Articles on the 2004 US Presdiential Elections and the Growing Crisis

Below are articles from The US Marxist-leninist Organization and The 
Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) on the present situation 
erupting in the Republic of the so-called united States.

http://www.usmlo.org/archive2004/2004-10/vor041027.htm#1

The Fraud of a System that Brings Parties to Power and Divides the People

Every day there is yet a new scandal about the counting of votes in the 
coming election. Voter registration fights, provisional ballots, lack of a 
paper trail for computer machinery, are serving to focus attention on the 
individual voter. With numerous legal battles raging in many of the 
battleground states, all in the name of “protecting the voter,” the 
appearance is that the ruling circles are seriously concerned about every 
vote. Yet if one looks past appearances, one sees that the ruling circles 
are no longer able to sort out their conflicts and are bitterly fighting 
over power at every level while also trying desperately to convince the 
voters that yes indeed their votes do decide the outcome. But people’s 
repeated experience and the blatant fraud of 2000 showing votes do not 
decide the outcome, keeps getting in the way.

For example, this year the ruling circles are contending with people’s 
consciousness of the divisive role of the Electoral College, which acts to 
prevent a single national polity from even forming. The fact that voters 
recognize that literally tens of millions of votes in the majority of states 
already do not count because these voters do not live in the 17-20 
battleground states, is causing considerable trouble. So too is the fact 
that about half of all eligible voters will not vote, many because there is 
no candidate they are prepared to vote for.

The dominate role of the political parties in the existing set up and their 
role in dividing the polity is also showing itself more strongly. Voter 
registration, for example, is blatantly being done along partisan lines. 
There is evidence developing that both parties are destroying, or refusing 
to register, people who indicate they will vote for the opposing party. 
Divisions are being pushed not only along party lines, and state lines, but 
even down to the county and precinct level as whichever party controls the 
machinery at that level vies for advantage. The parties are exposing 
themselves as gangs of gangsters, not political parties.

The essence of what is taking place reveals the fraud of the election system 
itself. This is the fraud of a system where there are no candidates to vote 
for, only ones to vote against, where there are no representatives from 
among the workers themselves, no representatives of the majority stand 
against war and repression, no empowerment of the people themselves, not 
even any politics any more. It is the fraud of a system designed to directly 
block the people from using elections and voting as a means to be political 
and build their unity around a political program that favors them and the 
world. It is this fraud that must be rejected as people organize to advance 
their fight for rights.



http://www.cpcml.ca/tmld/D34165.htm#1


U.S. Election
Proposals to Eliminate the Electoral College
and the Danger of Civil War


- Sandra L. Smith* -

Proposals are coming out of the U.S. ruling circles to eliminate the 
Electoral College and replace it with a direct popular vote for the U.S. 
president. These proposals claim to address the problem of the existing 
set-up where the votes of individual American electors do not count. As The 
New York Times put it, there is "no interest higher than making every vote 
count."

The U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization points to two problems which 
immediately stand out: "One of the problems with focussing on the Electoral 
College alone is that without candidates of the people's own choosing, a 
popular vote for president will not solve the problem of votes that count. 
People will still face the situation where they are voting against a 
candidate as their only choice, rather than one that actually represents 
them. One of the ways in which people are disempowered is by blocking them 
from selecting and electing their own candidates."

The USMLO points out that under the current set-up, 400 of the 435 seats in 
the House of Representatives provide guaranteed re-election for the 
incumbent and voters in only 17 states are even considered part of the 
presidential election. This has generated tremendous anger and frustration 
amongst the American people, coupled with the blatant and repeated rejection 
by government of the views of the majority against war and for rights to 
healthcare and education, jobs, pensions, free speech and organizing. Are 
these proposals to eliminate the electoral College "a means to divert this 
anger in a way that favours the ruling circles?" the USMLO asks.

The second problem, the USMLO points out, is that the Electoral College is 
integral to the existing ability of the ruling circles to maintain the unity 
of all the states in one republic. Eliminating it could well give rise to 
the splitting up of the country, or to a system that eliminates elections 
altogether in the name of keeping the country together.

The USMLO explains: "The existing electoral system with its Electoral 
College and winner take-all set up serves to hide the fact that there is no 
election in the U.S. where the problems of the nation are voted on by the 
national electorate. Indeed, the mechanisms that exist, like the Electoral 
College, are designed to block the electorate as a whole and in their 
respective regions and states, from having any say. The electorate is 
splintered state by state and pitted against one another. Their votes are 
not counted on the basis of one person, one vote, but as state aggregates 
going to one candidate or another. This serves to block even the conception 
of one national electorate with common interests from emerging. Will 
eliminating the Electoral College change this reality or make it worse?"

In other words, we are facing a civil war scenario: Will the United States 
emerge as one republic or any number of republics in contention with one 
another?

Clearly, the problem of eliminating the Electoral College runs far deeper 
than merely a system in which the popular vote does not count. It 
underscores the profound nation-building problem facing the United States 
which requires fundamental constitutional renewal. Sovereignty must be 
vested in the people so that they are empowered to take all the decisions 
which affect their lives. This is the state of affairs which is revealing 
itself with a vengeance at a time the U.S. is imposing its anachronistic 
conception of the nation-state on all countries of the world on the basis of 
the medieval dictum that Might Makes Right. Those that fail to comply are 
declared either failed states, rogue states or messy states which deserve to 
be invaded and occupied.

The U.S. election in 2000 revealed the kind of failed democracy the U.S. 
would subsequently impose on the peoples of the world. The 2004 presidential 
election will now in addition expose the kind of failed nation-state the 
U.S. model represents.

* Sandra L. Smith is the National Leader of the Communist Party of Canada 
(Marxist-Leninist).

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