Minnesota Land of 1000 votes

I used to follow the politics of the day with great regularity. Being informed was an obsession of mine for years. In the last few years though I confess I don’t like having my blood pressure raised to the extent necessary to keep following. I do try to stay informed though by listening to WSBA in the morning between 6am and 9am and then I have the rest of the day to try to calm down. Having said that, I could not help but pay attention to the disputed election in Minnesota.

Al Franken will probably win but let’s face it...that was a foregone conclusion. It seems elections run that way now. Without throwing the conspiracy theories around I had some thoughts about it. Now I spent many years of my youth in Philadelphia. My dad was a cop in that city during the race riots of the late 60’s and early 70’s. He and a guy named Rizzo did not get along. Pop thought Hizonor was crooked. I only give that background info to suggest that I am not naïve about election rigging. Voting early and often is what happens.

So why then is the Minnesota election so interesting? Have rural states elections been pristine for so long? Probably not. The degree of larceny has generally been relatively low if only because of the smaller populations. But since 2000 we see an increase in the importance of heretofore unimportant states. Karl Rove and company worked this like a symphony conductor in 2004. Now of course the former ‘silent majority’ conservatives have adopted part of the other team’s playbook where you die for every inch of ground. Formerly unimportant states are now... important. It seems to me that the election shenanigans of the big cities like Philadelphia, NYC, Chicago, etc are moving to the burbs just like the rest of the country.

However larceny on this scale and in plain view of everyone is what we need to be vigilant against. We used to have the illusion that the Midwest, Bible Belt, and other areas, had relatively honest elections that would generally offset those practices in urban America. But it seems that perception and veneer is officially over. In Minnesota someone accurately foresaw Franken losing if they adopted the Georgia plan and had a run off hence the court route. I think courts will be more and more involved in elections and that is a bad thing. Let’s face it if the election process is no longer sacrosanct (even if that is only a perception and not reality) can our system continue to work? How can the folks have faith in their “elected officials” and system of government if we can’t have faith in the process that puts them there?