It wasn't supposed to happen like this. The 2016 presidential election back in the waning, sane, staid days of 2015 was shaping up for the Republicans pretty much like any other. Candidates groomed, preened and competed to be regarded as the most ideologically sound belle(s) of the Billionaire's Ball. For their part, Billionaires were filling their candidates' war chests, jockeying for position and vying for even more influence. It remained to be seen which Billionaire's Champion would come out on top, but there was never any real concern about who it would be since whoever it was would benefit them all. Things were going well
Now, disconsolate Billionaires find that what they bought and paid for isn't worth the election materials they're printed on. The system, as they who knew and created it, is bankrupt and there is no one else left holding the bag, no bailout coming.
Tuesday 22 March 2016
Sunday 20 March 2016
Inside Job: The Growing Destabilization of Presidential Politics
It has become commonplace for journalists and even politicians to stand amazed at the low level to which the Republican party has sunk with the rise of Trump politics. The talk is of old rules and standards not applying, of battles for the soul of the party and the soul of the nation.
The growing concern over violence at Donald Trump rallies (Guardian, 11-March, 2016) is but one symptom--albeit a despicable, graphic one. What isn't talked about nearly enough is that this is the party the Republicans made.
The Republicans are (ironically, for them) a minority party, with minority views. To gain a governing majority they made a Faustian deal with the fringe elements who have always existed--Nativists, John Birchers, radical Evangelicals, White Supremacists. Since 1980 (Reagan), and up until 2012, this "coalition of undifferentiated anger" could be counted on to respond to every new, trumped up [sorry] Liberal outrage by voting Republican. When the things this angry block wanted did not come to pass, the party they had elected demonized and blamed the Democrats for it not happening. And they further demonized the Democrats as representing the rotting "establishment" that needed to be brought down in apocalyptic terms.
This reactionary coalition of undifferentiated anger now has a billionaire figurehead.
The growing concern over violence at Donald Trump rallies (Guardian, 11-March, 2016) is but one symptom--albeit a despicable, graphic one. What isn't talked about nearly enough is that this is the party the Republicans made.
The Republicans are (ironically, for them) a minority party, with minority views. To gain a governing majority they made a Faustian deal with the fringe elements who have always existed--Nativists, John Birchers, radical Evangelicals, White Supremacists. Since 1980 (Reagan), and up until 2012, this "coalition of undifferentiated anger" could be counted on to respond to every new, trumped up [sorry] Liberal outrage by voting Republican. When the things this angry block wanted did not come to pass, the party they had elected demonized and blamed the Democrats for it not happening. And they further demonized the Democrats as representing the rotting "establishment" that needed to be brought down in apocalyptic terms.
This reactionary coalition of undifferentiated anger now has a billionaire figurehead.
Friday 18 March 2016
Democratic Deficit in the 2016 Presidential Election
My new novel Faithless Elector posits a genuine threat to the integrity of the presidential election. Faithless Elector seizes the Zeitgeist surrounding the growing popular understanding of the contradictions in- and the fallibility of electing a president through the proxy of the Electoral College, an institution ripe for mischief. The forthcoming election is getting stranger by the day, and the desperation of anti-Trump coalitions in both the Republican and Democratic parties makes them think and worry about the possible abuse of the Electoral College.
In just the last two weeks, Tim Dowling, in a column for the The Guardian on Feb. 25 (You Read It Here First) and Adam Philips, writing on March 16 for Huffington Post (Doomsday Savior?) both lay out competing nightmare scenarios for the upcoming presidential election. In the cases noted above, and indeed in Faithless Elector, the issues are the democratic deficit at the heart of the Electoral College system--the fact that contrary to the United States bedrock notion of one-person: one-vote, we continue to roll the dice every four years, hoping there won't be a mistake of malfeasance.
Faithless Elector was conceived a number of years ago because the problem has always been there. It is possible for the winner of the popular vote to lose the election (as happened most recently in the 2000 election between Bush and Gore), and there are ways to manipulate the Electoral College, which Faithless Elector lays bare.
Current writing on Faithless Electors and the Electoral College
In just the last two weeks, Tim Dowling, in a column for the The Guardian on Feb. 25 (You Read It Here First) and Adam Philips, writing on March 16 for Huffington Post (Doomsday Savior?) both lay out competing nightmare scenarios for the upcoming presidential election. In the cases noted above, and indeed in Faithless Elector, the issues are the democratic deficit at the heart of the Electoral College system--the fact that contrary to the United States bedrock notion of one-person: one-vote, we continue to roll the dice every four years, hoping there won't be a mistake of malfeasance.
Faithless Elector was conceived a number of years ago because the problem has always been there. It is possible for the winner of the popular vote to lose the election (as happened most recently in the 2000 election between Bush and Gore), and there are ways to manipulate the Electoral College, which Faithless Elector lays bare.
Current writing on Faithless Electors and the Electoral College
| Tim Dowling, The Guardian, Feb. 24. "You read it here first"
Adam Philips, HuffingtonPost, March 16. Doomsday Savior? How Paul Ryan Will Pick
Tyler Lewis, HuffPost, Jan. 21 Why We Should Abolish the ECthe Next President Robert Alexander, CNN, Rogue Electors Threaten Election's Integrity |
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