Voting is always important, especially if you are part of a healthy democracy where voting is safeguarded for all citizens. In a quasi-fascist political system citizens go through the motions of free elections when the elections are rigged either before or after the election to secure a pre-determined result.
When the United States was at its best we encouraged integrity in the voting process and secured election observers in the world societies that had questionable integrity around their voting practices. In my opinion, we are now one of those societies that needs to be monitored. The reason is, in my mind, perfectly clear: Some citizens and leaders in power are attempting to repress voting by interrupting the voting process, suppressing the vote, and in the main making it harder for people to vote. Those who are attempting to suppress the vote or encourage intimidation of voters are the ones who stand to lose the most when everyone votes. That is the only trump card they have to play; they cannot win elections fairly.
The attempted corruption of our election process is symptomatic of a larger trend and problem, the erosion of democracy itself. For the last four years our present administration and its proxies and enablers have systematically dismantled or dismissed the very institutions that make for resilient democracies. All this is done under the rubrics of the “deep state.” In actuality, these structures have been put into place to bring accountability and leadership beyond and often in spite of who happens to pull the levers of power at the moment. Autocrats want to dismiss any voices that call into question their own.
Democracies are fragile. They take years to build and can be dismantled in a relatively short period of time. We live in such a time when totalitarianism is rising across the world, a new fascism. When this happens the free press is silenced, human rights violated, “law and order” used to control the opposition, and all of the organs of government are controlled in order to reflect the one worldview of the autocratic leaders. The illusion is created that the regime in returning power to the people, but that is a ruse; a new controlling class seizes the assets and enrich themselves at the expense of the very ones they pretend to protect. Coalitions of the fringe combine to create a minority that controls the majority. The Judicial system is highjacked to always rule in favor of the regime and corporate interests that keep it in power. The Congress becomes anemic and ceases to provide a balance of power. Religion is manipulated to create an idolatrous state church in which the form of religion is filled with the ideology of the regime. And yes, the veracity of elections is either compromised or surrounded by doubt and suspicion in order to manipulate the outcomes.
We are living in such a time. When I say that this is the most consequential election of my lifetime, I am not exaggerating. Democracy as we know it hangs in the balance. Only a vast demonstration of resolve and courage by our citizens will help change course. If we do not, in the span of only four years the country we know and love will become a weak and twisted version of itself.
Consequential.
vitalwholeness 