Poor Todd; I stumbled upon his site the day after he started it. It was also the day after I went on my Solaris sabbatical- so I've been an avid reader (I have a lot of time on my hands, buddy!).
Todd!
Jesus!! How many elections are Americans going to allow be stolen from them before you have another civil war?
Does anyone really think the institutions of your "democracy" have enough safeguards built into them to bring the flaws in the adversarial political system to light?
How many voters being disenfranchised is acceptable? 1, 100? 1000; maybe? 100,000 as long as it wouldn't have affected the outcome?
I know this advice may seem hollow coming from a Canadian as we had a peaceable birth and no civil war, but the events surrounding the 1995 Referendum in Quebec may illustrate how fragile our Western Democracies become when the supporting walls of fair and free elections are chipped at.
A bit of history:
When it comes to Quebec there are two sides, the sovereignists who want Quebec to be their own nation (which would tear Canada in twain, the Atlantic provinces are to the East of Quebec), and the Federalists, who believe that the current structure between the Federal Government and the provinces is crucial to the Canadian identity- despite some flaws in the way funding, power, and responsibilities are divided (sound similar to arguments made by States?)
In 1995 there were a large number of ballots from predominately English or Ethnic ridings that were deemed "spoiled." On top of that, it was very hard for Anglophones (English speakers) or the Allophones (immigrants or other Quebec citizens who spoke another language as their mother tongue) to REGISTER TO VOTE.
Well- people were nervous and very emotional. The Canadian Army (such that it is) is a mix of Anglophones and Francophones- thus most officers are required to be bilingual. Who knew what would happen if the army was required to keep order in Quebec after the referendum, one way or another. Where would the troops' loyalties lie? The officers?
Rally for Canada 1995, Domion Square, Montreal-
Canadians from Outside of Quebec pour into town to plead with Quebecers not to leave Confederation.
Students studying in Quebec from New Brunswick received letters
from the NB Premiers' office urging them to attend- I assumed
they got my address/name from the Student Loans office.
In the end the vote came out to be 50.1% against separation, 49.9% for. The Premier of Quebec publicly blamed the loss of the sovereignists on "Money and the Ethnic vote"- not pretty!
If the result was the opposite and all of those people who had been disenfranchised were suddenly going to be living in a new country called Quebec there would have been massive protests, strikes, protestations to the UN- and- possibly- it may even have gotten VERY violent- a la the FLQ crisis in the seventies but reversed.
As it was, several people were thrown in jail for vote tampering- the entire sovereignist movement was discredited as being cynical and malevolent. No serious discussion of it has occurred since, but parties supporting the idea still form the opposition in the Provincial Legislature, and even have a party in the federal elections.
Wrap up- IMHO- the "left" should pick it's battles more closely in the states- you guys are all over the place! It's like your sidebar- DOZENS of things to act out on- but really- what is the source?
What is the ONE issue/problem/institution you could change that would improve America the most? I'd say campaign finance reform but the Democrats are JUST AS BAD there- and o help...
Why not hunt down (did I say hunt- I meant TRACK) down every last person- from the bottom to the top- who is responsible for ANYONE'S vote not being counted. AND THROW THEM IN JAIL. Get rid of every county, state and federal law that is preventing people from registering or voting.
Sorry if I'm going on a bit at length here- but I voted in that 1995 referendum in Quebec- and XX% of the ballots from my polling station were "spoiled". That means anyone of the 6,000 people that voted at that poll could NOT have had their vote count. That disenfranchises EVERYBODY in that district- and it is not a good feeling at all when your country is at stake.
2 comments:
I was of two minds about posting this as I have several friends who did not know me back in 1995 and with whom I have never discussed the matter.
I also have several acquantances, and most likely some readers, who may be Nationalists. I think my recounting of the period and the feelings of anglophone Quebecer's is accurate and without my (obvious) pro-Federalist feelings taint the overall message.
After the post was up for 24 hours or so i decided it was too long and too...serious for where it was in the blog. It didn't flow with the other pieces I had written lately.
This is the first writing about the 1995 I've done (except for an article in the LINK i did the week afterwards...I covered the evnt at Elyse's as a commentary on Much Music being there, doing interviews with the Anglo intelligensia...)
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