Most people have no idea what government is about. As Bill Bonner notes, they think it is a benign institution, designed to make life better for everyone. “The government is all of us,” said Hillary Clinton, talking her book. This myth helps keep the voters and the taxpayers in line.
Some governments, desperate to get more “buy in” from the public, even insist eligible voters go to the polls – or face penalties.
Other countries, such as the US, merely excite the voters with dreams of avarice and threats of sanctions. One group votes because it hopes to score more of another group’s money. The other group votes to protect itself.
Among “get out the vote” campaigns, Denmark’s recent cartoon for the European parliamentary elections (by all accounts a snooze-fest) must set a new milestone in the history of democratic fraud and absurdity.
As The Financial Times reports:
“The 90-second video features “Voteman,“ a muscleman first seen in bed with five naked women who then proceeds to beat up young people to force them to vote. He then decapitates one man, interrupts a couple having sex to throw them out of a window, and uses a dolphin to help chuck people into voting booths.”
The Danish parliament withdrew the video on Tuesday.
Politicians want you to vote so they can claim to represent you. Then they do what they want. Like any other organization, government promotes the goals of those who control it. In that sense, it is no different from the Kiwanis International club or the electric power company. Every business, club or charitable institution is meant to do something – and always and everywhere it does what the people running it want done.