Last Word

Last Word on the Elections

In the past few weeks, quite a few posts have been devoted to the American elections. This will be the last one on that topic. I am totally jaded by the elections, which are about 10 days away. Here are some valid reasons;

1. I listen to NPR virtually all the time and clearly I've had an overdose of this stuff. I know all the controversies,side issues, main issues etc.
2. Debates 2 and 3 did not prove to a discussion of anything new and degenerated into slanging matches.
3. Kerry does not seem to be an alternative choice but the 'lesser of two evils' as a yet-undecided colleague mentioned. Almost everything that he has done in his career reeks of opportunism, which includes marrying two wealthy women. He won the primaries not because he had the best plan, but because he seemed more electable versus Bush. According to me, Howard Dean is still 'The Man', knowing that he may have lost bitterly.
4. Now the election is just 10 days away and I hear nothing but insinuations and counter insinuations. The extreme negativity of both campaigns has turned off many voters (who unlike me, do count).

There are quite a few ineligible voters who feel that there is nothing that they can do about this election, so why even bother. The fact of the matter is that the US elections matter to Americans, but also in a significant way impact the rest of the world. Everybody knows that! The Guardian had an interesting take on this issue. They decided to take matters in their own hands and started the Clarke county campaign. The aim of this was that they would provide the names and addresses of undecided voters in Clarke county, Ohio to its readers. Readers would then write to these people impressing upon them the importance of the election on the rest of the world and imploring voters to vote for Bush or Kerry (mostly Kerry). It drew quite a few funny, angry, thankful responses.
We have not heard the end of the story yet.
Article

Many of the letters from Americans protested,' ..this is interference.' True! The campaign had a good reason yet it was self-defeating and was withdrawn. The sad truth still remains that Mr. Joe Smith in rural Ohio could well decide the fate of the rest of the world. In some sense at least.