Kakki wrote:
> I'm convinced now that the U.S. is run by the media and what's really
> unfortunate is that so many Americans are letting it happen.
I'm not sure I understand you. The calls and retractions I get, but that
doesn't change actual questions about actual voting irregularities.
You're right to point out that we won't know FL's real vote until 11/17,
but it is that vote total and no media projection that will be binding.
As for Gore's projected popular vote margin, it's almost 200K based on 99%
of precincts nationwide actually being counted, not projected. It's
possible that the remaining-to-be-counted votes will change that 200K
deficit, but fairly unlikely. And if it does, the actual count then will
determine the popular vote winner, not today's projection.
What all of this points to is that the "public will" is a big, complex,
messy thing to get a hold of, and majority-rules popular votes are a very
imperfect way to measure it. Unfortunately, they're also the best way to
measure it. When an election is this close, the actual winner is in
reality pretty damn arbitrary. We can cut down on fraud and irregularity,
and perhaps move to popular rather than electoral voting, to reduce the
arbitrariness, but we cannot eliminate it. Dems benefited from it with
Kennedy's election; Reps likely will benefit from it with Bush's. It's a
messy but thankfully rarely manifest weakness of majoritarian democracy.
As for letting the media run the U.S., I'm not sure exactly what action
we could take to undercut media power in this instance other than to
demand that election and counting practices conform with the law, which is
exactly what everyone from Buchanan to Bush to Gore to patient but
perplexed Americans seems to be doing.
--Michael
