Shouldn't be surprising.
Fixed it up a little.
The Carter Center said that they would have been unable to monitor Florida's General Election in 2000 because Florida's election rules did not meet the standards necessary to have them monitor the election. In 2008, I was unapologetically told my vote would be "too difficult to count and wouldn't change the outcome anyway." That's "fair and true" elections in a democracy?
And then there's the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The only people who can even run for national office in this country (in either party - and the parties *own* the election process) are those that carry water for the monied elite. I think we can agree, at least, on that point. So, the faceless masses are allowed to delude themselves into believing they have "some choice" every four years for the nation's highest office when in fact they are choosing between two people, each of whom is beholding to the 1%.
It is in this sense that the elections are "rigged." The only people who have any representation at the federal level are those criminals living on the bottom half of that little island between the Hudson and East rivers.
Whatever else Trump is, one thing is clear. He is the logical consequence of our nation's national politics' evolution over the past 36 years. With each election cycle we move further in our transition from somewhat democratic plutocracy to outright oligarchy. Trump, or someone like him, is the end game of our national politics. Ironically, it will be the useful idiots who have suffered most (and they are legion) that "elect" our first oligarch as president.
And when it's done, historically, regardless of party, the person who loses the election congratulates the winner, reaffirms ourdemocracysomewhat democratic plutocracy, and we move forward. ... Becausedemocracysomewhat democratic plutocracy, by definition, works by consent, not by force.
The Carter Center said that they would have been unable to monitor Florida's General Election in 2000 because Florida's election rules did not meet the standards necessary to have them monitor the election. In 2008, I was unapologetically told my vote would be "too difficult to count and wouldn't change the outcome anyway." That's "fair and true" elections in a democracy?
And then there's the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The only people who can even run for national office in this country (in either party - and the parties *own* the election process) are those that carry water for the monied elite. I think we can agree, at least, on that point. So, the faceless masses are allowed to delude themselves into believing they have "some choice" every four years for the nation's highest office when in fact they are choosing between two people, each of whom is beholding to the 1%.
It is in this sense that the elections are "rigged." The only people who have any representation at the federal level are those criminals living on the bottom half of that little island between the Hudson and East rivers.
Whatever else Trump is, one thing is clear. He is the logical consequence of our nation's national politics' evolution over the past 36 years. With each election cycle we move further in our transition from somewhat democratic plutocracy to outright oligarchy. Trump, or someone like him, is the end game of our national politics. Ironically, it will be the useful idiots who have suffered most (and they are legion) that "elect" our first oligarch as president.