Monday, October 25, 2004
1-866-MY-VOTE1
Just caught one the "protect your vote" commercials on CNBC, stars of NBC/MSNBC News telling voters to call 1-866-MYVOTE1 if they experience problems voting. I'm not here to slam the effort, by any stretch of the imagination (it's being done in conjuction with The Reform Institute and Common Cause) and in fact, I applaud the effort.
What I'm appalled by is the fact that fair voting is an issue at all. Furthermore, the fact that NBC is on board with this is tacit recognition that the election was stolen in Florida in 2000. "Let's not allow this to happen again," they're saying, which makes me wonder, isn't it a pretty big deal that it happened at all? In my mind, undermining democracy, the single principle that this country was founded upon ('liberty' and 'freedom' being sufficient conditions to the necessary condition of 'democracy'), is a bigger story than Pearl Harbor or 9/11 or a moon landing, it's a story on par with the Declaration of Independence or the Emancipation Proclamation.
I've said this before but I'll say it again because it bears repeating: the biggest story of this century should be how Bush and the Supreme Court sabotaged democracy. The second biggest story should be how the media dropped the ball on that story.
What I'm appalled by is the fact that fair voting is an issue at all. Furthermore, the fact that NBC is on board with this is tacit recognition that the election was stolen in Florida in 2000. "Let's not allow this to happen again," they're saying, which makes me wonder, isn't it a pretty big deal that it happened at all? In my mind, undermining democracy, the single principle that this country was founded upon ('liberty' and 'freedom' being sufficient conditions to the necessary condition of 'democracy'), is a bigger story than Pearl Harbor or 9/11 or a moon landing, it's a story on par with the Declaration of Independence or the Emancipation Proclamation.
I've said this before but I'll say it again because it bears repeating: the biggest story of this century should be how Bush and the Supreme Court sabotaged democracy. The second biggest story should be how the media dropped the ball on that story.
