[extropy-chat] Re: Politics: US talks of suspending elections

[Gregory Propf]

Harvey Newstrom wrote:

> Samantha Atkins writes:
>
>> I am surprised this topic hasn't already come up here.   The US press 
>> is full of stories about possibly suspending US presidential 
>> elections if there is significant terrorism.   There are subtexts 
>> that they may be suspended even if there is a "credible threat of 
>> terrorism".
>
>
> What bothers me is that these people keep pointing to the Spanish 
> elections as an example of what they want to avoid.  The Spanish 
> elections were not interrupted.  They took place as planned.  However, 
> there were terrorist attacks just before the election.  The populace 
> voted out the pro-war factions and voted in the anti-war factions.  
> Pro-war conservatives claim that the terrorists scared the public into 
> voting against the war.  Anti-war liberals claim the populace voted 
> the way they wanted.
> This is what they want to avoid here.  If they feel like George Bush 
> is going to be voted out of office because a large section of the 
> electorate blames him for terrorism, they want the option to postpone 
> the election until that groundswell has gone away.  Pay careful 
> attention to the words when they say "cancel" the election rather than 
> "retry" or "recover" the election.


This is what to look for.  My guess is that in coming months the right 
wing radio machine will start yakking about the "the Spanish case" or 
something like that.  They will be prepping their followers for a 
postponement if there is a terrorist incident.