AMERICANS FORGETTING HOW TO COUNT TO DEMOCRACY

April 18 2009

Saint Paul, MN – America certainly didn’t invent Democracy, but as the 20th century evolved The United States certainly became the most active purveyor of the form of governance. From the battle against Communists the world over, to nearly all wars that they participated in being done in its name, Democracy has almost become the
very reason for the reason for the nation to exist. Even through tests of her own democratic system, America has maintained her status as the pre-eminent example of democracy in action. That focus though has, to many minds taking emphasis away from the basics, such as addition.

Such is the ongoing saga in Minnesota where the debate between Al Franken and Norm Coleman continues five months after every other senate race had finished. Election officials declared Franken the winner after an extensive recount, but Coleman, the original winner, is contesting the results claiming that several ballots have been unfairly discarded. Many though see this as just another example of the failure of the American democratic system to focus on the basics of mathematics.

“Like Democracy, Mathematics was revolutionized by the Greeks. The mantle of both of those systems has been carried by empire after
empire but it seems The United States has forgotten that the two by necessity go hand in hand. Dictatorships don’t require addition or subtraction, but the process is fundamental to the way the democratic system works,” said Scrape TV Historical analyst Lars Luger. “We are not talking about geometry or calculus; we are talking about basic arithmetic which seems to be something that is continuing to elude the American political system.”

The last major arithmetical challenge for the United
States was the 2000 election contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Recounts in Florida and other states ultimately decided the results of that election after a great deal of head scratching and reportedly removal of shoes. While not nearly as important an election, many see the Minnesota senate race as one more example of how far Americans have fallen in basic math skills.

“The 20th century was the century of the Unite States. The rise of power that they enjoyed, particularly through the latter half of the century, was unlike anything we have seen in modern times. What we are seeing now is that that growth caused a kind of blindness to the basics and things like math just fell
away in favour of promoting democracy around the world. Perhaps that’s part of the reason those efforts have failed so frequently, that they showed people how to vote, but not how to count those votes,” continued Luger. “In other countries with fledgling democracies you see this over and over again. People try to vote multiple times, counters completely disregard votes presumably because they can’t count that high, and that has become a real serious threat to the advance of democracy going forward.
Maybe the Communists won after all, they simply drew the Americans attention away from classrooms.”

While it’s likely the debate over the Minnesota senate race is far from over, the shocking display of math illiteracy has provoked many to support President Obama’s call for an overhaul of the education system so that future generations will not have to suffer recount after recount.

“The seeds for the current crisis were sown decades ago and democracy will have to suffer through this for a little while to come, but if education standards are beefed up now at least future generations will be well prepared to count without removing their shoes,” continued Luger. “But they do need to get on this. This isn’t something that will just fix itself and if they don’t do something while some basic math skills are still present, American democracy could be lost forever. It’s difficult to count money to give to schools when you don’t know how to count.”

American officials are reportedly investigating whether or not Chinese made calculators are contributing to counting problem.

Edward Bastil, Political Correspondent

NEWS >POLITICS > AMERICANS FORGETTING HOW TO COUNT FOR DEMOCRACY