My Dad was an atheist, but aside from the "endowed by God" part he would have agreed. He thought our ideals were the natural right of everyone to live freely, and he stood by this even though he often had to hide his beliefs due to the dangers of social and political isolation.
Our elections are fraudulent from one end to the other. Do something useful -- call for audits of every election at every level. Let's get back to paper ballots and honest counters. But you might lose in a fair fight, so you won't do that.
I remember walking with my mother to the polls in 1960 where she would cast her vote for Nixon and against Kennedy in a close election. As a consequence of that election Goldwater would become the Republican nominee in 1964. The only electoral votes Goldwater got outside of Arizona were in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. I think this presaged the Republican acquisition of the Old Confederacy.
Probably (other than 2016) the most consequential election in my lifetime was 2000. I know people like to reduce Bush's victory to Florida and Supreme Court interference. But I believe that Gore losing his Home State of Tennessee was far more important. Candidates almost always carried their home states (except 1972) before 2000. Had Gore carried Tennessee in 2000 Florida would have been moot. Tennessee had elected him to the House and Senate and Clinton/Gore had won Tennessee twice and during his time in Congress had been a generally popular moderate.
It would be interesting to know how and why Tennessee changed so radically in 2000. What magic sauce did the Republicans have? Or was it just a demographic shift?
I do not believe the author mentioned that voting is how we little ole citizens participate in our democracy. We do it in a thousand other ways too, but the country acts collectively, for better and worse on election day.
My Dad was an atheist, but aside from the "endowed by God" part he would have agreed. He thought our ideals were the natural right of everyone to live freely, and he stood by this even though he often had to hide his beliefs due to the dangers of social and political isolation.
Our elections are fraudulent from one end to the other. Do something useful -- call for audits of every election at every level. Let's get back to paper ballots and honest counters. But you might lose in a fair fight, so you won't do that.
I remember walking with my mother to the polls in 1960 where she would cast her vote for Nixon and against Kennedy in a close election. As a consequence of that election Goldwater would become the Republican nominee in 1964. The only electoral votes Goldwater got outside of Arizona were in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. I think this presaged the Republican acquisition of the Old Confederacy.
Probably (other than 2016) the most consequential election in my lifetime was 2000. I know people like to reduce Bush's victory to Florida and Supreme Court interference. But I believe that Gore losing his Home State of Tennessee was far more important. Candidates almost always carried their home states (except 1972) before 2000. Had Gore carried Tennessee in 2000 Florida would have been moot. Tennessee had elected him to the House and Senate and Clinton/Gore had won Tennessee twice and during his time in Congress had been a generally popular moderate.
It would be interesting to know how and why Tennessee changed so radically in 2000. What magic sauce did the Republicans have? Or was it just a demographic shift?
I do not believe the author mentioned that voting is how we little ole citizens participate in our democracy. We do it in a thousand other ways too, but the country acts collectively, for better and worse on election day.