================================================================== Stuck In Traffic "Current Events, Cultural Phenomena, True Stories" Issue #35 - November, 2000 Contents: Current Events: Vote Swapping For Fun And Profit The internet throws its usual monkey wrench into the electoral process. Current Events: You Read It Here First My call on the Presidential Election True Story: Observations From A Train Comparing the differences between flying, driving, and train riding Cultural Phenomena: Movie Review: Nurse Betty =================================== Current Events Vote Swapping For Fun And Profit Just when you thought there was nothing new that could be said of an election campaign, along comes the Internet to throw its usual monkey wrench into things. Seems a canny leftist was frustrated at his voting prospects for the election. Faced with the unpleasant choice of casting a principled vote for the let-most leaning candidate (Nader) and a power grabbing vote for the popular candidate who was just left-of-center, he found a way to have his cake and eat it too. It's called vote-swapping. Suppose you are a Nader leaning leftist in a state where the race between Bush and Gore is very close. What you do is find a Gore supporter in a state where Gore has a comfortable lead in that state's race. Then the two of you come to an agreement. You pledge your vote to Gore, and your vote swapping partner pledges a vote for Nader. It's a win-win situation. The Gore supporter is, in effect, transferring his vote from a state where his vote for Gore will not make much of a difference to a state where every vote counts. The idea beng that it increases Gore's chances of winning in the state with the close race while not increasing the risk for Gore to lose the election by very much. The benefit to the Nader campaign is less clear, but nonetheless important in the long run. If Nader gets a certain percentage of the popular vote, he qualifies for Federal matching funds. Not too many people know about this little pork-barrel give-away for the politician class, but it's heavily used. Basically, it's a tax-payer subsidy to election campaigns for the major party candidates while excluding the same benefits from smaller parties. So if Nader gets enoug votes to qualify for matching funds, the Green Party gets a nice fat check from the government which it can plow into future campaigns. The original web site for finding a vote swapping partner was voteswapper.com. But the idea quickly spread to other web sites as well. The Attorneys General in several states ave declared the activity illegal, though it's far from clear whether such claims would hold up in court. The Presidential Candidates have all disavowed association with the practice. Editorialists are having a field day. Of course these vote-swapping arrangements are not legally binding contracts. No one actually knows who you vote for once you enter the voting booth. So there's no enforcement mechanism possible. Indeed, there are no doubt thousands of Republicans flocking to these web sites pledging to vote for Gore so that Nader supporters will continue to vote for Nader. Of course those Republicans can walk in to the voting booth and go ahead and vote for Bush and no one will be the wiser. Is vote-swapping such an evil practice? One thing's for certain, it violates the spirit of democracy. The idea behind a democratic form of government is that we vote our conscious, based on who we think the right person for the job is. Voting is not a power grabbing arrangement. When you vote for a candidate, you are not buying that candidate. You should not expect anything in return. Only people who think they are going to get something out of a candidate would use their vote to ensure that they've at least voted for the winner, even if it's not their favorite candidate. The real problem that these shenanigans highlight is the electoral college process. If the election were simply a popular vote among the entire U.S. population, then the vote-swapping arrangement would be moot. Perhaps in the days where politicians were still primarily responsible for representing a geographic region, the electoral college made sense. Perhaps back in the days before the states' power was removed in favor of a strong federal government, the electoral college made sense. But these days, every race is essentially a national race. We vote on politicians based not so much on their particular policies for the home state, but based on their positions relative to our favorite special interest or national issue. The real solution to the vote-swapping fiasco is to get rid of the outdated electoral college process. The other issue that the vote swapping fiasco highlights is the absurdity of Federal matching funds. There's no reason whatsoever to justify using taxpayer money to subsidize a federal election. And the main reason the leftist Nader supporters dreamed up this scheme is to help the green party cash in on the pork. Putting an end to Federal matching funds would remove one of the motivations for the money hungry power grab and maybe, just maybe, people could return to voting their conscience. ======================================= Current Events You Read It Here First Ooops. I realized too late that the time for election predicitions was the October issue, not the November issue. Oh well. Nonetheless, I’ll take a stab at an election prediction. It’s Thursday October 26th. I predict Al Gore will beat George Bush by 4 or 5% of the popular vote. I don’t follow it cloesly enough to be able to say whether he’ll win the necessary electoral college votes. But I believe Gore will win the popular vote. