|
bradblog
BEAST: How much longer can the country survive these dubious elections before either we address the problem coherently, or people just stop feeling like they live in a democracy?
BF: I think a lot of people already do not feel like they live in a democracy, and justifiably so after after these last two presidential elections. But how long can it go on? It can go on until a Republican perceives that they have been screwed by this system, by these machines, for example. As soon as they feel that a Republican has lost a race because of a faulty, hackable voting machine, that’s when there will be reform. Because they will make sure there’s reform. The Democrats have been screwed out of one election after another. Sarasota is one of the most recent examples—Sarasota, Florida in 2006. 18,000 votes disappear in a Democratic district where the race went to the Republican by 369 votes—Katherine Harris’s old seat, by the way. And what did the Democrats do about it? Absolutely nothing.
BEAST: Despite all this, the Democrats are likely to gain a lot of seats in November. Do you think there’s any chance that they will be able, with a greater majority, to do something, pass a bill, whatever?
BF: Probably not. I mean, even if they had a veto-proof majority in the Senate—remember, for the first six year of the Bush administration, we were told the Democrats couldn’t do this or that because they just didn’t have the majority, that the Republican had the White House and both chambers of Congress. Then they got the majority in both chambers of Congress, and we were told they can’t do anything because it wasn’t enough of a majority. So, oddly enough, the Republicans have gotten everything they wanted, even while they’re in the minority. So, if the Republicans can get whatever they want while they’re in the minority, why couldn’t the Democrats get it when they were in the minority? Why can’t they get it now that they’re in the majority? You know, why are they signing off on giving immunity to the phone companies, the FISA bill?
BEAST: Well, because they’re almost as corrupt as the Republicans, I suppose.
BF: I don’t know, you know? I don’t find them to be as corrupt; I find them to be, uh, you know, once again, pussies. I just find them to be scared to death, incompetent, and they don’t know how to govern, how to fight for the people that brung ‘em to the dance. And so they have just been a failure on that level. But I don’t find them to be as corrupt. I find the Republicans to be evil, and I find the Democrats to be idiots. And there is a distinction, albeit a small one. I realize I’m really grasping for straws there, if that’s the difference between the two.
BEAST: It’s like the difference between Dr. Frankenstein and Igor.
BF: Exactly . So I really have no reason to believe they will do anything differently until I see them do it. When they do it, I will be delighted, and I will be happy to laud them for it. But I’ll believe it when I see it.
|