Third World Politics

Third world elections all have a certain similarity when an unexpected candidate wins. (or seems like he might win) There are immediately accusations of fraud backed up by accusations of nefarious plots by outsiders. These nefarious outsiders usually are accused of providing money to the unexpected winner, of manipulating the vote, of suborning the correct order of things. The unexpected winner is denounced as unsuitable to serve, or as ineligible to run. He is often threatened by the political establishment. Calls are made for his arrest, every possible flaw; real or imagined are attributed to him. Public demands are made that the election be annulled due to its obvious irregularity. Examples of this abound, both Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced similar events recently, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Thailand, Sri Lanka, there are too many to cite.
And it just happened again. Just to the east of me in South Carolina. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so stupidly sad. Now SC has always been a step off politically. They do things there with regularity that puts the Chicago organization to shame. But this past election I really thought the Republicans had the stupidity award locked up. I mean how often do you get advisors and consultants to one candidate declaring that they themselves had personally had affairs with other candidates? Let alone get elected state officials refer to candidates of their own party with racial slurs? It was sheer political slapstick at its finest.

But the Democrats had a surprise waiting. Namely Alvin Greene, an unemployed veteran who filed as a candidate but didn’t buy a single ad, had no staff, just a name on the ballot, (and according to him an active walk around and introduce himself door to door effort). So what did Alvin do? He won. Lord the conniptions are being thrown all over SC. And everything I describe in that first paragraph has already happened. A senior Democratic congressman says he can smell elephant dung all over Mr. Greene’s win. The loser has already declared that:
A. Mr. Greene illegally entered the race because if he was unemployed he couldn’t have come up with the 10K it costs to file.
B. The Republicans put him up to it to protect Jim deMint.
C. The Republicans hacked into the voting machines so that when his name was pushed Mr. Greene got the vote.
D. That Mr. Greene is a criminal and should be disqualified. (Mr. Greene was arrested on an obscenity charge but has not been indicted, let alone convicted.)
E. That Mr. Greene should be arrested because when he was arrested before he was represented by a Public Defender and if he had 10K to enter the race for the Senate he obviously could afford a lawyer. (10K won’t go far in lawyer hiring)
F. That Mr. Greene should be disqualified because he won’t admit where he got the money to enter the race. (Greene says he had it saved from his time in Iraq. I came home with more than that in the bank; I just used mine on a down payment on a house instead of a run at the Senate.)


Wow. At least he hasn’t accused him of miscegenation, being a raghead, or a non-Christian. (the Republicans can keep those tricks)

I don’t suppose it ever crossed these peoples minds that perhaps, just perhaps, the voters of South Carolina sort of en masse decided to cast a protest vote against factory produced, vetted, prepped, coached, coddled, on point, in line smarmy politics as usual candidates? No, en masse is the wrong way to describe it; they each decided to do it individually. Each of them convinced that their one vote wouldn’t matter, that this one time they just wouldn’t vote for the least bad politician, they would just vote for the non politician. And it seems like LOTS of people felt the same way.

Now the big question is, what is going to happen?

Personally, I think the Dems should back off and let him go for it. He has enough of a presence now that people will vote for him. Perhaps just as a protest but still, it is a vote and he is a Democrat. And let’s face it Jim DeMint, once you get outside the right wing Republican fanatics is damaged goods. Roll the dice and go for it guys.

If I lived in SC I’d be printing my own Vote Greene sign and posting it in my yard.