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen and I wouldn’t hazard a guess. I’m betting that fully half of the Nader support will evaporate on election day and swing to Gore. Too often, people of marginalized political views give up on making a principled statement and go for the power grab. ======================================= True Story Observations From A Train A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do something I had never done before. I took a train. Now, strictly speaking, it's not the first time I had ever been on a train. I had taken a train while on a vacation trip and I took a train once as a field trip in kindergarten. This time, I needed to get from my home in Cary to my parents' home in Charlotte so that I could rent a truck, load it up with some furniture I was inheriting from my parents, and drive it back to Cary. It turns out that it's a lot cheaper to rent a truck "one way" than it is to rent a truck "locally" and drive it that far. The train seemed like a good solution. I took the Amtrak "Carolinian" from Cary to Charlotte, where my parents picked me up. So this was the first time I ever took the train for no other purpose than practical transportation. I'm not prepared to claim that riding a train is better or worse than driving a car. It was more expensive, and took more time. But the debate on public transportation is much broader than that and it's a tired debate. People have their own opinions on the merits of public transportation and don't tend to be swayed by argument. What I found impressive about my train ride was just how different an experience it is. I have driven the route from Cary to Charlotte dozens of times over the years. And even though my train route covered essentially the same territory, I got a totally different view of the country side. I almost would not have believed it was the same state. Picking up the train was a relatively simple affair. The train stops; you get on. In theory you need a ticket. And if you don't have a ticket, then you at least need a "reservation code." But I was challenged for neither. I was just asked whether I wanted business class or coach and then I was directed to the right car. The Carolinian is a small Amtrak train. Only about 4 or 5 cars total. But it was pretty full. Nearly every seat was taken. Seats are not assigned, so people are free to move around and arrange them selves as they want. There are no seat belts on the train either. At least none that I could see. Certainly people were not using them. No one was yammering away about the importance of wearing seat belts ether. This was a very good thing. Made for a more relaxed trip. The Carolinian was reasonably clean, but it was obviously old and in a tedious state of repair. The seats, at least the ones I tried, weren't exactly comfortable. They were clean, but the cushions had obviously seen their better days. The reading lights above many of the seats did not work, There were electrical outlets along the walls, which I was hoping to use for my laptop computer, but none of the outlets worked. I did not see a lot of trash on the train, but thee was dirt and grime on the walls and windows. I got the feeling that there were people assigned to keeping the train clean and in good repair, but they were only doing the minimal job necessary to keep their boss of their back. But it was no big deal. I'm not the sort that gets bent out of shape over such things. But it was a sharp contrast to my experiences flying a plane. Compared to flying, the train is a much more casual, informal affair. As the train pulled out of the Cary station, I was excited by the novelty of the view. I recognized many of the streets we crossed, but it was amusing to see the intersections from the viewpoint of the train, rather than the car waiting for the train to pass. But the as we headed to Durham and on to Burlington, the novelty passed. The conductor passed through, taking our money and giving us tickets. I could not help but notice that his system of keeping track of people who have and have not paid isn't the least bit foolproof. He put ticket stubs above the seats when people paid. But since people were free to roam from seat to seat, someone could probably slip past the conductor as he made his way down the aisle and avid paying. I suspect that the conductor has done this for so many years that he can remember each rider's face and remember who has and has not paid. I find that pleasantly comforting. I'm not a "ticket holder" in his eyes, but a person with a face. Nice. At the risk of painting a picture with too broad a brush, I have to say that it's a different sort of people who ride the train. At least in America, trains are for people who have more time than money. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people who fly airplanes who, in general, are people for whom money is not much of an issue, but time is precious. Business men, wealthy folk, college students. But my fellow train riders, judging by their dress and manners, had little to no discretionary money. I didn't see much in the way of Designer Clothes, Brand Name Accessories, or expensive haircuts. Nor did people travel with much luggage. Most folks had just a small bag or two with them. Which is not to say the train passengers were slovenly or ragged. Nor were they impolite or rude. There was one fellow who had his earphone blaring into his ears so loudly that it was clearly bothering people who sat nearby (including me). But he was the exception, not the rule. For the most part people chatted quietly with each other. People were patient with each other as they got on and off the train and helped each other with their bags, etc. It was interesting to note the differences between train riders and plane riders. But I was most fascinated by the differences in the countryside. For one thing, the times have turned their back on the trains, literally. Most of the buildings you see from the train have their backs to the tracks. Unlike the interstate where