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fastpat · 11-07-2006, 05:17 AM

Part One

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Voting: Suppressing Change Through the Pursuit of Power

by Jeff Snyder

A sizable portion of the American electorate heads to the polls today to cast votes for members of the House and Senate, as well as various governors and representatives in the states. The campaigns this season have been particularly brutal, buzzing with allegations or evocations of gay sex, pedophilia, bribery and corruption, racial prejudice, preference for the rights of terrorists over the safety of Americans, and a craven desire to turn tail and run from the Iraqi field of battle. It seems a worthwhile time to ask ourselves, now, while so many of us are at a fever pitch, before we know the results of the election and bask in elation or wallow in sorrow, before the question recedes far into the background, subordinated to our efforts either to exploit our side’s newfound power, or to gather strength and mobilize for the next election battle: what is this thing so many of us are about to do?

I write this not to dissuade anyone, at this hour, from voting, far less to encourage anyone to vote for particular candidates, but simply to provide food for thought, and more importantly, to urge voters to consider an alternate form of activism beginning on the day after the election, regardless of whether their party wins or loses. It is important to question what, exactly, it is we have when we have the vote, if we are to advance one step beyond our present position.

I’d like to return to what a few notables and ne’er-do-wells from the 19th century said on this subject, back when American and English democracy were still young and (thought to be) full of great promise. In part I do this because these authors’ works are easily accessible. But more importantly, I cite their discussions as an indication that the truth of a thing can be known or available for a long time, while people continue playing the same fruitless game, convinced it is a game that can be won and, even better, that they can win, without ever letting the truth of the thing sink in and alter their course of action. Perhaps now is the time some will choose to forever break with this pattern, and set off in a new direction. I urge this consideration because there seems to be little solace or hope available in the results of the election regardless of which party wins. If the Republicans retain control of the Congress after the history of the last six years, they will conclude, rightly, that they can essentially get away with anything, confident that their base will never abandon them as long as the party leadership and its associated spokesmen in talk radio, newspapers and evangelical Christians can continue to successfully portray the Democrats as closer to Pure Evil in the lesser of two evils sweepstakes known as elections. If the Democrats gain control of Congress, or at least the House, there seems precious little cause for celebration. This is the party that, given a President who lied us into an unjust and illegal war, who admits violating statutes and the Constitution and arrogates to himself the right to exempt himself from laws, cannot even bring itself to promise that, if it obtains majority control, it will end the war as expeditiously as possible, repeal the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act, defund the President’s illegal activities or commence impeachment proceedings. As Joseph Sobran has pointed out, it is a delusion to believe there are two parties which stand for different principles, when one party never repeals or revokes the acts made while the other party was in control, but leaves them standing while pursuing its own, new agenda.

What, then, is the vote? The vote offers the prospect to the electorate that, if they can succeed in forming themselves into a majority, they may enact or force their ideas of what is good for all upon a minority that is opposed or indifferent to that vision. The vote is a contest in which the stakes are power over the minority. And how is this contest conducted, and how do people who have the vote behave? In the Pickwick Papers(1837), Charles Dickens provides a description of electorate behavior that captures the Blue State/Red State America of today as fully as the perfervid election contests of early 19th century England:

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It appears, then, that the Eatanswill people, like the people of many other small towns, considered themselves of the utmost and most mighty importance, and that every man in Eatanswill, conscious of the weight that attached to his example, felt himself bound to unite, heart and soul, with one of the two great parties that divided the town – the Blues and the Buffs. Now the Blues lost no opportunity of opposing the Buffs, and the Buffs lost no opportunity of opposing the Blues; and the consequence was, that whenever the Buffs and Blues met together at public meeting, Town-Hall, fair, or market, disputes and high words arose between them. With these dissensions it is almost superfluous to say that everything in Eatanswill was made a party question. If the Buffs proposed to new sky-light the market-place, the Blues got up public meetings, and denounced the proceeding; if the Blues proposed the erection of an additional pump in the High Street, the Buffs rose as one man and stood aghast at the enormity. There were Blue shops and Buff shops, Blue inns and Buff inns; – there was a Blue aisle and a Buff aisle, in the very church itself.

Of course it was essentially and indispensably necessary that each of these powerful parties should have its chosen organ and representative; and, accordingly, there were two newspapers in the town – the Eatanswill Gazette and the Eatanswill Independent; the former advocating Blue principles, and the latter conducted on grounds decidedly Buff. Fine newspapers they were. Such leading articles, and such spirited attacks! – "Our worthless contemporary, the Gazette" – "That disgraceful and dastardly journal, the Independent" – "That false and scurrilous print, the Independent" – "That vile and slanderous calumniator, the Gazette;" these, and other spirit-stirring denunciations were strewn plentifully over the columns of each, in every number, and excited feelings of the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of the townspeople.

Mr. Pickwick, with his usual foresight and sagacity, had chosen a peculiarly desirable moment for his visit to the borough. Never was such a contest known. The Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, was the Blue candidate; and Horatio Fizkin, Esq., of Fizkin Lodge, near Eatanswill, had been prevailed upon by his friends to stand forward on the Buff interest. The Gazette warned the electors of Eatanswill that the eyes not only of England, but of the whole civilized world, were upon them; and the Independent imperatively demanded to know, whether the constituency of Eatanswill were the grand fellows they had always taken them for, or base and servile tools, undeserving alike of the name of Englishmen and the blessings of freedom.

This is the vote; it has always been the vote; it will always be the vote. Polarization of all human interaction and endeavors, universal rancor and dissension, slander, calumny, lies, deliberate mischaracterization of the words, positions and deeds of the opposition, self-righteous indignation, fantasies of crushing the opposition, and sheer delight in the downfall of others.