He’s Not Our People
This is a strange story, something you’d have to scratch your head over because it sounds preposterous. Apparently the recently elected Democratic nominee for the state of South Carolina does not pass the smell test of….the Democrats. It appears that the candidate the party was actively backing actually lost to this gentleman, Alvin Greene. Now, upon digging into his background and unhappy with the findings, the party is appalled that Greene will represent them against the Republican contender. It seems that being charged for lewd behavior and having no money to speak of didn’t deter voters for pulling the lever for him in the recent ballot, but it’s certainly an affront to the party.
With an irony amusingly lost on the people who are now complaining, we see that Greene is being asked to stand down because he is unqualified and an inappropriate candidate for his position. So now, the party is essentially repudiating the votes of the public because “they weren’t informed” about the candidate before they voted, or more precisely, they didn’t vote the right guy in. Karma is a bitch. As we all know, having no experience has not been an obstacle to past candidates.
Not that Democrats are the only party with idiots who have legal questions surrounding them, the Republicans have their fair share too, we are talking politicians after all. But it’s as if Greene is going to be the worst of a lot which includes some sketchy or legally dodgy behavior including:
Chris Dodd – questionable links to Countrywide Mortgage
Charlie Rangel – tax and asset amnesia
Rod Blagojevich – influence selling
Elliot Spitzer – affection buying
Tim Geithner – tax confusion
John Edwards – paternity confusion
And that’s not even mentioning the characters of ex-Presidents and vice-Presidents. So what are they worried about? That Greene will embarrass them? The really fun part will be the party brass spinning the idea to their voting public that they were dumb enough to vote for the wrong guy. In a recent development in New York, a judge has somehow allocated not one, not two but six votes per person to ‘even out’ the playing field there: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_voting_rights_election
Democracy works well but only if it’s planned correctly.
Actually the Yahoo article about Hispanic voting is written poorly. It is totally legal and eliminates gerrymandering. In the New York case, there are 6 seats up for election. Each voter gets 6 votes. The votes can be used anyway (6 votes for 1 candidate or 1 vote for 6 candidates or any other combination which gives you 6 votes). The 6 candidates with the most votes win the election.
Imagine if cumulative voting were used throughout the United States to elect Congresspeople. Then there would be no safe districts since gerrymandering would be eliminated. In the case of California, each voter would get 53 votes to allocate to different candidates. Sure it would be chaotic, but imagine how much fun election would become when all candidates have to fight among themselves regardless of party.
more moving parts = more manipulation potential
The results of the election are out:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061803766.html
A Hispanic won a seat (first time) and a black Republican (first time), too, though the black Republican was “appointed” to the seat earlier.
Need to wait for the analysis of the votes to see what is really happened though.