I always have enjoyed making a cooked breakfast... not just because I really like a "proper" breakfast, but also because I tend to have much better creative thoughts when I am not actually trying to be creative.
Go figure!
So I found myself thinking about the Presidential election, and how we now allegedly have a result. Or do we? The truth is that we don't have a result — and we never have had — till each state has certified their vote counts, and the electoral votes have been cast.
The News Overseas
I mostly read the news online, and I mostly read the news through overseas news sources rather than US news sources. Quite often I choose to use the Tor browser in combination with a proxy server to bypass "filtered" content designed to give US readers only so much information.
It has always amazed me just how different people in other countries perceive the USA, as compared to how we perceive ourselves.
Several comments I read yesterday suggested that the US is leaving behind four years of "thuggery" and there's hope that we might return to "democracy." DID we have thuggery? Not sure about that... but we did have plenty of chaos.
We're PERFECT!
Of course there are a lot of voices here in the US who say things like "we don't CARE what other people in other countries think!" But isn't it precisely that kind of rampant arrogance and self-involvement that presented a significant part of the problems over the past four years?
Then I read a somewhat interesting analysis about Conservatism and what Conservatives actually are trying to conserve. It seems that ultimately we are trying to conserve the old ways. But what are the "old ways," really?
I found myself looking at some statistics, including the fact that Biden got most of the late votes as a result of mail-in ballots being counted last. There are few people who were doing analyses on why it is that Republicans tend to mostly vote in person while Democrats are more open to mailing in their ballots.
17th Century Values?
Well, I think we have to go back a long way to get to an answer. And that answer also goes some of the way towards explaining a little more about what it is we're trying to conserve.
I think there's definitely a correlation between the fact that Republicans vote in person and Conservatives generally being represented (in a very broad way) by the old land owning ruling class who could just go to the polls and vote whenever they wanted to. Meanwhile, Democrats are more likely to mail in their balance because they are more likely to be busy working in their minimum wage jobs as burger flippers and street sweepers, and can't necessarily take off work to go vote on Election Day.
I think part of what we see here is that Mail in ballots evens that playing field. Either way, pretty much all sides can see that with increased voting-by-mail, a record number of votes were cast in this election. Let's hear it for carrying out your civic duty!
Good, Bad and Indifferent...
Now, I'm not gonna make an argument as to whether this is all good or bad. However I do believe that every citizen should have equal ease of access to being able to vote. I'm not in favor of what some countries have which is mandatory voting, but I do like the system they have in some countries where Election Day is a national holiday so nobody has to go to work; thus no obvious limitations on who gets to vote and who doesn't.
Of course there are those who now fear that the US of A is going to become the "People's Socialist Republic of the United States of America." If you ask me, that's just a serious case of paranoia.
I see rhetoric like that, and I wonder what people are so damn afraid of?
"We're gonna lose our freedom!"
What freedom, exactly? The freedom to do what, exactly?
Interestingly enough, this is where the discussion often takes on a very singular flavor of discussion the Second Amendment. And that's material for a completely different post!
For now, though, I just remind myself that nothing has actually been certified yet...
Thanks for reading!
How about YOU? What are YOUR thoughts on the 2020 election? Was there actually "fraud?" Or did the increased ability to vote by mail, or absentee sway things in the Democrats' favor? In any case, does it REALLY make a difference who's President? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20201110 00:45 PST
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