who can rig the Electoral College the best?

 

 

 

Comrades,

For weeks now,  I've been trying to dash off a thousand words on American politics viz a viz The Miracle of Democracy, but it just keeps getting weirder and weirder by the day and overtaken by events, in what seems like carefully staged managed chaos that'd make any extremest right-wing froot-looped foot soldier a #proud boy (since hijacked by LGBT K-poppers). As the late great Hunter S Thomson remarked in his 1971 classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream..."when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro".

It all began innocently enough with the godawfully timed death of the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who was perfectly entitled to shuffle off this mortal coil given she was 87 year old and riddled with cancer. There comes a time when there can be no more, and she knew it. I mistakenly thought there'd be enough time to scribble something about RBG's illustrious career as a 'liberal' jurist and her strange pop celebrity in her well advanced years. And wonder why you'd never see that happening here, no matter how distinguished the judge.

Then the Trumpotus' people decide to nominate a Catholic mother of seven from New Orleans, Professor at Law, former People of Praise adherent and Federalist Society boosterist par excellence to the bench of the SCOTUS, where - you'd expect - she'd given Roe v Wade (1973) a good walk in the park. Never mind the howls of protest that the Supreme Court may be contaminated for a generation, or the outrageous and disgraceful neglect of the time honoured protocol of leaving the next pick to the next President, this late in the Election Cycle. There would have been a chance to bang on about Obama and the very hard done by Merrick Garland and discuss the fascinating filibuster rules in the Senate, which were developed and finely tuned through the centuries with the sole aim of trying to prevent a vote. But no.

Then came 'The Cacophony in Cleveland" in the opening stanza of three Presidential debates, allegedly on policy that used to be taken seriously - and what a jolly good show it was! The DJ Trump Show! The Donald loves nothing more than a good lectern, a magnificent rostrum from which to screech dribble and spray gobfuls of infected golly's. For good reason, the press felled forests to sprout forth on the slanging match and speculate on how far down and dirty in the gutter you can go. For the first time ever, the traditional trick of trying to pick a "winner" got turned right on its ear, and most of the usual pundits didn't even bother given the match-up's utter intelligibility. Even the well-versed native in the English language would struggle to offer even the slightest clue as to what it was all about; but it as sure as Hell looked like a poor advertisement for the schism in American society - as one "GOP operative" was reportedly heard to remark within earshot of someone from the Intelligencer, “At last! We've finally found something that the entire country can agree on: That debate was a complete fucking shitshow all the way around.” And that's from one of The Donald's own party apparatchiks.

Folks are saying the Miracle of Democracy is going through the S-Bend right now, but they forget that it's always been and always will be in clear and present danger (just ask Wiemar Germany, they'll tell you, ha!). And there's no need to say there's more that one or two modern day tyrants and despots using the Facade of Democracy to sneak in through the back door. Moscow, Minsk, Bejing, Hong Kong, Ankara, Warsaw, Damascus, Caracas spring to mind, not to mention crazy mixed up joints like Manila, Baku, or Kigali for chrissake; the list goes on and on. If it happens in Washington, everyone will know who to blame.

It could have been a chance for me to rabbit on endlessly about jealousy guarding not only the right to vote, but the right to turn out and actually cast a ballot. In any voluntary system, it's all about turning out the vote, but there are any number of ways to disenfranchise people. Millions of 'em. All the time. There are Masters of the Dark Arts working on it as we speak. Everybody knows Uncle Joe would win in a canter if he can just turn out the black vote like Obama did in '08. But blatant voter suppression and intimidation has been going on in the Land of The Free since the year dot and keeping the blacks from messing around near ballot boxes has been a long-standing tradition, particularly in unreformed areas of The South. And they don't even need mobs of violent Brownshirts.  Be that as it may, in the final paralysis, it all comes down to who can rig the Electoral College the best. And lucky for the Trumpotus - the fix was in - in '16.

In times of trouble in the Home of The Brave, I'm reminded of the former Senator from Indiana Birch Bayh - who died last year at 91. He was the No.1 cheerleader and staunchest supporter of the abolition of the Electoral College as the hopelessly gerrymandered unrepresentative swill it is, in favour of a winner-take all in the Popular Vote alone - first past the post with a simple majority. Never mind that Birch also authored the 25th and 26th Amendments to the US Constitution, setting out Presidential succession and establishing the voting age at 18 in every state. La de da, de da...I'm thinking. Poor ol' Birch, he dead now, and I can't see anyone who's taken up the torch.

Then The Donald goes and gets The Corona, and gets choppered off to the Presidential Suite at The Hospital, and everything's turned on it's head yet again, this time upside down and inside out. It's a promoters dream! This is what showmen live for. Even the best Hollywood writers couldn't make this crazy bat shit up. Or maybe they are? But if the all too predictable "October Surprise" comes this early in the month, then I give up. And I'd believe you if you told me "you aint seen nuthin' yet". The fear & loathing in the last four weeks on the hustings has been known to get pretty bitter, twisted and intense...so light the blue touchpaper, and stand well clear. Boom.