Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Can we can expect some actual violence this election....

In the lead up to the midterms, the most repeated word to describe the constituency is angry. People are angry about Health Care reform, entitlements, do nothing politicians and do too much politicians. Some feel powerless and are genuinely frustrated with all of what goes on in Washington. But I believe their numbers are far fewer than media has represented. In truth the largest part of the voting age public is actually apathetic to who is claiming to be in charge and who looks forward to being in charge. The squabbles for political points, gotchas, and pandering have the majority of Americans flatly disinterested.
If we just look at those who are interested we find a few factions...Party Loyalists, Civic Duty voters, genuine (small i) independents, the first (well second) timers, and the Activists...those that are very impassioned about their vote, and their views. The super liberals, especially those upset with arguably the most liberal President ever elected, will grudgingly vote this midterm, and there is no doubt that Tea Partiers and super conservatives will be out en masse, so where will the violence come from?
There are individuals that have been so stirred by the rhetoric and whose values are already on such shaky civic ground that this election is likely to push them over the edge. The 3-second loop of the Black Panthers intimidating voters...in a majority Black district (not that it matters) will be replicated from the opposite side of the color spectrum this election day...and quite frankly, they probably wont be as nice. There are already small stories cropping up around the country about citizens organizing to confront voters at the polls and (illegally) demand identification. The ever-present spectre of voter fraud will rear its ugly head once more with tall tales of busloads of voters going from poll to poll to cast multiple votes throughout multiple counties (who has time for that?). At some point in time during the day, whether due to a broken machine, an untrustworthy poll attendant, misinterpretation, misrepresentation, or misunderstanding...violence may happen.
But in Richmond County we can relax, we know it won't happen here, not in the only county in the nation to experience election night violence on the evening of an historic election... right?

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