Okay, I believe that I am now officially paranoid. Yeah, I've been suffering from the most horrible delusion, a fever dream of political horror. It starts with a country under a constant state of
fear, with leaders who stoke the worries of their anxious nation. As an election approaches these leaders warn that the amorphous, shadowy, enemies of the state are intent on
disrupting the process. How they know this is not clear, since they openly admit they have no concrete evidence to support their claim. Some weeks later, in a brilliant example of circular logic, they
announce that they are exploring ways to delay the election in order to prevent the election from being disrupted.
Of course, shortly before the election, there
is an incident, perhaps not a full-blown attack, but at the very least the revelation of a purported "large scale attack". In the heat of the ensuing hysteria, the National Guard is mobilized to guard polling places. Citizens must present their papers to gain access to polls, polls that are now
paper-less electronic devices, with no worrisome paper trails. At any time during the process, it can be paused for national security reasons, to be picked up at some later, "safer" date. And, at the end of this long, complicated process, a confused and uncertain electorate is ready to accept the results of the election, no matter how tainted they may be.
At this point in the maddening machinations of my twisted psyche, I come to my senses, secure in the fact that this could not really happen. This plot would be surely be unraveled by our
unbiased,
independent media. Our engaged, intelligent
electorate would see through such a transparent coup attempt, and would never stand for it. The military would never be complicit in such a subversion of the constitution. Besides, I think, why would they go to all that trouble? All they really have to do is have the Pakistanis produce OBL sometime in late
October, and they'll coast right in. Of course, it's paranoid to think that they already have him in custody, and are waiting for the right moment to make it known. Isn't it?
