Election Defects
See Honolulu Advertiser editorial 10/6/05, “Campaign spending fraud cheats taxpayers.” As bad as the campaign spending scandals involving corporations are, there is a more insidious problem taking root in election policy. The utter lack of any standards for individual voters participation in elections is becoming more disturbing every year.
First, it is considered routine and perfectly OK for voters to discriminate by race. If you don’t believe read the papers which always include quotes like “Mufi has captured the Filipino vote.” etc., etc. And how is such a vote “captured”? By the politicians promising to give benefits to Filipinos? How is he going to finance such? By taxing and otherwise hurting others?
Then there is the recent push by some to say that it is discriminating to check the ID of voters. What? Is it OK to vote six times? How about seven? Where does it stop? Or does it?
And finally: an illiterate, careless drunk who cares nothing about any issue but his next drink can vote (if he is registered) and can be picked up from the gutter by an activist, promised a bottle of booze for a vote and taken to and from the polls.
The whole lack of standards encourages stupidity, dishonesty and destructive attributes. But many of the same people who most decry the “corporate” corruption, actually seem to love and embrace the idea of individual lack of character and standards.
Go Figure. Would love to see your thoughts.
ror