October surprises
You know the numbers are good if even Esquiver is feeling cautiously optimistic.
That said, there's a couple of things I'm still worried about.
I'll refer you to Rany Jazayerli, guest-blogging at 538, for the first one, because I'll admit that my experience in living in places in which people were undeniably trying to kill me (not me, specifically, but you know what I mean) has left me a little overly-sensitized to the likelihood of these scenarios, and I've felt a bit like a paranoid nutjob in fretting to friends and family about exactly what Jazayerli lays out.
My second concern is best summarized by The Onion, which alone, perhaps, ought to reassure me about the chances of it eventuating. Strangely enough, it doesn't.
Here's the thing: suppose there is voting machine mayhem. Under ordinary circumstances, you'd think the nation would look at the Democratic candidate's commanding lead going into the polls, and, in a mighty and unified voice, cry foul. Under the current circumstances, however, mightn't too many people just shrug and shake their heads and say "wow. I didn't realize America was still so racist. Guess we still have a lot of work to do." ?
That said, there's a couple of things I'm still worried about.
I'll refer you to Rany Jazayerli, guest-blogging at 538, for the first one, because I'll admit that my experience in living in places in which people were undeniably trying to kill me (not me, specifically, but you know what I mean) has left me a little overly-sensitized to the likelihood of these scenarios, and I've felt a bit like a paranoid nutjob in fretting to friends and family about exactly what Jazayerli lays out.
My second concern is best summarized by The Onion, which alone, perhaps, ought to reassure me about the chances of it eventuating. Strangely enough, it doesn't.
Here's the thing: suppose there is voting machine mayhem. Under ordinary circumstances, you'd think the nation would look at the Democratic candidate's commanding lead going into the polls, and, in a mighty and unified voice, cry foul. Under the current circumstances, however, mightn't too many people just shrug and shake their heads and say "wow. I didn't realize America was still so racist. Guess we still have a lot of work to do." ?
2 Comments:
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Anonymous said...
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- 2:55 AM
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Anonymous said...
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- 6:11 PM
Post a CommentI'd been wondering about the relative absence of commentary on voting-machine reliability this election cycle, but I thought that perhaps it was simply because I'm reading American media less these days than I was four years ago.
I guess it's no longer the hot topic for American media so it doesn't get covered.
Your post reminds me of the classic exchange from Catch-22, in which Yossarian -- during WWII -- complains that people are trying to kill him.
His skeptical listener points out, "They're trying to kill everybody."
To which Yossarian responds, "And what difference does that make?"
[I do not claim, incidentally, that I've remembered this exchange accurately.]
The movie version of Catch-22 isn't horrible, though I've heard it was a complete bomb at the box office. I've always suspected that its failure was large part of the reason the director Mike Nichols went from making some of the greatest movies ever made (The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? and Carnal Knowledge) to much more more tepid, conventional films, including Day of the Dolphin and Working Girl. Just speculation. . . .
Carnal Knowledge is one of the most brutal portraits of the male psyche ever filmed. Probably hands down the worst (good) movie to take a first date to. Another cruel, corrosive depiction of the American male would be the novel Something Happened by Joseph Heller. I heard once that Heller himself concluded it didn't quite work, although I'm more likely to pick it up and re-read parts of it than I am his more celebrated first novel, which, incidentally, is where I came in. . . .
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