Thinkin’bout Stuff

I’ve been thinking about the apparent increase in deliberate voter registration fraud and wondering what changed, what is different today that might be contributing to folks justifying, in their minds, a concerted effort to illegally sway the election in 2008.

Then it occurred to me: The OJ Effect.

Only this time, although there may be a racial component, the genesis of the effect was the “stolen elections” of 2000 and 2004.

I believe most people try to do the right things for the right reasons.  But when a group, whether defined by race, gender or ideology, believes they have been wronged over a period of time, true or not, pressure to do the wrong thing for the “right reasons” will increase.

The justification for doing the wrong thing is reinforced by the us-vs-them mentality that is fueled by the echo chamber of the blogosphere.  Essentially, “if we don’t do something they will steal the election again”… I’m sure we’ve all heard that at least once this election cycle.

In this case, the “right reason” is to combat the evil Republican machine that stole two elections that were clear slam-dunks for the Democrats.  How can it be that a Republican like George Bush got elected … twice?!  Something really stinks here.  We can’t let them steal another election from us.  We need to take our country back.

Sound familiar? 

I often wonder: take our country back from whom?

As illogical as that sounds to folks outside the group, inside the group it makes total sense.  So much sense, in fact, there are actually sub-groups within these groups who are convinced… convinced that George Bush was behind 9/11.

If you believe that, if you believe elections have been stolen from you, if you believe you have been wronged and that you are doing the right thing for the sake of the country you love… then why not fight fire with fire… why not even the playing field…

Why not ensure your team has more players even if you need to cheat a little bit.

After all, it’s the right thing to do for the right reason … all it takes is a bit of adjusting in our perception of right and wrong.

 

Update: A post over at Patriot Room dovetails somewhat with this post.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 10:09 am and is filed under Culture War, Election 2008, Media, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.