Oh, and all the concern about the Republicans taking over the election by
hacking electronic voting systems? You know, because one of the Romney sons
owned a share in a company that was involved in the Ohio election? The State
that has a blatantly partisan Secretary of State who worked to cut down voting
hours and tried to install an untested and unapproved vote counting software
the morning before the election? You remember him, the guy who was told
by a Court he couldn't do that? Remember Karl Rove on Fox News arguing
desperately that the Ohio election could NOT be called yet for Obama, that it just couldn't be! He was so agitated that the Fox News staff were politely
explaining to him that no, there was no mistake, that it just really was all
over. While Rove was losing it, the Ohio Secretary of State was closing his
office, issuing a statement that the election was over and going home. Odd that
he fought so hard, then folded. Did anyone stop to wonder why?
In Obama's speech, do you remember one part where he talked about people
having to stand in line for hours to vote, saying "We're going to have to fix
that, that's just wrong, that will never happen again". His tone of voice was
markedly different than at any other part of his speech. Then he shifted gears
and went on to talk about us coming together and making this a better and
stronger nation, but that one small remark struck me as signaling that there
were going to be no more Florida/Ohio voter suppression efforts, ever again.
That there were going to be no more "hanging chads" and phony Voter ID
shenanigans, that this would be the last American election that was going to be
bedeviled by corrupt attempts to steal the election. I've said it before and I
will say it again, our government has a very high level of cyber-defense
capabilities. Our entire economy relies upon electronic communications, both
personal and structural. Various bad guys around the world, from Russia, China,
Iran, Nigeria, Israel and God knows where are continuously probing our defenses,
both personal, governmental, military and commercial, in hopes of being able to
steal something of great value, or to find a way to cripple our national
infrastructure.
Needless to say, our nation is well-aware of such efforts. As we become
increasingly interconnected, there is a quiet war going on every hour, minute
and second of every day. We gain enormously from our massive electronic
infrastructure, but it has an obvious vulnerability that our nation is keenly
aware of. We are working, constantly, with our largest technology firms, to
keep on top of any potential weaknesses in our nation's security. Oh, and in
those tech firms' own security. Each hand washes the other's.
If you accept that as a given, does anyone seriously imagine that our
nation, at this point in our history, would be dumb enough to permit any entity,
foreign or domestic, to hack into the electronic voting system, in any State or
County, and let it be "taken over" in order to generate a false count of the
votes that were cast by our citizens in a national election? Seriously? Does
anyone think we are that stupid? If the GOP were allowed to do something like
that, why would China hesitate to do so? Forget the brainwashed "Manchurian
Candidate" meme, China could step in and fiddle the results juuuust enough to
overturn a national election.
In the grips of his partisan passion, the Ohio Secretary of State may have
imagined he could do just that. We may never know for certain until the story
gets declassified twenty years from now, but it certainly does seem odd that he
tried to install a new and untested vote collection software package the day
before the election, doesn't it? And that was only one of the GOP efforts to
try to steal this election. The harsh voter ID law enacted in Pennsylvania,
those enormous lines, only in certain neighborhoods in Florida and Ohio?
Deja-vu 2004, wasn't it? It is not Rocket Science to be able to see how many
voters there are in an area and assign enough voting stations and staff to
accommodate that number, is it?
If we take the President at his word, this will be the last election where
States, Districts or Counties will be able to engage in that mischief without
there being serious consequences. Judging by the curious actions of the
hyper-partisan Ohio Secretary of State, who seemed to suddenly fold up his tent
and go home, my guess is that someone carefully explained him that he was under
very close observation and that he could do what he wanted, but that actions
have consequences, and bad actions often tend to have bad consequences.
And I can tell you that the entire world just issued a huge sigh of relief.
Now the Chinese can go ahead and elect their new Premier, after delaying their
National Party Congress until two days after our election so they would know
where they stood. The Europeans are either publicly celebrating the outcome of
our election, both governments and citizens alike. They have been on edge for
months, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.
It's a good day. There is still a tremendous amount of work to do, just as
there was before this election circus got started. We've learned which people
are trying to move our country forward, and which people are trying to game the
system as though our government was a huge card game in which they play with a
marked deck and win the pot. Something really important happened in this
election. Things are going to be okay. A lot of the work that is going to be
done will not be done publicly, nor will it be done with a lot of fanfare or
perp walks... but it will be done. Our country has gone through other dark
periods, for example in the 1930s when a ground of Millionaires (that was big
money back then) tried to get General Smedley Butler to stage a military coup.
It never happened, but it was the sort of thing that HAS happened in other
nations, during times of enormous social and economic stress. Our nation has
been tested before, and it was just tested again. The sounds you thought you
heard, but weren't sure of? Those were the sounds of Dark Armies, positioning
themselves and maneuvering themselves to take greater control of our nation, and
by extension the world. So no biggie, just the something that happens now and
again. In business they call it an attempted "hostile takeover". Defenses are
thrown up, actions are taken, the takeover is thwarted... and everyone goes on
about their business. And that's what our nation will do, as it has done many,
many times in the past. Nice try, but please don't ever try that again, okay?
By sheer coincidence (I am sure) the Ohio Secretary of State just decided to
call it an early night and go home yesterday. He just suddenly felt really,
really exhausted, for reasons he can't exactly explain.
The world has issued a collective sigh of relief, our role as the most powerful, and currently the most admired country in the world, has been reconfirmed. But it should be remembered that with great power comes great responsibilities. The world is a Godawful mess. Our world population has grown so large that a widespread famine could kill Billions. That is with a "B". A virulent plague could kill half of the world's populations. That would be three or so Billion. With a B. Every other country on this planet looks to us, either to help figure it all out, or as the country that is keeping it from being figured out. We are far from perfect and everyone understands this very, very clearly. China is trying to figure out whether to become us, reject us, turn back into a fake Socialist fantasy world or become more democratic, in hopes of staving off a revolt among its massive and increasingly angry population. Workers making iPhones for 75 cents an hour are glad to have a job, but not happy to see a Chinese plutocrat drive by in the back of a brand new Rolls Royce, with their two mistresses tickling them and feeding them caviar. You think our country has problems and a growing gulf between rich and poor? Please let me tell you about China. Almost everything you think you know about it is wrong.
It was a good night, today is a good day, as a nation I think we just avoided a train wreck. As a nation, we've got a lot of work to do over the next four years, but the wonderful thing is that no election will ever have the structural flaws that this one did. I could explain, but I think when you stop and think about details like appointments to the Supreme Court and the heads of government agencies you can figure it out for yourselves. There is a lot that will go very, very right in the years ahead, that will have resonances that will impact our nation and our history for the better. But we can celebrate all that later. For now it's time to get back to work. And for me it's time to go back to sleep, now that I've gotten this off my mind.
Arthur
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