Democracy? Hahaha.

The Electoral College was set up by the Framers of the Constitution to prevent the public from “directly� electing the president. The Framers weren’t totally confident that the American people would always make the “right� decision as they saw it. So, as a consequence the people can only “indirectly� elect the president.

What “democracy”?

Take for example, the outcome of last November’s election. The voice of the American people was loud and clear. And what they said with their vote was that they were not impressed with the destructive policies of the impostor in the White House or his war-for-profit, and they wanted it stopped. 
    
With the ballot they demanded change by driving many Republican from office to punish this “president.� So, the American people put the power of government back into the hands of Democrats.
But in America’s so-called democracy the interests of the populace usually take a back seat to those of big business and the will of the people is often trumped in the process, like it was during the 2000 Presidential Election.
    
As we know, the 2000 election led to the victory of a candidate, Bush, who received less popular votes than Al Gore who should have been president. However, the state’s Electoral College votes for the presidency were given to Bush. The Electoral College–now here is an undemocratic institution if ever there was one.
    
There are two things to note about the Electoral College. First, the Electoral College was set up by the Framers of the Constitution to prevent the public from “directly� electing the president. Apparently, the Framers weren’t totally confident that the American people would always make the “right� decision as they saw it. So, as a consequence the people can only “indirectly� elect the president.
    
The president is elected by state representatives nominated by their respective parties. They directly elect the president. Tellingly, this has led to a dynamic where, occasionally, some electors—called “faithless electors�—vote for candidates outside of the interest of the constituencies that they say they represent. How democratic.
    
Keeping all this in mind, we shouldn’t forget the Supreme Court’s role in stifling the controversy over the Florida vote. This precipitated with the actions of Republican forces, including Florida’s Secretary of State, Katherine Harris. The true Florida vote was silenced when the self-determination of the state’s Blacks was crushed.
    
One can only wonder what role Bush’s brother then Governor Jeb Bush played in this robbery of democracy by smothering the voices of Blacks. We know that there was a data collection company employed—by the “state�—and that this data was used to target and nullify the Black vote in Florida. So, just who decided to do this?  
    
Database Technologies is the company fingered in this scandal. Database Technologies would eventually merge with another company called Choice Point. Many have cited Choice PointDatabase Technologies for racial discrimination in purging the pool of Blacks eligible to vote by fraudulently listing many Blacks for crimes that they never committed. The fix was about to begin.
    
Then there is the Diebold controversy. Diebold is a company that provided electronic voting machines in Florida. Some critics have argued that electronic voting machines are easy to hack. Something very strange happened with these machines in the 2000 presidential vote tally. In Volusia County, no one can explain how over 16,000 votes were subtracted from Gore and given to Bush. To date, no rational explanation has been given of how this was possible. And who knows how many other “errors� like this occurred with these machines.
     
But there are other things that we know about Diebold, like the fact that they are connected to Republicans. Walden O’Dell is the chairman of the board at Diebold. He is also an ardent supporter of the “president� and once pledged to help raise $100,000 for his re-election campaign. In fact, in a letter to Bush he assured him that he was committed “to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president.� Diebold is based in Ohio. And many African Americans there were disenfranchised in the 2004 Presidential Election, like the Blacks in Florida. For what started there ended in Ohio. Or did it?
    
Yet, far worse than all these blatant crimes against the people’s democratic will is the spinelessness of Democrats. For, when members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to challenge the stealing of Florida’s 25 electoral votes for Bush, not one Democratic senator would stand with them. What does that say about American “democracy?� Then again, if this current Congress won’t respect the wishes of the American people as a whole, why would they act on behalf of Blacks?
    
Future generations may well ponder how this critical period in America could have been different if Bush wasn’t “selected� president by the Supreme Court? Bush failed America by ignoring multiple warnings—before 9-11—from a variety of sources and opted to stay on vacation, like he did during Katrina.

Would Gore have failed America in this way? Would his administration have lied the country into war? Would Gore have been this avaricious or inept? We can only guess how things might now be if democracy was upheld here in the “land of the free.�

Benjamin is a member of The Black Star News’ editorial Board.

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