Traditional community life is
nearly non-existent in the modern United States, the natural effect of the
venomous ideologies that have been imbibed in copious quantities over the
decades by both Left and Right, progressives and conservatives. Voting days are one of the few remaining
vestiges of those earlier times, one of the few communal gatherings left to us
– when folks at the polling places might run into old neighbors or friends and
catch up with one another, or meet new people and strike up a conversation
while waiting in line to vote.
It was with pleasant thoughts
like these that I set out to the polling station to cast my ballot during
Louisiana’s early voting season. The
building in which the polling station itself is located is rather new, a health
clinic surrounded by some nice greenery and built in an architectural style
that is reminiscent of Dixie’s antebellum Greco-Roman designs, thankfully
eschewing the ugly brutalism of many modern buildings. But the dark clouds would soon overshadow all
this sunniness.
In 2020, early voting was a
madhouse. It took the better part of an
hour to be able to reach the actual voting machine. This year there was no line. So I happily stepped into the room prepared
for the election occasion. Things
quickly went downhill. There were at
least three big burly police officers in the room, all decked out in formidable
gear. I tried to greet the one who
approached me with a smile and a ‘How are you doin’?’, but he cut me off,
giving me a gruff order to move on up to the table.
This I did. Once again, I tried to engage the person I
was directed toward, a rotund, graying woman, with pleasantries.
‘Driver’s license?’, I asked
with a smile – which was met with a sour scowl and a nod.
She handed me back my
license, and, wasting no time at all, the Amazonian police woman to my left
(who thankfully had retained some of her natural femininity despite her very
unfeminine career choice) asked me to move down to the next woman seated at the
table, who kept the book we had to sign to verify our identity and to show that
we had voted. It is worth noting that
there was only one other woman behind me at the time in the line, and there
were two other workers at the other end of the table who were available to tend
to her and any others. There was no
reason for this sort of hurried hustling of us along.
Ah well, at the least the
lady with the book, a wiry, older, Oriental woman wearing a face mask, exuded
some joyfulness when I approached to sign.
With the key card in hand
given me by the scowling woman, which was necessary to activate the voting
machine, another big barking police man directed me in how to use the voting
machine. The deed done, I was swept toward
the exit by the same fellow, to whom I gave the precious card.
What a travesty. No warmth.
No pauses for conversations. Just
a cold, efficient, businesslike transaction.
Very Yankee.
Traditionally, elections in
the South were festive, mirthful occasions.
Southern folklore is full of colorful stories about them. Local and State elections still retain some
of this flavor, but it is all but gone in federal elections. The latter are now mostly grim, angry,
loveless affairs.
And worse still, with the
militarized police presence, very Soviet/Stalinist. ‘Well done comrade. You have executed your most important duty as
a citizen. With your vote, you have
strengthened the People’s Republic of America.’
. . .
The rest is at https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/the-sovietization-of-federal-elections/.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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