If You Think Democracy Is Sorta Cool ...

… these are must-reads. I mean, c’mon – you have time to read blogs about horrific dating fiascos, Nihilism, sexy Halloween costumes, obscure Japanese poetic forms, “Lost” and a variety of other nonsensical subjects. Would it kill you to mix in a little politics? Well, considering some of the headlines these days – did you hear the one about how a Bill became a lay? – I understand your trepidation. Nevertheless, I urge you to forge on, good citizen …

A pair of articles by public activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Rolling Stone cast light on the polling abuses perpetrated in the 2004 and 2000 elections. In “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?”, Lou Harris, the “father of modern political polling,” tells the author, “'Ohio was as dirty an election as America has ever seen. You look at the turnout and votes in individual precincts, compared to the historic patterns in those counties, and you can tell where the discrepancies are. They stand out like a sore thumb.”

The article concludes with the following statement: “American history is littered with vote fraud -- but rather than learning from our shameful past and cleaning up the system, we have allowed the problem to grow even worse. If the last two elections have taught us anything, it is this: The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system. If people lose faith that their votes are accurately and faithfully recorded, they will abandon the ballot box. Nothing less is at stake here than the entire idea of a government by the people.

“Voting, as Thomas Paine said, ‘is the right upon which all other rights depend.’ Unless we ensure that right, everything else we hold dear is in jeopardy.”

Kennedy follows up with, “Will The Next Election Be Hacked?” In that article, an election supervisor in Leon County, Fla., tells him, “Every board of election has staff members with the technological ability to fix an election. Even one corrupt staffer can throw an election. Without paper records, it could happen under my nose and there is no way I'd ever find out about it. With a few key people in the right places, it would be possible to throw a presidential election.”

Think about it.

Now get back to reading about creepy adoptions, the questionable merits of ice cream vs. coffee on a first date and rampant spelling problems in Greenville, N.C.

Carry on …