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ELECTION 2000: The TV Movie - My pal, John Howard, at PC Directions, sent me a graphic that's floating around the Internet. Yup, it's about the US election debacle. This one is called the "Great Seal of the United States Democratic Party."
Frankly, my dears, I don't care who wins the Presidential election anymore. Who ever wins also loses. What I'm waiting for (indeed, salivating about!) is the juicy TV movie that's certain to come out of this.
Have you seen the plum floating around about Newsweek and CNN suppressing the rumor about Florida Secretary of State Harris being a boffee of Governor Jeb Bush? Can't you just see that scene!
I know, I'm getting into "Tabloid Hart" territory. But bear with me.
You and I both know that there will be a slough of books coming out of Florida by various Commissioners of Elections from all of those polling places down in Florida trying to justify their decisions, explain the behind-the-scenes pressures, and guarantee them appearances on "Oprah" so that they can collect their fifteen minutes of fame. I'm willing to predict that some of them are penning book deals with Harper-Collins even as you read this.
This phenomenon will inevitably lead to "Election 2000: The TV Movie." Hacks like Barry Bostwick, Victoria Principle, Courtney Cox, and Pamela Anderson Lee are waiting in the wings for this kind of network television "mini-event."
I believe discerning readers are already starting to get my drift: America's tabloidization has almost become complete. If we can't have Bill and Monica these days, we want to make EVERY POSSIBLE ASPECT of American public life as tawdry and melodramatic as possible. Tom Hart's trailer-trash culture ramped-up exponentially while the thoughtful among us were wringing our hands.
The Latin word "gravitas" has just about NO meaning in this climate.
Yes, it's a function of self-appointed commentators like myself to try to raise the bar of social discourse --- even when we use the "hook" of tabloid leads like the one I employed for this essay to get you here. Rhetoric is our meat and bread.
Now that you are here, I would posit that the very tabloidization I'm decrying here is worth a moment of your thought and contemplation.
Is the TV movie inevitable? Probably.
Should it serve as yet-another distraction from the core issues and the civil diagnosis you and I need to make as citizens of this damaged republic? I hope not.
If we can take our focus away from the "horse-race" spin of the Mouthpiece Media for a moment, my friend, we can look at how this entire public relations spin on the part of both political parties and their spokespeople, all the court challenges and recounts, speak to how our highly touted system is dysfunctional --- as both "alternative" candidates, Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader argued throughout the process.
What ever happened to government by, of and for THE PEOPLE?
Like I said, I no longer care which of these corporate shills moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. What I care about, and hope you do, too, is the prospect of this sleazy election having taught us something about the flaws in the system... and ourselves.
We don't ONLY need campaign finance reform, fellow citizen, we also need electoral reform. The abolition of the Electoral College is an issue that comes up every twenty years. Maybe this time it will become an issue that sticks with us and we'll show the will, as a people, to pass the Constitutional amendment which leads towards its abolition.
I worked on the business plan for a company developing touchscreen voting systems before I left California. In that process I got to read papers and speak to various Secretaries of State in various states across this country. Almost every man and woman in those positions I spoke with said that punch-card ballots had outlived their usefulness. Almost every one!
Rod Amis But when we got down to the legislative bodies, from municipalities up to the national level, the big barrier was cash. In short, all over America, governmental bodies were keeping voting systems they describe as "obsolete," "inadequate" and just plain dumb, because their elected officials did not have the gumption to explain to the voters that new technologies --- much more accurate and reliable technologies --- have been available for years.
Both optical-scan and touchscreen systems for elections are available and *could* be deployed tomorrow. But it won't happen. Why? The legislators and the electorate don't want accuracy. They/we want lower taxes and no expenditures on anything that doesn't directly benefit them/us personally. All that high-sounding cant about "every vote counting" is just that, cant, and it's also bullshit.
Companies like IBM, AT&T, US Election Systems and others have been working (and offering models of) both optical-scan and touch-screen voting systems --- which are far more accurate than punch-cards --- for over a decade. I won't go into the Internet voting option because the major problem there remains validating the identity of the voter. But it's coming.
My point is that, as the acknowledged world leader in technology, WE COULD DO BETTER IF WE WANTED TO. We don't. There are both institutional and political reasons why we don't. From the view of this commentator, they all stink to High Heaven.
So I'll repeat myself: The legislators and the electorate don't want accuracy. They/we want lower taxes and no expenditures on anything that doesn't directly benefit them/us personally. All that high-sounding cant about "every vote counting" is just that, cant, and it's also bullshit.
Sorry to bring up some truth-telling in this editorial. But someone has to while the TV movie goes into production.
COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? Why not e-mail Rod?
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