Canceled Election. What would YOU be willing to do?

[Bonhomme Richard]

I've been thinking about this lately and am curious what you would be willing to do.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

1. What spurred the thinking?

If you don't mind me asking -- I tend to be a doomsayer and always be thinking of the worst case scenario. Especially since I live in the belly of the beast, just outside D.C.

[Bonhomme Richard]

9. I am not willing to put anything past this bunch.

Not to mention all this talk preparing us for an attack before the election. Limbaugh and hannity have already been putting out the trial balloon as to whether elections should be canceled if there was another attack.
I am convinced they are fascist.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

15. Glad I'm not the only one

I really think these people will stop at nothing to get what they want -- whether it's utter economic domination of the wealthy by dispensing with the few egalitarian elements of government or a fundamentalist theocracy, I'm not sure.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elfwitch]

2. I'd bail...

I'm already fed up with the sorry state of affairs that this country has become. I don't think the election (Kerry winning) will fix the religious zealotry problems. I don't think the election (Kerry winning) will fix the class war problems. I don't think the election (Kerry winning) will fix the environmental problems. I don't think the election (Kerry winning) will fix the corporate greed problems. I don't think the election (Kerry winning) will fix the social welfare problems.

I think we are seeing the beginning of the end for our once great Republic. The wealthy own too much and have too large a vested interest to let a little thing like an election stop them.

I've been planning to leave for a long time. If the election gets canceled or if Chimpy squeaks another one out... I'm outta here.

[Nay]

41. I'm right behind you, Elfwitch. Got the Canadian thing going

already, I know I am much more in tune with Canadians than I ever was with Americans.

[sniffa]

3. rise up

[On the Road]

4. Cancelled Elections = Armed Revolt

No two ways about it. Declaration of Independence redux.

[betty_booop]

10. no doubt about it

but thankfully...i don't think they'll cancel elections, even with a catastrophic attack (i believe that'd HELP bush win the election)

[On the Road]

24. I Don't Think the Elections will be Cancelled, Either

and I'm not planning on buying a gun or anything. But just in case, I think it would be a pretty clear decision.

Just trying to return to the principles of the Declaration: "...but when a long train of abuses and usurpations...evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

[newyawker99]

49. Hi betty_booop!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Lori Price CLG]

22. Exactamundo.

I am not sitting behind a computer for *another* four years to fight an illegitimate regime. We would need to overthrow the illegal Bush junta.
-Lori

[LifeDuringWartime]

38. you wouldn't be able to use the computer for that

DRM and policeware would prevent it

[VelmaD]

5. I would start with civil disobedience, but...

when and if it comes to it I will be armed and on the barricades.

[nickinSTL]

6. Yup

of course, we've been thinking about moving the heck out if Bush steals the election (or even if he wins)

[DoNotRefill]

7. let's just hope when that happens...

you can still get guns.

[truthspeaker]

8. all the more reason to get them now

I answered civil disobedience, but I'll clean my guns first.

[bobbieinok]

13. doesn't civil disobediance only work vs honorable opponent???

would civil disobediance have worked vs Stalin, Hitler??

as bad as Bull Conners of Birmingham AL was, he did not shoot the kids and adults

BUT if there had been no media coverage and he had known that the fed govt and the fed courts would support him and 'all necessary actions to restore order'.......??????

[Bonhomme Richard]

14. Good point

Civil disobedience hasn't seemed to work in China.
Then again it's "The whole worlds watching,The whole worlds watching" scenario.

[DoNotRefill]

33. Sheeiiiiit...The whole world's watching....

like that matters a ratfuck to Bush...

[rockymountaindem]

19. Civil disobedience did work one time against Hitler.

In 1943 when the Gestapo arrested about 4000 half-Jewish residents of Berlin, many of their gentile relatives stood outside Gestapo headquarters demanding to know why their loved ones had been arrested. They refused orders to dispurse, and the officers were unwilling to fire on a crowd of Germans in the street in broad daylight. After about a day the prisoners were released.

[Bonhomme Richard]

11. Interesting responses and...............

I'm beginning to feel better.
One thing I will not do is run. Nobody is driving me out of my own F*****g country.

[shockingelk]

21. If Bush's "dictator" quote ...

If Bush's "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator" quote was played in an ad, it may help guarantee that such a move wouldn't be taken unless necessary ...

Besides, I don't think we're worrying about something likely ... I'm more worried about Nader throwing a key state again ...

[PfcHammer]

12. lock 'n load

[MAlibdem]

16. Headin for the hills

Gotta find me a (liberal...haha, hopefully) militia to join.

[Renew Deal]

17. Time to arm the left.

I've got to work on that.

[Lori Price CLG]

20. We need 'armed revolt' as an option.

Check out:
Arming the Left: Is the time now? --by Charles Southwell
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_southwell_arming_the_left_is_the_time_now_102203.html

[SheilaT]

23. A month or two ago

a WP columnist, Jim Hoagland, wrote an article in which he seriously put forth the idea that it would be a good idea for the two political parties to discuss whether or not an election should even be held in November, given the seriousness of the world situation.

