If Only They Could All Vote

If Only They Could All Vote

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The outcome of the presidential race — as well as the resolution of the economic crisis — will have major implications around the world. So the Economist magazine has decided to poll the world, country-by-country, to try to get a sense of where the globe stands on the US presidential contest.

Using a nifty new online tool that goes so far as to redraw the electoral map, all 195 of the world’s countries (including the US) are given a say in the election’s outcome. As in America, each country has been allocated a minimum of three electoral-college votes with extra votes provided in proportion to population size. With over 6.5 billion people enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes.

The results to date are somewhat astonishing – Obama is leading McCain by a landslide of 8,192 electoral votes to 3! The only country in the world voting for McCain is Andorra! If only Economist readers ruled the world! Seriously though, it is interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama. Check out the map and cast your vote. Voting in the Global Electoral College closes at midnight on November 1st.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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