The whole world will watch intently tonight as American voters decide the fate of the country — and to some extent the world — for the next four years. It’s sad that in a country that claims to be a model for democracy we can’t conduct our elections better. Once again, the presidential campaign has been guided by misinformation and
dirty tricks.
The entire Swift Boat debacle was ridiculous. Somehow, conservative activists funded by rich Texans managed to land questions about John Kerry’s war record on the front page of just about every major American newspaper for weeks on end. Even after military records contradicted the accounts given by the woefully misnamed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the controversy refused to die. It was a simple and successful misinformation campaign that had a significant effect on the race.
President Bush also contributed to misinforming the electorate by willfully distorting Kerry’s views on use of force, implying that he’d leave American security to “old Europe” despite Kerry’s repeated assurances to the contrary. Bush continued the pattern of deception by attacking Kerry’s health care plan as an intrusive government monolith, which it isn’t.
To be fair, the misinformation has flown from both sides. Kerry warned in mid-October that there’s “great potential” of a military draft if Bush wins reelection, and Howard Dean voiced the same concerns during his visit to campus on Oct. 1. Both sides do what they feel they need to do to rouse their base. Republicans, as Dean likes to say, harp on “guns, God, gays and abortion” while Democrats attempt to scare their base with the specter of a draft. I believe that political realities will likely prevent Bush from instituting a draft and that Democrats know this.
While partisan rhetorical
nonsense can be expected, it has been more depressing to see the extent to which the electorate is mis- or uninformed this year. Polls indicate that a majority of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and a significant relationship with Al
Qaeda despite strong and much-publicized evidence to the contrary. If only a few Americans believed this, one could attribute it to hard-core Bush supporters who couldn’t admit the truth to themselves. But when half the country doesn’t know the outcome of the two strongest rationales for invading Iraq, we have a problem.
It would be easy to blame the media for this, but anyone who reads a daily newspaper would know that we haven’t found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or significant ties between Hussein and Al Qaeda . Perhaps if you got your information from Fox News, you might be forgiven for thinking otherwise (a survey showed Fox News viewers to be the most ill-informed American news consumers).
Also, the Bush administration deserves some blame for keeping these myths alive. Dick Cheney has been particularly mendacious about repeating discredited charges, and the entire administration has tried to conflate the war in Iraq with the war against Islamic terrorism. However, the final responsibility to inform oneself lies with the citizen. American democracy demands a lot on the part of the citizen, and it’s the citizen’s duty to fulfill that obligation. I have little sympathy for those who whine about how long it takes to inform oneself about the issues. It’s an insult to your forefathers who fought for the right to vote and the literally billions of humans who still don’t have the right to vote.
Speaking of the right to vote, The Washington Post reported last week that Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin have mounted legal challenges to tens of thousands of voter registrations in those key states. Of course partisans want their side to win. But at what point do ethics enter the mix, and at what point does one consider the health of the republic?
Just like you, I’ll be glued to the television tonight with liquor close at hand. Best of luck to all of us, and to the health of the republic.

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