The 2020 Election is Not Really Taking Place
A (Very Brief) Ode to Baudrillard. Any Why the Media Cares so Much About "Democracy".
“The media represents [a] world that is more real than [the] reality that we can experience. People lose the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. They also begin to engage with the fantasy without realizing what it really is.
They seek happiness and fulfillment through the simulacra of reality, e.g. media and avoid the contact/interaction with the real world.”
-Jean Baudrillard (Simulacra and Simulacrum)
Yes, yes, I know. You filled out a ballot. You waited in line at a polling station. “What do you mean the election is not happening????? Are you stupid??” The answer to that second question is still up for debate, but the title of this piece is not meant to entail that no one actually cast votes. They did. Rather, I stole the style of this title from Baudrillard’s piece “The Gulf War is not really taking place” because, like Baudrillard, I want to argue that the way the events of this election have been portrayed is so radically disconnected from how elections work that one can scarcely refer to this process as an election.
I’m not here to give you a lecture on how elections work, so the briefest of crash courses on the relevant part of the electoral college:
Prior to the election, slates of electors representing the Democrat and Republican candidates are presented to the legislatures of each state.
Each state legislature must vote to send a set of those electors to cast their votes in the Electoral College. (Note: Electors are usually pledged to vote for “their” candidate, but may vote for another. This is called a “faithless” elector.)
State legislatures in the modern era typically use the outcome of the popular vote within their state to decide which slate of electors gets sent to the Electoral College. (Note: The Supreme Court in Bush v Gore left open that there is no constitutionally guaranteed right to vote in a presidential election)
Okay, you’re caught up to speed.
So why didn’t the 2020 election really take place?
Rule Change Limbo
In the months prior to the election, a rapid set of rule changes occuring nationally and in different states led to widespread confusion.
Even now, it isn’t clear when election day(s) really ended. Do we accept ballots post marked before November 3rd even if they get there by November 10th? Do we keep them separate? How does anything work? Can we even say the election actually happened?
“Electoral votes for me, but not for thee”
The media’s actions during official election night were insane. Almost instantaneously calling disputed states for Biden (*cough cough* Arizona *cough cough*) while in most of the states Trump was leading, either the calls came in very late, or they just literally…stopped…counting.
“It’s past my bedtime. No more ballot counting.”
To call the failure to properly prepare and follow through with an election in one of the richest countries on the planet bad is….well….a severe understatement. We’re talking banana republic territory. The election simply…stopped. The counters went home (or, allegedly, claimed to go home before counting ballots in secret). In fact, in many parts of the country, we haven’t finished counting after EIGHT DAYS. “Richest country in the world” lol.
The End of Democracy is Not the End of America
There is this absolutely absurd claim that “disregarding democracy” would somehow threaten the core values of America. It’s odd since democracy was never a core value of America to begin with. There is no constitutional right to democratic presidential elections. So why such a push? Well…
The Real “Election”: Constitution vs Blue Empire
Ultimately, this election can best be described as a c**p, not by Trump against the people, but rather by the Media/Tech/NGO apparatus against the Constitution. Aligned with their Wall Street funding and Academia manpower, this Blue Empire is attempting to seize control by replacing the electoral process with one where they determine reality and who the most powerful man in the world is.
Sometimes, the mask slips. Voting took place. But the election? The supposedly democratic selection of our next leader? No. The Media made the decision, Tech enforced it, NGOs spread the word, and Wall Street rallied. This can barely be described as an election.
In my last piece, I explained how, at a national level, “democracy” becomes nothing more than a mechanism for legitimizing elite interests and playing out intra-elite conflicts. Elites propagandize the people through media to support the elite’s desired ends.
The reason why the Media and Tech are so adamant about defending “democracy” is because “democracy” is the system in which they possess the most power. It is the system where they can propagandize the people however they want, legitimizing their own interests infinitely.
Undermining “democracy” is just undermining the Media/Tech/NGO apparatus. And vice versa in the eyes of the oversocialized. Those individuals who have become so ensnared in the symbols and signs of the Media that they are completely detached from reality. In their minds, words and thoughts are literally equal to violence. So invested in the Media narratives as being TRUTH that they have convinced themselves that a stray joke is equivalent to actually murdering someone. The “Trump as Hitler 2” cult is as deranged as the most insane MAGA follower bordering on “Trump is Christ 2”.
Fundamentally, when Nixon claimed that the Press was the enemy of the people, he meant the Press. Not journalism writ large. Journalism, broadly speaking, is useful and important. But the Press? They are as much an institution as anything else, with their own goals and interests. And they have found the perfect alliance (Tech/NGO/Academia/Wall Street) and rhetoric (“democracy”) to propagandize their message effectively to the People.
The 2020 Election is Not Really Taking Place.
AJAB.
RIP Baudrillard.