Some wise-ass political thinker once said that “we get the government we deserve”. Another went even further when he said that “we get the exact government we voted for”. And on most elections nights you would hear commentators saying things like: “the people have spoken”; or that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”; or that “these results are the people's will”. But are these cliches correct in terms of their deeper messages? Especially when more people refrained from voting last week if compared to those who actually did vote. And by the way, for decades now this has been the case in this country. So relative to this unfinished democracy of ours: what's really going on?
In exactly two years from November 2008 to November 2010, there was a national fall-off of over 20 percent, relative to voter participation -when comparing these two November elections. And do note despite all the excitement surrounding Barack Obama's historic 2008 presidential victory, more people stayed home rather than participate in the voting that day: this figure includes those who were eligible to vote and didn't even bother to register.
An analysis of last week's voting-patterns now highlights these facts: both pre-election and post-election surveys suggest at least two out of every three voters went to the polls with views and positions that were totally non-factual.
For example: most voters believed that President Obama (and his fellow-democrats in Congress) raised taxes; but that's not true. Taxes have actually been lowered during Obama's short tenure: taxes have been lowered for both individuals and businesses. Most voters also believed that taxpayers have lost money on the government bailouts of Wall Street, the banking, insurance and auto industries: that too is false. Some monies have already been paid back with interest; and the projections are that the taxpayers will realize some profit when all the books are in. Similar falsehoods about the new health-care reform measures, the stimulus packages, TARP, and also about the legislative record of the democrats in this Congress, seems to have dominated voter-decisions this time around.
For various reasons, the electorate was quite uninformed this year. One question that now emerges is this: was it different from any other year when voters hit the polls? And another question is: what can (or should) be done to make voters more informed before making their choices? Is there a wider role for governmental agencies here?
The fact that one of the survey (polling) entities in the aforementioned instances, just happened to be “Bloomberg News”, is telling me that NYC's illegal-mayor (Mike Bloomberg) has a strong eye on the presidency. I now see why he hired Howard Wolfson a few years aback. It was in order to take a long hard look at running for the US presidency.
I could bet you that all sorts of intricate polling techniques have already been used on national voters since Obama came to office. My gut feeling is this: Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump are just two of many white-boys whose sense of entitlement can't stomach a mulatto in the White House. I suspect that many sophisticated measures have already been undertaken in order to gauge voter-sentiments and such -relative to the upcoming presidential race. Our mayor is looking for a rationale: he wants to run for the US presidency in two years. That's the real reason why he gutted the two-term limit on NYC electeds; it was selfishly done in order to stay in the media spotlight.
Mike Bloomers wants to be president folks, but he knows that he cannot buy the post with all the money in China. He has big hots for Obama's job y'all; and I believe that's the reason why he told Rupert Murdoch that Barack was the most arrogant person (SOB?) he ever met. Plus (of course) he had probably never met a mulatto who was so self-confident, poised, classy and articulate. One of these days Mike will run into a true Negro and that's when he will learn what real arrogance is.
As it relates to the everyday reality of most ordinary folks in this country Mike Bloomberg is the most out-of-touch elected officials I have ever known. Go back to some of the many stupid things he has said since he hit the limelight. This guy is nothing less than an arrogant megalomaniac. He has been so long outside the realm of “the ordinary” that he thinks elitism is cool. That's why he will never understand the wrong he did when he extended term-limits. People like me will never forgive what he did.
This recent election was one where I voted without enthusiasm. I voted for Andrew Cuomo because I felt I would be wasting my vote on Charles Barron's Freedom Party ticket. The overall FP campaign was a joke; but (as usual) the black-nationalist-fanatic types will spin and spin everything but the “objective” truths. Plus, I came to the conclusion that their platform (FP) which mandated that the party must be Black and/or Hispanic-led, was reverse racism in sheep's clothing. I also suspected that Jimmy MacMillan -from the “Rent is too Damn High” political party- would get more votes than Barron (see my last column on this). Also, I wasn't about to take chances with a nut like Palladino in the race for governor; after all he had already surprised me by winning the Republican primary.
The fact that Barron could only amass 20k votes (statewide) further highlights the impotency of electoral strategies coming from race-based and race-obsessed places. It also highlights the repeated political and electoral failures of the black-nationalist front. The sad thing about this is Barron continues to demonstrate an unwillingness to retrospect. He never seems to learn from his many mistakes and failures. He goes on recruiting and deluding more black and Hispanic newcomers to the political process -almost on a daily basis- without ever stopping to make needed adjustments in his VALID fight to transform this society. In many ways he is well-meant: but in many other ways he is a total disappointment -for a guy as intellectually gifted as he is. I love the brother, but I doubt he will ever fulfill his true promise and potential: unless there is divine intervention and an awareness on his part that Christ's message is racially all-inclusive. The bigger disappointment is that his wife -who has a big influence on his actions- is totally unable to comprehend these truths, especially when she professes (even more so than he) to be a God-fearing Christian.
Racism is a bitch: reverse-racism is no less hideous. Despite the fact that democrats have taken people of color for granted for far too long, we still have to seek building coalitions, with those who are willing to fight the good fight for equality, civil-rights, justice and such. No matter the race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or the like, we have to be mindful that exclusion isn't the ideal: far from it. We will only change things when we come together as HUMANS first.
Stay tuned-in folks.