Putting a Republican in the White House Would Be Like Electing a Protestant Pope

Of course, it might be interesting to have a Protestant pope once in a while, just to shake things up.

Visualising US Democracy

...look on the bright side. Your poor guy didn't get elected. You would have felt like a big winner, but putting a Republican in the White House is like electing a Protestant pope. An even bigger joke. A joke of such stupendous magnitude that perhaps it's not even funny at all. _Unqualified Reservations

Look at the 3D US election map above, and imagine how easy it would be to game an election, if you controlled most of the big city voting precincts. For most honest, hard-working people, it is difficult to imagine the machinations which ambitious politicians and their followers will resort to, with $trillions of other people's money on the line.

Here is one poll observer's experience:

I arrived at the polling place at approximately 5:40 a.m. I went into the polling place and showed my credentials to the Chief who showed me where to sit behind the poll workers who would be checking voters in to receive a voting certificate. All of the poll workers were either African American or Hispanic, with the only Caucasians being the Project ORCA watchers. The voters waited in a long line that went outside the building at all times during the day. At one point, probably around 11:00 a.m., I noted that the line was about 300 people long. The line did not break at any time during the day, and there was no time to take a break during the entire day from 6:00 a.m. until the final person voted at close to 8:00 p.m.

Throughout the day, I took note of many irregularities besides the abnormally long lines. The poll workers who regularly work the elections said that they had never seen turnout like what was present. I believe the lead worker said about three times as many people as usual turned out that day to vote and that it is usually a quiet, slow precinct. There were three parts to the voting process. First the voter waited in line to get to the point where I was standing and watching, which was the voter check in, where ID was checked and verified and voting certificates were given out to qualified voters. After receiving a voting card, the voters then stood in line to cast their votes at one of five voting machines. After voting, the voters stood in line to turn in their voting card. Each phase of the line was long and the lines all snaked around at all times.

I was only able to observe the check in phase. As people approached the station of four poll workers who were checking voters in, the voters presented one of the required forms of ID to the poll worker. The poll worker then stated the voter’s name, found them on the database, and then asked for the voter to state his/her name and address. Many, many people were unable to state their names and addresses without assistance. Many, many people said the name was incorrect on their ID due to them getting married or divorced. Many, many people said that the address on their IDs were incorrect due to them having moved recently. Many could not state either the address on their ID or their current address. Many, many people could not speak English and could not follow the directions of “state your name and address.” On the app from which I was checking names, the voter’s name and age appeared. Many, many times, I did not believe that the voter was the age stated on the app. Many, many times, when I went to check off the voter as having voted, the voter was already checked off as having voted. Several times, I would swear that I saw the same person voting twice or heard the same name voting twice, when the app stated that only one voter in the precinct had the stated name. Many times I saw a person who looked Hispanic answer to a name that he or she could barely pronounce that was obviously representative of some other ethnicity, such as Asian or Middle Eastern.

About half of the time that a person had a name or address conflict, that person was sent to the chief to have his/her credentials validated. Each time, that person was allowed to vote, as I saw no provisional ballots recorded throughout the day. About half of the time the person was allowed to verbally correct his/her name or address and was sent to the next phase of the line without having to go to the chief to be approved. I believe a good 10 to 15% of those who voted had questionable ID and qualifications. At one point in the day, an announcement was made that a complaint had been called in to the Board of Elections that handicapped people were not being allowed into the building to vote. The chief made this announcement and stated that it was an untrue allegation. I did not see any handicapped people going through the voting line. [...]

I believe that most people do not have three hours to wait in line to vote, and it is strange that all of these people with fishy IDs had hours to stand in line and vote. I found numerous blue Democrat ticket sheets showing people how to vote strewn around the polling place. With the lines being long and me not being able to talk to voters as a poll watcher, I had no recourse to accuse suspicious individuals of not being who their ID said they were. I did call to the Romney headquarters and report my suspicions several times, but I do not know what they could have done about the situation, as I could not pull suspicious people out of line. _Mencius Moldbug

And no, Romney's people could have done absolutely nothing about the very likely high level, organised fraud taking place across the country in large city precincts, almost exclusively controlled by Democratic Party functionaries and associates.

All of which leads to a slowly dawning recognition in the minds of the un-connected outsider majority: We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto. We are in Chicago. And in Chicago, it is the Outfit that calls the shots, whatever it takes.

For outsiders -- for those unwilling to check their ability to reason independently at the door -- we are entering a new and somewhat dystopian age. Some are referring to it as "The Dark Enlightenment." This new form of enlightenment is in part a recognition that democracy is inevitably gamed by the smart players, who develop more and more effective ways to wrest power and control over assets and institutions from individuals and private interests.

The Dark Enlightenment involves an understanding that in a world where powerful groups rove in wolf packs, it is not safe to be a sheep grazing in an open pasture, without protection that you can count on. It involves an understanding of the broad and multi-facedted inequality of human individuals and breeding groups. It involves an instinctive mistrust of grand utopian ideals and movements.

More on the Dark Enlightenment from Dennis Mangan

One possible long range vector of the Dark Enlightenment

Full "Dark Enlightenment" series of essays by Nick Land

Another look at the Dark Enlightenment by Jim Donald

All 10 Nick Land Dark Enlightenment essays conveniently presented on one page for easy printout or download.