I was going to write about Moore, Trump, Conyers, Franken, Franks… to be… FRANKS… but I think almost everything I wanted to say has been said, and everything I deeply disagree with has been said too. While Alabama votes today, the left, the right, women, men rage, progressives have once again mostly slept through something they keep shrugging off. Not all, for sure. But most would rather blame Hillary, a few blame Bernie… though that’s more 3rd way Dems for sure… blame racists, blame voters for not coming out to the polls, though over our 200 plus years that number has increased, back pedaled a little, then increased more.
Then yesterday, on The Thom Hartmann Show, it was mentioned that, once again, those who control how and when we vote are pushing tactics that can make damn sure it’s likely your vote won’t count, if you’re not one of them. Example given: the Alabama ballot has two spots on top where you can check vote straight Republican, or vote straight Democrat. However if you check that then also check Moore or Jones your vote is thrown away.
Of course our public servants, regardless of party affiliation, immediately set out on a mission to let every voter, also regardless of party, know about this. On the top of the ballot in huge letters it says…
OK, you can stop laughing now. You have to know of course they did nothing of the kind, though Alabama talk shows: pretty much all right wing, were warning the right not to do that.
This was all enabled by extremists on the Supreme Court claiming voter intent meant nothing: only whatever rules the locals made up matter. Talk about “unequal protection.” Oh, wait, that only applies the the right wing in this country, I guess. Right there in the Constitution Scalia’s ghost says. (They say he became a ghost, in part, because he had heart trouble. As in “none?”)
The craven depths to which they will sink never ceases to make me shake my head. In Alabama they take snapshots of ballots in case a recount might be needed. The Republicans changed that so these snapshots will simply be thrown away. (So why even bother, one might ask?) This was taken to court and changed just yesterday, and immediately Repubs took it right back and had it changed back again. The highest court in the state, I believe it was, agreed with the following inane, senseless, argument made by ReThugs: because Dems had no proof ballots could be miscounted, or not counted, might as well just throw them away.
Of course, if you allow them to throw away the proof there will be no proof. Why didn’t OJ’s attorneys think of pursuing that method of exoneration?
As of early this afternoon we don’t know who will win, though Jones has one hell of a climb. Because too many on the left would rather shrug off election fraud tactics, Russian interference, gerrymandering and focus in on tweets and the circular firing squad, so does the left. And so does the nation if we are to be anything but a one party dictatorship.
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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