Senator Andrew Bartlett
Thursday, November 04, 2004
 
Yesterday, I decided not to renominate for the Leadership of the Democrats. It was not a simple decision, as there were a range of competing arguments. But with the deadline for nominations closing, I had to make a decision one way or another. The party has far more important and significant decisions to make over the next couple of months than who has the title of Leader, so it is good to get that one out of the way and focus on the more important things. The Democrats' members will be able to decide for themselves over the next month or so whether they are happy with keeping the same Leadership Team, with me as Deputy and moving Lyn Allison in to the Leader's spot.

To keep things in perspective about the relevant importance of things, the voters of the USA also decided on their President around the same time. This is way more important and WAY more depressing an outcome. I wouldn't want to overstate the positives of John Kerry, but George Bush has clearly shown himself to be dangerous and divisive. This is not a good thing at the best of times, but when you're in charge of a nation that is by far the most militarily powerful in history, surround yourself with key advisors and Ministers who have ideologies and records that favour increased Govt power and military expansion and reduced human rights AND your own record already shows a clear willingness to deceive on major issues and appalling diplomatic and military judgement, then it's hard to see this result as anything other than a disaster.

A sad and distressing day.

Just to add insult to injury, the process used to make this decision that will undoubtedly make the world even less safe is still as laughable as ever. The USA has so much to be proud of in building such a strong nation on a foundation of individual freedom and in showing some the many potential virtues of democracy. To have 'The Pursuit Of Happiness' listed as a goal in your Declaration of Independence, along side things like an acknowledgement that all people are created equal, is a wonderful thing. But it constantly astounds me that a country that is seen as the pinnacle of prosperity and democracy not only deliberately disenfranchises so many of its citizens and has such enormous degrees of inequality of wealth, but also has an electoral system that would be flattered by the description of stone age.

As one newspaper aptly noted, they can enable an encrypted, electronically transmitted vote to be cast by an astronaut in space, but they still can't deal with a moderately higher than normal turnout or with ensuring people are fairly enrolled. Most obvious is the anachronism of the Electoral College mechanism and the nineteenth century, barely-democratic first past the post voting system. Less well known but even more absurd is the labyrinth of differing voting rules, varying eligibility and mechanisms across 50 different states - and even between different counties.

Add to that the total domination of money, and it does make it a bit easier to understand (while still being highly undesirable) why so many people don't even bother to vote. As someone once said (might have been Churchill), democracy is a terrible system save only for the fact that it is better than any other so far devised. But that shouldn't be used as an excuse for not trying to make much needed improvements to it.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Thursday, November 04, 2004
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