I agree with a lot of what Ted has to say but must take issue with a few points. Ted Morgan wrote: The electoral college's "over-ruling" of the popular "majority" vote pales by comparison with the fact that the real flesh & blood majority don't vote as a rule, with the primary reason for this being that they see nothing to "vote for" --i.e., non-voting is, in effect, a rational act on their part. JW reply: The rational decision not to vote is a decision to let others make the decisions. The silent majority does not count, whether it be your's or Richard Nixon's. Rather than saying someone has no majority support because most people did not vote, I would say that they have support because most people did not vote against them. (Either way in Bush's case he would have no majority support) TM wrote: This is a classic mainstream narrowing of language, narrowing of politics so that it excludes the real majority of human beings that live in this country. And, as such, it is part & parcel of the whole narrowing of the spectrum of opinion the mainstream media has been doing at least since (if not during) the 60s, with the effect than any substantive criticism remotely radical is virtually invisible in the mainstream media --as are a host of ills produced by this very liberal-capitalist-imperialist system.... JW reply: People may be excluded from the benefits of society and from adequate coverage in the media because that is the way the system wants it, but their exclusion from the polls is a conscious act on their part, even if it might be motivated by the perceptions fostered by the establishment. It sounds like you are preaching a doctrine of hopelessness here, saying that the system wants a large number of people to be marginalized, so they are and nothing can be done by them only for them. I disagree. Things will change when people break out of this mindset and organize and get involved enough to change the outcome of elections. Granted the reaction from the establishment may not be pretty, and the change may not be what one hoped for, but there would be change. Of course the real frustration here may be that people do not want to break out of this mindset or have the will power to organize. Perhaps that is your real lament. -- Jerry West Editor/publisher/janitor ---------------------------------------------------- THE RECORD News and Views from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast An independent, progressive regional publication http://www.island.net/~record/
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