Forum Post: Hanging chad election of 2012 - how do we prevent it?
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 21, 2011, 7:04 a.m. EST by stephenadler
(118)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
With the super committee ready to declare failure this week, the focus is now going to be on the 2012 elections. This is when the right wing is going to throw its full weight of its pocket book at throwing the elections their way. If they win, although they would never admit to it, they will devastate the middle class even further and make our government system even more ineffective. The only government program to survive will be the military, while the rest of the social safety system will be torn apart. Think of what happened in Wisconsin but now at a national level.
Furthermore, the financial system will be further deregulated, and all efforts to reign in their speculation will be stopped under the pretext that "government is the problem" and "jobs need to be created". The casino financial system will surge ahead, and when the next major crash fails, the republicans will be the first to throw the needed one or two trillion dollars at the financial system to prop up their failed casino bets.
If the republicans get their way, be sure to see a fresh heard of Goldman Sachs executives move into to head the financial institutions of our government so they can shepard the tax payers dollars into fresh bailouts.
The 2000 hanging chad election was a disaster of our electoral process which brought me shame. Here I was, a citizen of the most advance country in the world, and our voting system compared to something out of some African dictator's sham voting system. I was outraged. Outdated voting system in which you can't tell how the voter voted because some stupid little piece of paper didn't get punched through properly.
The only party who will benefit from a broken voting system will be the Republicans since they will need to pass by the slimmest of margins.
How are we going to prevent another hanging chad election? The stakes for the 2012 election are so high that it's hard to fathom. We have to make sure the Republicans do not take a majority in the senate and the white house. If they do, this country could face its first real socio-economic crisis which would far out dwarf the depression of the 30's....
What are we going to do?
The real power isn't in the presidency. Get up out of your tent, recruit from some of the lawyers, teachers, or businessmen around you and run them for congress around the country. Even if all you do is make it a close race, you'll push congress closer to your point of view.
Republicans and Democrats are only interested in reelection, make it a close enough race and you can scare them into supporting you. You have to stop doing things that only make you feel like you've accomplished something. Shut down the street or a port for a day is a waste, that happens with any major storm. Get involved politically. Drum circles and 99% t-shirts are nice for drawing some attention now it's time to do actual work for change.
Yes, "the beginning is near" . Time to get out of the tents and get to work.
OWS beats the drum of the 1st Amendment right of the people peaceably to assemble but yet when I mention the 1st Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances I hear that that is not what OWS stands for, it's heirarchical, it's treasonous, or simply it's impossible. I appreciate that drafting that list is going to be a difficult task but I don't see how OWS is going to actually change anything if people don't use the right to petition as strongly as they've used the right to peaceably assemble.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Just ask King George what happens when the petition gets ignored. Read the resolve at the end of this Declaration.
politics solves nothing. that's been proven over these past three decades. the current system must change and it will not change itself. I believe you are blind.
So legislation involving the environment and civil rights are an illusion? The career politicians are corrupt, but they aren't going to just walk away because OWS throws a fit and camps out. If you have the support you can vote them out and get in whoever you want.
wrong. corporations control and own our government and our economy. how do you expect to make any change within that kind of system.
I'm not willing to give up, but unfortunately, if your views represent a majority of OWS opinion then this movement is going to fail. Things aren't bad enough for a real revolution.
Politics solved Britain in 1776. OWS is meant to solve voter apathy.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
Constantly publicize the worthlessness of our voting system. We have an illegitimate electoral system that besmirches any socalled winner. Paper ballots, publicly counted only.
Electronic voting machines - WITH NO PAPER TRAIL - cost us Ohio.
Do anything you can to make sure this kind of machine - especially from Diebold ( in gwb pocket ) is not used. They can be UNTRACEABLY set up to create a winner
politics will not solve anything. it really doesn't matter who "wins" in the elections. nothing will change. we must change it through the occupy movement, on the streets, forcing change that the politicians are unwilling to make.
I like JPB950's reply. The presidency is 1/3'rd of the "power" of our government sort of speaking. We have a system which is spelled out in our constitution. There is no reason that we can't work with it in order to right the wrongs happening now. Personally, I believe that we need to focus on counter attacking the media ads which the 1% will be using to push their own agenda. Getting local citizens, neighbors etc motivated to run for congress is the real solution of course.... We, as a society, or at least me since I was 18, have basically taken the election process for granted and never thinking that maybe I, and everyone around me, should be taking an active roll, not a passive one...
NGA NOW all roads lead to Philadelphia: https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
End Elections, General Assemblies{Community, State, National} Referendums on key issues..End bureaucracy..