elections
Elections are necessary for democracy. To carry the weight of effective democratic governance, elections need to be considered credible, that is free and fair by all participants. At times, all democracies struggle with election processes. Over the last couple decades, the din from all sides questioning the soundness of American elections has increased to the loudest in the old republic's history.
In the United States, the counties conduct the elections. They control the voter rolls, set up the voting mechanisms, whether booths or by mail, and tally the votes. Election confidence is gained only by making the entire process transparent, open to all sides, and to all public scrutiny. However, this simple fact elections are run by the counties is little understood by most Americans, not so incredible really. In the last half-dozen years, the national media ran countless stories alleging nefarious election manipulations by various foreign and domestic actors. It was quite clear that many of these stories were produced by people who did not understand the counties control the election processes. But, confused media coverage is de rigueur these days
However, one story that didn't misunderstand the elections process is an National Public Radio(NPR) report from a year ago. Incredulously titled, “How Private Money From Facebook's CEO Saved The 2020 Election,” the story reveals how Facebook's CEO charitably donated $350 million to over 2500 “jurisdictions” to help conduct the 2020 elections. There are only 3,100 counties.
Phew! there's so much wrong with this, at the same time so glaringly revealing.
First, NPR is propaganda for badly university educated America, yeah I know, that's redundant. NPR is only five decades old and a government press is always, at very best, problematic. Over the years, government funding was gradually stripped completely from NPR. So, despite their public moniker, they are largely reliant on corporate money, now disturbingly like our public elections. At the bottom of the article, the editor’s note states, “Facebook is among NPR's financial supporters.”
Elections are not a liberal charity. They are fundamental democratic processes requiring public funding, not handouts from undemocratic mega-corporations. A functioning democratic government taxes to fund elections. Why can't the counties tax Facebook? Well, for an explanation, start with that most undemocratic federal institution the Supreme Court and their use of the constitution's Commerce Clause, here lies the beginnings of the political enthronement of US Global INC., though the deed was certainly not theirs alone.
Elections are fundamental to democracy, but so are plenty of other necessaries. First and foremost, wealth can't be concentrated into the control of a handful of anti-democratic corporate oligarchs. What does such centralization mean for governance? For one thing, an increasing number of counties can't even fund the democratic conduction of basic public affairs, such as elections. Democracy shall not be had from charitable corporate funding, or through Washington DC funding elections for that matter, after all, they are the same thing.
“All the things of this world have a limited existence,...changes which bring such bodies back to their beginnings are healthy. The ones that have the best organization and the longest lives are, however, those that can renew themselves often through their own institutions, or that come to such renewal through some circumstances outside these institutions. And it is clearer than light itself that if they do not renew themselves, these bodies will not endure.” – Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy