lenny unencumbered

I’ve just returned from the polls here in South Africa, having voted as promised yesterday in this rant about voting.

One perk of voting in South Africa is getting a free fingernail polish… well, at least one fingernail. Okay, I’ll come clean; it’s only a portion of one fingernail, and you don’t get to choose the colour. We don’t have the budget for a full single fingernail manicure, or the cute “I voted” stickers, for that matter.

Actually, I’m just kidding. The mark on the fingernail is indelible ink that electoral officials apply at voting stations to prevent fraud. It’s a low-tech security feature which I presume is employed in the developing world. Our ballots are still counted manually, so we have none of that fraudulent ballot machine malarkey that U.S. Republicans are constantly whining about.

The polls will close at 21H00 tonight, and turnout is expected to be massive. As South Africans perform their “civic duty, ” news is streaming in from the U.S., where apparently a huge turnout has already been achieved.

By all accounts, Democrats are huge winners. The massive BLUE WAVE predicted surged through some of the reddest states. However, I prefer to call it what it is. A massive wave of fear!

Americans, it seems, have finally got the fright of their lives over the direction their country was heading. The huge turnout and overwhelming vote for the Democrats seem like a rather late attempt to rescue their democracy, which many believe is being stolen from them.

The shocking truth that most Americans will rather not admit is that democracy was stolen decades ago. Politicians have long realised that serving corporate and foreign interests is by far more lucrative than serving the public. When money entered politics, democracy left the United States Capitol.

The BLUE WAVE is a fright reflex.

It’s the result of decades of apathy and unnatural reverence for the political class. Instead of holding public officials to account, Americans have been lured into a culture of celebrity worship. As money flowed into politics, people watched with fascinated delight rather than dismay. Mainstream media kept a tally of who could attract the most money, and praised the recipients rather than castigating them.

Heck! U.S. citizens even donate their own hard-earned money to their politicians. It’s incomprehensible. Do they seriously think their small-dollar contributions can shift attention away from the corporate and tech giants?

People vote, then sit back and enjoy being entertained by the political classes. The biggest entertainer in the U.S. is the President himself – he’s both the ringmaster and clown of a giant red-white-and-blue-top circus.

Sadly, this big win for the Democrats means absolutely nothing. Very little will change locally while Democrat-supported imperialist foreign policy will continue to cause immense suffering in the rest of the world.

The system is designed so that politics corrupts relentlessly. The new kids on the block (even that man of great faith on Texas) are very vulnerable. It’s only a matter of time.

Unless, of course, Americans start to demand that they’re not treated as just voting fodder.

South Africans, too, have made the same mistake. We have spent years abrogating our responsibility at the voting booth. We have let our politicians think the mandate we gave them is sacrosanct. We have failed to uphold a basic civic duty.

Fear should not be our burden. It must be solely theirs.

I hope my fellow citizens will start holding their public officials accountable before the ink stains wash off their fingernails.