Because today is for polls

[danaeris]

[Poll #1220661]

Comments

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

As is almost always the case in radio button polls, on a couple of questions none of them quite fit my position. In particular, I don't think the U.S. is likely to go the route of a theocracy; no single sect of Christianity has enough power to make that happen.

Nonetheless, the U.S. is pretty fucked if McCain is elected. Our debt and deficits are so large, and our economy is so bad that keeping us from years of recession/depression will require serious cooperation with other countries and a rapid adjustment to how fiscal and environmental policies favor corporations and handouts.

Similarly, I'd have liked an option between the two most severe answers on the global warming question.

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

Other: I think both of the last two elections were stolen, but that this has not happened before on the federal level. It will continue to happen until a Democratic candidate has the guts to say, "Sorry Ohio, I care about you, but I'm not going to waste one campaign dollar in a state with that many Diebold voting machines. You aren't allowed to vote for me, and I need to try to win this election without you."

[cos]

Depends on one's definition of "stolen". There's no sensible definition by which 2000 was not stolen. However, as far as I can tell 2004 was only clearly "stolen" if you broaden the definition to all sorts of vote suppression tactics that have been used in a lot of elections, and by that standard, every election from the end of slavery until after the civil rights era was very likely stolen too. Also, even if you don't include that kind of stuff, and stick with a narrow definition of "stolen", it's reasonably possible (though not certain) that the 1960 election was also stolen, and Nixon actually beat Kennedy.

[truthspeaker.livejournal.com]

I agree. I will also add that 2000 was at least the third time in US history where the President was determined by deciding who gets to count the votes. It's been happening for a long time.

[professor-booty.livejournal.com]

The last two U.S. elections were certainly stolen. It was so blatant in the case of Florida, that I immediately suspected that something bad was coming. The Democrats and Republicans serve as two wings of a single party: The Money Party. It doesn't matter much whether you vote for Kang or Kodos, because the extended primary process ensures that only the most heavilly bribed candidates win. So why did the Bush team stop at nothing to get their guy installed? Well, the answer came soon enough. Bush had surrounded himself with the Project For a New American Century crowd, who sought to use U.S. military power to secure their new Empire. But they indicated that the public might not support wars of conquest, short of a new 'Pearl Harbor' event. So they ordered one up on September 11, 2001. Afterwards, they invaded who they pleased, tortured without guilt, tapped phones, planted propaganda in the media, and funnelled hundreds of billions to a group of politically well-connected war profiteer companies. And, of course, ensured that Iraq's oil would go back under the control of Western companies; that the pipeline Unocal had been planning to build across Afghanistan would be well protected, and the opium poppies would be replanted. It appears that the Democrats didn't have the intestinal fortitude to do what needed to be done!

Behind it all is Peak Oil. Cheney, being an oil man, knew it was coming. And whoever is installed in the White House after this election will have to deal with it. They can choose to follow the current path: send in the troops....or they can tell the people to accept a reduction in their standard of living. No candidate vetted by the current U.S. electoral system would dare follow the second path (progressive politicians are advised not to fly in small planes).

Climate change is undeniable, but I think it is being used as a means to get a certain percentage of the public to voluntarily use less energy. Demand destruction will mitigate the effects of oil production peak for a little while.

[lrc.livejournal.com]

I feel, but don't have any proof that the last two elections were won by Bush by rigging the voting machines. I also feel that cheating has gone on, to various degrees, in just about every election, but it only makes differences in the close ones.

As to global warming, it seems that the evidence shows that things are warmer now, and there does seem to be some correlation between CO2 and temperature. However, there are many other factors that can contribute. I also saw a reference to evidence that biomass is also being created at record levels.

I think that the US is pretty much screwed in the near term. I don't know how much difference it would make whether it's McCain or Obama behind the wheel. I think that Obama would do a better job, but he also has some policies I disagree with.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

While there were shenanigans involved in the 2004 election, I don't think it was the result of any organized conspiracy, but rather a collection of individuals overstepping their authority and/or near-unintentionally biasing results. It will probably get worse before it gets better, but will get worse in a manner that tends to even the results.

I don't think this will represent a large opinion change of the US on the world stage as there are and pretty much have been a lot of people that didn't have particularly good opinions of the US for pretty much all of the last century. That ended about the same time that WWI wound up. "Overpaid, oversexed, and over here."

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

BTW, sorry about not being in contact with you over the weekend -- Apparently "roaming" also means phone not being able to be found to ring, nor access to voice mail. I'll probably have to be talking to Verizon about that.

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

I think the last two elections were stole, but that it still /does/ matter.

[rev-bri.livejournal.com]

You left out an important option on the warming scenario:

As things stand, global warming will cause catastrophic changes to our environment, and adapting to them will require major, immediate changes to our way of life.

[phoenix-keika.livejournal.com]

So about those US elections...

I don't know what a stolen election is. I know enough about US politics to know the major names, but not much else. Therefore, I couldn't answer most of the questions.

Politics in general hasn't really been appealing to me, and US politics even less so. I have to force myself to pay attention at the best of times.