everyone is facing the road. Occasionally you would see a very old house built from an era where trains were important and it faced the tracks, nut mostly everything faced away from the tracks. You see a lot of junk yards, trailer homes, and warehouses from the train. You see lots of produce too. More than once I saw a pick up truck filled with sweet potatoes driving along side of the tracks. . There are no billboards as you go down the tracks. Some would say this is an advantage. But out in the rural areas, at least in North Carolina, you could not see much of anything. You have this romantic ideal of watching the countryside flow by you as you scoot along the tracks. But on the Carolinian route, the vegetation in the rural areas comes right up the rail way easement and it flashes by in a blur. If you try to watch it too much, you get a head ache. . Occasionally the vegetation would clear and you could get a glimpse of the country side. And the impression you get is very rural. People tend to think that the interstate represents the state of development everywhere. But it's not. Most of the country is very rural and very natural and thinly developed. . You see lots of junkyards, chemical plants, abandoned grain silos, One distinct advantage to riding on the train is that you can use cell and mobile phones anytime you want. It seemed that my cell phone was never out of range of the tracks. I found that pleasant, even though I didn't actually use the phone while on my trip. Saw tobacco sheds along the way. It is true that you get to see much more life of small towns than I would have expected Even the back side of a small town is more interesting that driving down the interstate. Occasionally you'd go through a small town and get peeks at huge beautiful, frame houses, obviously built for a different era. You also got to see lots of shanty-shacks. I didn't get to see that many people, mostly because of the time of day I suspect. But I saw a few kids around. Let's just say these weren't Gap kids and leave it at that. Went by school that was holding pee wee football practice. I was surprised at how much was built up along the railroad tracks Even in the most rural parts of the state, there was almost always a road running parallel to the track. The perpendicular roads were often. just dirt roads though. Of course this is North Carolina, so I got to see more than my fair share of kudzu along the way. I saw a surprising amount of swampy standing water on the trip. Would not be surprised to see it at the eastern end of the state, but I was travelling from mid state to western end. so to see swamp like areas was strange. Saw some big plant nurseries along the way. But surprisingly did not see much crop land from the train. I guess the crop lands are not right up against the tracks but they are out there. The things I didn't see from the train were also interesting. No billboards trying to entice me to take the next exit for fast food and gas. No speed limit signs. No road construction signs. No mile markers. On the road everything is at a safe distance away. The interstate is wide and they don't let buildings come anywhere close to it. So in a way, the interstate feels emptier than the train route because on the train route, the things you see are much closer to you. Everything feels more immediate on a train. This surprised me. When you are driving a car you have to be constantly paying attention to what's going on around you, but you don't really get to observe much, so it's all kind of disconnected. Was riding the train better than driving? I can't say it was. The fact of the matter is, I'd take the speed in exchange for the inconvenience every time. But riding the train made me realize just how narrow our perceptions can get when we take the same route over and over again. That old adage about the "taking the long way home" is just as true today as it ever was. And everyone should do it every now and then. ======================================= Cultural Phenomena Movie Review: Nurse Betty *** 1/2 An amazingly original plot about a woman with not much going for her who lives for the daily episode of her favorite soap opera. But when she witnesses the brutal murder of her husband, she enters a fantasy world in which she is Nurse Betty and she hits the road for California, looking for her the handsome Doctor in her soap opera dream. Unfortunately, the same men who murdered her husband are now after her. Renée Zellweger plays Nurse Betty convincingly. You are totally engrossed by her post traumatic transformation. Morgan Freeman is less convincing as the professional hit man with delusions of his own to deal with. And Chris Rock, once again, plays the only character Chris Rock knows how to play, Chirs Rock. But the best part about the movie is the non-cliche' ending in which our faith in the strength of the human spirit is reaffirmed and the dangers of living a life of delusions are highlighted. I don't know why this movie was marketed as a comedy because it's a very human drama. ======================================= About Stuck In Traffic Stuck In Traffic is a monthly magazine dedicated to evaluating current events, examining cultural phenomena, and sharing true stories. Why "Stuck In Traffic"? Because getting stuck in traffic is good for you. It's an opportunity to think, ponder, and reflect on all things, from the personal to the global. As Robert Pirsig wrote in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, "Let's consider a reevaluation of the situation in which we assume that the stuckness now occurring, the zero of consciousness, isn't the worst of all possible situations, but the best possible situation you could be in. After all, it's exactly this stuckness that Zen Buddhists go to so much trouble to induce...." 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