“The Sacrament of Democracy”

Posted by mcm

November 19, 2008

A beautiful, and timely, meditation on the reason why we fight–and why the Democrats should be investigating, not just celebrating, even when they win, if the voting was a mess, or the vote-count anomalous in any way.

MCM

The Sacrament of Democracy
Shannyn Moore
Posted November 18, 2008 | 04:50 AM (EST)

If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament.

I grew up in what I call “The First Free-Range Organic Christian Church of Homer.” Sundays brought a message, fellowship, and a line of repentant souls taking communion-a remembrance of sacrifice.

The first time I cast my vote, it struck me as similar. The blood shed for my right to stand at a flag draped table and make my choice part of the collective wasn’t lost on me. I had one of those “Come to Jesus” moments and in 20 years I haven’t missed an opportunity to vote. Unlike Christ, the idea of democracy has never shed a drop of blood; patriots did. The same can be said of the suffragettes. Unlike the sacrament celebrated in religious ritual, elections should not be faith-based. The framers never intended our government to be run on trust; hence the myriad of checks and balances. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Election integrity is not about restoring faith in the system. Checks and balances are. When we vote, the agreement we all make is we cast our ballots for candidates who may not be the victor. We know that. Taking the risk of voting for a loser only works if you have confidence the process is beyond reproach. It is equally vital the winning candidate have an agreement the citizenry will follow their lead. Leadership can only be ordained if the people know their votes counted.

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The Longest Line

On Election Day, 2004, election fraud was epidemic in Ohio (and throughout the nation). Would-be Democratic voters were impeded or disabled by the thousands, especially (though not only) in the inner cities and in college towns.

Bush/Cheney's drive to block the vote was particularly flagrant in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. While student voters at nearby religious schools had quite an easy time of it, Kenyon's students had to wait for hours and hours and hours. Those long lines sooned turned out to have been purposely created, through the deliberate under-supply of working e-voting machinery to the polling sites at Kenyon. (The same thing happened all throughout the state and nationwide.)

After the election, Kenyon students wrote up an account of what they went through on that day and very late into the night. It's called The Longest Line. As it did not receive its due attention--and as we're heading toward another presidential race--I offer it to you for download here.

MCM