- What's With The Apathy?
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- The decline of democracy in North America was
starkly illustrated in the recent Canadian elections, laments Eric
Walberg...
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- The Canadian people woke up 15 October to a new
government that looked remarkably like the old government. "Basically,
we have just gone through a $300 million-plus election that we could
ill afford and the Conservatives are still stuck with their irksome
minority government situation that led them to call the election in
the first place," said Terrence Downey, president of St Mary's
University College in Calgary, Alberta. "Nothing much has changed
except for increased levels of voter apathy and cynicism."
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- This election saw the lowest national voter turnout
in Canadian history at 59 per cent, even as a global financial crisis
threatened to plunge the nation's economy into recession. This broke
the previous record low of 61 per cent in 2004. Canadian voter turnout
peaked at close to 80 per cent in the general election of 1958. The
last four Canadian federal elections have all been under 65 per cent,
the first time since 1896.
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- Prime Minister Steven Harper observed that "it's
been low and getting lower for some time now." What he didn't say is
exactly what the Conservatives want, since this works to the advantage
of the wealthy and not-so-wealthy supporters of the status quo. It was
Harper who pushed through new stringent proof-of-identity
requirements, emulating United States President George W Bush,
contributing to the low turnout.
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- But Americans can only envy Canada. The US hasn't
had a voter turnout as high as 59 per cent since 1968, when 60.8 per
cent voted. The last three national election turnouts were 56.7
(2004), 51.3 (2000), and 49.1 (1996) per cent. Part of the problem is
the vindictive voter registration system that discards many of the
poor and in most states, anyone who has ever been in jail, no matter
what the offence. Recall that the US prisoner population, at two
million, is the highest in the world and the highest per capita in the
world.
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- But what is the underlying explanation for this
mysterious aversion that Canadians and Americans have shown to their
political systems in the recent past? Canadian voter fatigue from a
succession of minority governments just doesn't wash. Everyone has
strong political preferences, and given worthy candidates addressing
issues that are important, people will take the few minutes required
to vote. Canadians pay a considerable amount to fund each election and
spend hours listening to political ads, commentary, debates and
"news".
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- Could it be that no politicians are addressing the
burning issues? That voters realise there is no difference between the
two ruling parties? The US political system was aptly described by
Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's politics professor, as follows: "The
two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people
can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any
profound or extensive shifts in policy." This is easily applied to the
Canadian situation.
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- And who controls the policy? Could it be the Zionist
establishment in North America, politely called the Israeli lobby if
the critic dares mention it at all? Canada has pumped thousands of
troops into Afghanistan since the US invaded it seven years ago and
has suffered the third highest casualties after the US and Britain,
with only resentment and despair on the part of Afghans as thanks.
More than 60 per cent of Canadians want out immediately. The natural
party to lead the campaign against this betrayal of Canada's image as
peacekeeper was the Liberal Party, led by the French Canadian Stephane
Dion - French Canadians are traditionally pacifist.
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- But the Liberals have been paralysed, unable to
voice the popular will, and were routed last year by the small
socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) in a Quebec by-election that NDP
leader Jack Layton called "a referendum on Afghanistan". Could it be
that the continued failure of the Liberals to show some backbone and
promise an immediate withdrawal of troops left voters too depressed
and resigned to bother turning out this time? Could it be the
aggressive lobbying of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the
virtual silence of the Zionist-controlled media that is the
problem?
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- Instead, the Liberals campaigned on the environment,
and deservedly suffered their worst electoral showing in a quarter
century. Knives are now drawn by pretenders to the mild-mannered,
bookish Dion, including Michael Ignatieff, a sometime Canadian but
better known as a neo-con British writer who even supported the
invasion of Iraq, and Bob Rae, ex-socialist, whose wife just happens
to be vice-president of the CJC. Yikes. What if they hold another
election and no one bothers to show up at all?
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- The stranglehold on foreign policy which the
Zionists have is clearer than ever this time round in the US. Early
worries by American Jews that Obama wasn't sufficiently pro-Israel
prompted Obama to travel to Israel to vow his unwavering support and
to choose as his running mate Senator Joe Biden, an outspoken Zionist
("You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist"). At the vice
presidential debate, the sparring to outdo each other reached
ridiculous heights with Sarah Palin's comment: "I'm so encouraged to
know that we both love Israel, and I think that is a good thing to get
to agree on."
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- While most Americans are so inundated with
pro-Israeli and anti-Arab propaganda they don't openly question the
extreme bias in their foreign policy, they know something is seriously
wrong with the state of the union - 91 per cent, last count. However,
they are again being served up virtually identical foreign policies by
the two candidates. Could despair be one of the reasons so many
Americans don't bother to vote?
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- The other poison infecting the US electoral system
is the spectre of rigged elections. Fortunately for Canadians, the
Conservatives don't have a monopoly on voting machines, like the
Republicans. Voter fraud in the US, including dubious voting machine
tallies and illegal disqualification of thousands of poor and black
voters has been well documented in the past three presidential
elections. Among early voters this time, there have already been
dozens of complaints that the touch-screen voting machines moved
voters' ticks from Obama to McCain. In Alabama, scores of voters have
been labelled convicted felons on the basis of incorrect lists.
Michigan must restore thousands of names it illegally removed from
voter rolls over residency questions, a judge ruled this week.
Officials in Wisconsin admit that their database is wrong one out of
five times when it flags voters, mistakenly rejecting tens of
thousands.
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- Obama's new voter registration campaign ACORN has
put more than 1.3 million new voters on lists. But the Republicans
have accused it of fraud and succeeded in launching an FBI probe into
ACORN, called by Obama's campaign an "unholy alliance" with the
Republicans. Obama called for a special prosecutor to investigate any
claims of registration fraud. In Ohio, the US Supreme Court overturned
a lower court order that required extra information on these eager new
- Democratic - voters, which could invalidate up to 200,000 voters.
The Republicans immediately launched an appeal. Given the odds, unless
Obama leads by at least 10 per cent next month, he will likely
"lose".
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- No matter who inhabits the White House next year,
both the US and Canadian electoral systems will continue to fester as
long as foreign policy remains in the Zionist vice. At least the Obama
factor has empowered blacks and liberals and has brought to life an
otherwise moribund campaign. Ralph Nader, the only honest candidate,
will finish a distant third, but has at least been able to act as
America's conscience. Canada's NDP gained a healthy eight seats this
time, bringing their total to 37 and they will play a key role in
keeping the minority Conservative government from undoing what's left
of Canada's welfare state. Such faint but important voices are all
that keeps faith in democracy alive these days across the Atlantic.
Perhaps eventually the forces they represent will be able to pick up
the pieces of the shattered political system.
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- ***
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- Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can
reach him at www.geocities.com/walberg2002/
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- This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram
Weekly
- http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/index.htm
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