The stock market is looking weak. Purely a coincidence, I am sure.
Elections
Too Much Political Dog Language
In 2004, I wrote about dog language and political language:
When you talk to a dog, you don’t have to worry a lot about using syllogisms, complete sentences, good analogies, or crisply-argued chains of logic. What he’s looking for is keywords…particular words and short phrases…like “nice doggie” or “here” or, especially, “dinner.”
It strikes me that, increasingly, the way in which politicians address the American people is very similar. It’s enough to say the words that are supposed to elicit the conditioned responses…”jobs” or “health care” or “education.” There is increasingly litle effort to specify exactly what cause-and-effect relationship will cause these good things to come to pass, and why one approach might be better than alternative approaches. This behavior is most noticeable among Democrats, but is by no means totally absent among Republicans.
Both Obama and McCain used political dog language in this campaign. Because of his superior oratorical skills, Obama could pull it off better. I think McCain would have been better served by cutting down on the dog language a bit and making more actual arguments on behalf of his policies. With regard to energy, for example, he spoke about the need for nuclear and wind and solar and all kinds of other sources, maybe including gerbil-powered treadmill generators. Which comes across as a grab-bag of ideas and probably also makes people think, “Well, with all those options, nuclear can’t be all that important.”
It would certainly have been possible for McCain to come up with a three or four sentence explanation of why wind and solar are not a complete answer…like, “When you want to wash your dishes at 9 PM, the sun may not be shining. When you want to run your heat pump on a snowy, icy day, the wind may not be blowing.” He would still have had an uphill battle, because wind and solar have been invested with a quasi-religious significance (as long as they stay theoretical), but would have done better than with the grab-bag approach. The same in other policy areas.
Post Election Thoughts
This morning I woke up, showered, and drove to work. It seemed like any other day. The convenience store where I always stop to pick up vitamin fortified water had a familiar song playing on the radio:
I logged on, checked email – yep, tons as always. Then I logged in to Chicago Boyz to organize some pixels with some personal thoughts this day after the election. I look forward to checking out this post in four years.
“Patriotic Germans Are Proud to Show How They Vote”
I’ve read that in Nazi Germany, sporadic “elections” were held, featuring the above slogan prominently displayed on a banner.
I’m not absolutely sure that this is correct–with the exception of this Wikipedia article, I can’t find definitive evidence that any elections, even fake ones, were held in Nazi Germany. (Although fake elections were certainly held in the Soviet Union.)
But as a thought experiment–imagine that when you go to vote today, there was a big sign with the words “Patriotic Americans are proud to show how they vote”…and that 95% of the people were voting out in the open, at a long table where everyone could see which candidates they had chosen. Wouldn’t you feel a bit intimidated? Especially if you lived in a community, or worked in a professional environment, where your views were distinctly in the minority? I certainly think that many people–perhaps most–would feel at least somewhat intimidated in such circumstances. Even if there were no apparatus of State repression in place. Even if there were a few voting booths provided for those who absolutely insisted on voting in private–with the knowledge, of course, that their identities could be easily observed.
This is, in essence, the evironment that the Democratic leadership wants to create for workers.
Election Queue
The polls in my district opened at 06:30 (6:30 AM). I arrived half an hour early, fully expecting to be the only one there except for the volunteers setting up the booths.
Instead of a desolation I found a multitude. If, that is, you can count 100 or so people as being a multitude. By the time the doors opened, the line stretched around the block and out of sight.
Ohio gives voters the option to use a paper ballot instead of indicating their choice on a machine. Since the line was much shorter for paper ballots, I went that route.
Still took me close to an hour to vote. Say 85 minutes if you count the time I waited in line before they opened for business. Judging by that alone, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some record numbers this election.