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The title of science fiction writer C. M. Kornbluth's famous story, "The Marching Morons," (1951) came to mind as I observed the show this year's presidential election has become. As I write, the issue of who shall "lead" us into the grand future of expanded governmental programs and more statist intrusions into our private lives has not yet been decided. George W. Bush "enjoys" a tiny sliver of a lead in Florida and the brittle hope that he will win that state's twenty-five electoral votes and thus the election. The Democratic political machine, however, is not about to let legal or constitutional niceties stand in the way of "the next best thing" to a Clinton presidency, i.e., the coronation of Albert Gore, Jr., aka Clinton-lite.
The legal maneuvering and political posturing is nauseating, yes, but hardly unexpected. We are talking politicians here, after all. Besides, there are sufficient electoral shenanigans bubbling up all about the country to smear the tarnished reputations of both parties with thick mud.
(Indeed, even here in Iowa -- the "heartland" of America -- there are rumblings of a potential recount in the face of Gore's slim five-thousand vote margin. Sadly, even in my own congressional district -- in which the Republicrat incumbent won with over sixty-percent of the vote against his Demican opponent -- the Libertarian party candidate mysteriously "lost" over three-thousand votes between the time of early reported returns and the final "official" count.)
What is truly astonishing -- if not particularly surprising -- is the shameless spectacle created by the Democratic voters in Palm Beach County, Florida. Whining, crying, finger-pointing, screaming, these wailing, whimpering, and sniveling people bemoan the fact that thousands of them were unable to read a simple ballot or follow an arrow from their favorite candidate's name to the hole they needed to punch to register their vote.
These so-called citizens are either out-and-out liars or the stupidest people in the world -- a danger not only to themselves but to the rest of us, barely deserving to live. These marching morons prance about the streets in front of the ubiquitous television cameras pouting and belly-aching as they demand to vote again! Any self-respecting individual would be too embarrassed to admit to such utterly inane ineptness. Not these idiots. They wear their feeble-mindedness as a badge of honor. They think -- no, they know -- that it is their inalienable right to be granted a second opportunity to steal the election.
This whole circus would be laughable were it not so sad. One must, I suppose, grant these mental midgets their consistency, if nothing else. Waving their crude placards, they display their to-hell-with-the-Constitution-and-up-with-mob-rule attitudes for anyone caring to see. Pure democracy -- the bane of freedom from time immemorial -- is what they seek. With the petulance of bratty children, they want what they want and they want it now! Even if Bush somehow manages to stave off the machinations of the sterling forces of the current vice-perpetrator and squeak by with a majority in the Electoral College, these proponents of might-makes-right say Bush should "concede" the election to their favorite liar whom they believe will "earn" a majority of the popular vote. Heed the "will of the people," they threaten, or else.
I say, to hell with the "will of the people."
Today we stare eye-to-eye with the worst of all possible political worlds. We must simultaneously labor not only under the tyranny of the majority but find ourselves further shackled by the dictatorship of the minority!
Nearly 99% of the voters in this election came down in favor of an enlarged state and in support of mammoth increases in state-sanctioned robbery.
More billions for education! (Ignore the fact that our schools deteriorate and our children become dumber the more dollars we throw at them.)
More billions for prescription drug coverage and social security payments for senior citizens! (Ignore the fact that our elders control the bulk of the wealth in this country and already enjoy massive welfare subsidies for their health care and retirement.)
More billions for defense! (Ignore the fact that the primary reason our military is simultaneously both the best in the world and in its worst shape in quite some time is due to the Machiavellian maneuverings of the Clintonistas as they send our personnel to die in foreign lands functioning as "policemen" rather than the soldiers they were trained -- and meant -- to be.)
The irony is that nearly sixty-percent of voters indicated they favored a less powerful government. I guess that since Bush would take us to Hades at forty-miles-an-hour and Gore would do so at eighty, the electorate believes that siding with Bush really translates into "less" government.
Or maybe a majority of voters in this country really is moronic enough to believe the transparent outrages of Gore when he proclaims that he has shrunk the State and that he agrees that the "era of big government" is over.
So much for the iron hand of the majority.
The protesters clogging the thoroughfares of Palm Beach County represent in microcosm the flipside of this travesty. Pay no attention, they demand, to the fact that the vast majority of voters in their jurisdiction -- whether young or old -- somehow managed to decipher the "intricacies" of their ballots and cast their votes as they desired. No, no. Because members of this minority found themselves "confused" and intimidated and too frigging stupid to ask for assistance or to request another ballot when they screwed up a straightforward and simple procedure, everyone else -- not only in their own county but in the entire country -- must be held hostage to their insipid ultimatums.
No personal responsibility. No accountability. No accepting the consequences of their actions. No, no. It's the duty of everyone else to assuage their "feelings" and "make it right." If we don't cower before their self-righteous indignation and crumple before their rantings, they'll pout and hold their collective breath until we succumb to their incessant nonsense.
And if that doesn't work, they'll sue us, by-god; the All-American answer to every travail faced by the gutless gnomes who gnaw ravenously at the ankles of the rest of us.
This is the same mentality, the same instinctive, primitive, and irrational attitudes and actions that gave us such gems as the American with Disabilities Act (in which the infirm of the world rule the able); the wondrous joys of Political Correctness (in which free speech is free...as long as you agree with the left-leaning bigots of the world); the compassion of Hate Crimes (in which the State purports to read your mind and punish you not merely for your deeds but for your thoughts, as well); and the glories of Fairness, Equality, and Affirmative Action (in which justice is irrelevant and the principle that some are "more equal" than others is enshrined in law and crammed down the throats of the majority).
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution says:
While we no longer have overt slavery in this country, our involuntary servitude increases with each passing year and each farce of an election we endure. This nation is a hair's-breadth from slipping into the pit that is the tyranny of pure democracy. Bad enough that the 99% willingly march into that bottomless quagmire. Worse still that they are intent on dragging the rest of us into the muck along with them. Last time I checked, I've violated no crime nor been convicted of any. (Not that such fine moral distinctions are much protection in this era of asset forfeiture and State powers of unlimited taxation and regulation.)
Congress does nothing to protect us from these encroachments since it is the prime wolf in this sheep's pen we call the United States of America. Democracy runs amuck while the remnant of the citizens who truly understand, appreciate, and defend freedom and individual rights are buried beneath the collectivist juggernaut.
With each new election, with each new law, with each new regulation, with each new offense against liberty, we witness the disintegration of what remains of our once proud republic. With mounting anger, frustration, and helplessness, with each new chain wrapped around our throats, we can only say with greater and greater certitude and sorrow:
The Thirteenth Amendment, R.I.P.
