 election, and our misguided war on Iraq, and what really becomes apparent is the American people have a lot to be angry about.

With the staggering amount of blunders that have taken place since George W. Bush snatched the Executive Branch of the United States government, it would be child’s play to create a smear campaign for the sake of utilizing the people’s anger to thus enable the deposing of the President. But John Kerry hasn’t, he’s taken the high road. I believe in dignity and honor as much as the next guy, but honestly, I’m not sure I would do the same, especially considering both the stakes of this current election, and the less than honorable smear-and-fear campaign Bush’s own people have been running.

The nation is in a very bad state at this time, and with the election this close, I can honestly say I’m terrified of the potential outcome. So what I want to say is this:

If, on the off-chance Bush actually wins, it’ll only be because Kerry was too busy being honorable, as opposed to acting like a politician.
The Virgin Prince, 9:06 PM | link |