Our Elections

Are our elections legitimate?

It depends which ones you’re talking about.

If you mean the ones for dogcatcher and your local representative, yes, I think they are.

If you’re talking about presidential elections and elections for senator and governor, I would say that the significant races are not legitimate.

Let’s just say that if the power elite want a certain person in power, they will move heaven and earth to achieve that result.

That doesn’t mean that they will always prevail; but it does mean that they will try to rig the election.

I don’t know why this should be a surprise to Americans as elections have been rigged for centuries now, not only here in the United States, but abroad as well.

Napoleon and his brothers rigged plebiscites in France in the early 1800s. They wouldn’t even bother to use numbers that would indicate legitimacy. They would use rounded numbers such as 16 million to 4 million.

Now, that’s audacity.

Unfortunately, in the United States we have a ruling power elite that insists on prosecuting this Frank Capra mirage of honesty upon our presidential elections.

Many Americans are happy to live in this fantasy world despite evidence to the contrary.

There is no convincing true believers that the election of Joe Biden in 2020 was illegitimate just as there is no convincing true believers that the election of George Bush in 2000 was illegitimate.

The myth of election integrity is a vital part of our American culture now.

The ruling elites need you to believe in this myth so that they can continue their policies which enrich them and impoverish you.

Numerous examples abound. Look at the problems around you.

Better yet, look at what isn’t around you.

Where is high-speed rail that can safely take you to another city 250 miles away in one to two hours? Wouldn’t that be a lot more convenient for you in the age of Uber and Lyft? Wouldn’t it be better for you to save all that mileage on your car while taking the train, and then taking an Uber when you get there?

That’s one example. I’m sure you can think of more than a few off the top of your head.

Where is the economy that makes its own useful things for its own citizens? Instead we are given a war economy which makes things to be used for killing other people in far away places like Yemen and Ukraine.

Why is that?

Why can we not fix homelessness? You know, of course, that homelessness is a racket now. Yes, that’s right. Most of the federal money that goes to fix homelessness largely goes not to the people who need it, but to the hucksters who profit off the homeless. Those would be the slumlords who kick out long term renters and convert their units to $100 a night bonanzas.

A real solution would entail preventing homelessness by giving people real opportunities with well-paying jobs. But, you see, that doesn’t profit the power elite who profit off misery, thus they will never undertake measures to help you.

A legitimate electoral system will never be a panacea to fixing our problems, but it is a step in the right direction.

There is no reason why we cannot have a secure electronic method of voting which includes a reasonable method of secure identification.

My various banks over the years have not made a mistake by even as much as a penny in over fifty years, so why isn’t that possible in our elections?

It’s isn’t possible because the ruling elite don’t trust you.

They think you are a bunch of schmucks who are too stupid to understand basic issues.

To a certain extent that may be true; there are a lot of stupid people out there. But, there are a lot of smart people out there too who don’t get any opportunity to express themselves except through an election.

An illegitimate election process disenfranchises them.

A legitimate election process is a threat to the ruling elite who are focused on money-making rackets such as war, welfare, and the prison industry rather than your welfare.

What would a legitimate election process look like?

It would not only involve electronic identification of voters but also a decentralization of the electoral process in the manner that our Founding Fathers had envisioned.

Our Founding Fathers weren’t stupid, you know. They weren’t born yesterday and dried under a leaf. They had a lot of experience with elections and corruption, and they knew a thing or two.

They devised a system that has been gradually transformed over the past two centuries. Your senators are not elected in the manner that the Founding Fathers had intended. That was all changed with the 17th amendment. That was a mistake.

Under the old system, your US Senators were chosen by your state legislature, not by direct vote. While it may seem to be an improvement to have you choose your US Senator, it really is not. It really works to your disadvantage. In several ways.

1. Your state representative, who you can know, knows the global issues of your state better than you do. Your US senator is supposed to represent the interests of the state in which you live, not what the national conversation is on abortion or homelessness. Does this make sense? Under direct vote by citizen, the national media can pivot the election of the senator on national issues – not local issues more relevant to you. Under direct vote by citizen, your senator becomes a viceroy from Washington – which is what the power elite desire.
2. You can easily know your state representative who in turn will know the senator who will represent you in Washington. Thus you are one person removed from knowing a senator – which is pretty good. You can then know the guy who knows the guy. Currently, you don’t know your senator; your senator doesn’t know you. Furthermore your senator doesn’t have the time for you because you are one amongst millions. Your senator currently has more time for Hollywood celebrities and leaders of corporations who he or she assumes represents you.

It’s no coincidence that America has become a centralized war-making machine since the 17th amendment was adopted. If we are to return it to a decent republic that 17th amendment needs to be modified or repealed.

The argument for the 17th amendment was that US senators were chosen in smoke-filled rooms, and that, because of political conflict, some US senator weren’t seated at all. My response to that would be the following: Yes, senator were chosen in smoke-filled rooms, but it was your smoke-filled room with representatives that you selected. It’s far better for it to be your smoke-filled room than Washington’s smoke-filled room. As for US senators not being seated at all, a simple tie-breaker methodology could fix that. It would be far better to have a coin flip to elect a US senator than to adopt the 17th amendment which has given us this dysphoric war economy that we now live under.

Likewise the presidential election was changed also. You the citizen as originally intended did not vote for president; that was done by members of Congress – which was the superior way, because, again, they know the issues better, and secondly, because you can know the guy who knows the guy. With direct vote, it’s virtually impossible for you to know the president. With direct vote, the president is elected by the media, controlled by the power elite, who are only too happy to chaperone you into the cattle pens of opinion that they desire. Additionally, the presidential campaign becomes a joke, a silly contest of one-liners and tearjerker rejoinders.

It would be far better, and cheaper, to have our president chosen by members of Congress than by us. Do you see why? You will know the guy, who knows the guy who elects the president. The presidents in turn will know the guy who knows the guy who knows you. When you know someone they are more responsive to you because they know who butters their bread.

You aren’t getting that now. What you’re getting now are senators and presidents who are too far removed from you.

An electoral system of indirect election of senators and presidents is the superior model. That combined with rational and reasonable secure voting should make for a better life for Americans.

Copyright 2022 Archer Crosley All Rights Reserved