I can't find a link to his piece that's not behind the firewall of needing to register on the sites in question.


I've long suspected that the coming election will be stolen, one way or another. And if a terrorist incident isn't used to cancel elections -- as Betty Booop (hi there newbie!) pointed out they'd probably expect such a thing to work in their favor-- then if the results aren't the "re-election" of Bush, there will be some other way found to assure Bush stays in power. I just don't see the people in charge actually leaving quietly.

[Bertha Venation]

34. Is it this one?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61723-2004Mar15.html

Please register, if you haven't already, to read this. If this is the article you're referring to, I think you may have mis-read it.

Here are a couple of snips:

"There can be little doubt that the bombers had Spain's national elections in mind when they chose the timing of their atrocity. Madrid's 3/11 is a threat directed not only at Spain's admirable, hard-won democracy but also at all other free societies that dare to hold elections and let citizens choose.

"That threat cannot be ignored in the United States over the next eight months. The Bush and Kerry campaigns, the politicians running for other national offices and U.S. voters must adapt to the likelihood that terrorists will use violence to disrupt or influence national elections here this autumn."

~snip~

"In looking toward the Nov. 2 general election, Americans need to construct a defense against the terrorists' narrative as well as against airline hijackings or train bombings. The Madrid attacks show that modern societies are vulnerable politically as well as physically. Here are a few starting points for hardening the nation's politics as well as its reactors and ports against assault:

• < bullet one snipped >

• A national consensus on the importance of holding elections as scheduled -- even in the face of an event such as Sept. 11, 2001 -- should be formed now. The rule of law rather than the circumstantial judgment of leaders provides the essential stability of the American system."

~snip~

"George W. Bush and John F. Kerry have an obligation not to remain mired at the petty and tactical level to which their opening exchanges sank this month. . . . . Kerry and Bush must set the example for their aides -- and for their compatriots -- of being able to disagree on policies while projecting a sense of national unity and purpose that will not be held hostage by killers."

Mods, please let this stand even though it's more than four paragraphs.

SheilaT, if this isn't the column you're referring to, please find it and post a link. I'm registered at the Post and I'm sure others won't mind registering in order to read it. Thanks.

[SheilaT]

46. Yes, that's the one.

Around the time it came out I started a thread about it which because everything on this board moves so fast, not enough people saw. I very much expect the theme of "We don't need an election" to start gaining momentum by the end of summer, much like the theme of needing a draft is beginning to gain momentum.

It's the bullet point about a national consensus about the importance of holding elections that's particularly chilling.

[RummyTheDummy]

25. Two words

Molotov Cocktails.

[OneTwentyoNine]

26. My butt would be IN THE STREETS!!

I'd prostest till they threw my ass in a cell,then I'd protest some more.

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lori Price CLG]

32. That is great, supercrash!!

I am so sick of Democrats 'taking it' from this dictatorship... four more years of a stolen election is NOT acceptable. We must start by arming the Left.

Cheers,
-Lori Price

[Bertha Venation]

35. that sounds more like murder than revolt

I'm not behind that kind of action.

[ComerPerro]

28. Here is what scares me beyond belief: What would FReepers do?

Suppose this is Free Republic.

Here is the poll.

"Suppose the Democrats have the terrorists launch an attack a month or two before the election. Naturally, Bush would reluctantly have to cancel the election, because of the emergency and to make sure that the terrorists don't get what they want (President Hitlery Klintoon). What are you willing to do to protect President Bush and America?

Take to the streets
Get a gun
Do whatever it takes to put down liberal protesters
Punish liberals for their support of Democrats and terrorists

...

I mean, What in the world do you think these sycophantic Nazi shitheads would do to protect Bush's reign?

It gives me chills.

[Bonhomme Richard]

30. Can anybody say.................Civil War?

Not all that far fetched.

[Bertha Venation]

29. "It is the right of the people to alter or abolish it

We hold these truths to be self evident:
*that all men are created equal
*that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights
*that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness
*that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
*that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Whatever I have to do, no matter how it disrupts my life, even if I have to put my normal life on hold, I am willing to do anything -- including die -- to bring back gov't by the people in the scenario you describe.

edited to close html tag

[Bonhomme Richard]

31. Actually, repugs are Tories.

They would have been the tories during the revolution. The patriots were nothing but upstart intellectual elitist. The king (King George) knows whats best.
It was all about maintaining the Status Quo and tradition. Sound Familiar?

[mike1963]

36. I reserve the right to self-defense. And I have the means.

...

[jayfish]

37. "As The Palaces Burn"

The fiends have gagged a generation of pacified fools
Bound by our greed a nation enslaved as corporate tools.
Arise and race the legacy of their lies
To realize that this in itself is an ascension
Towards the day we revolt.

As the seeds you've cast away take hold
War will be born.
Rejoice, the age of the fall has begun
We'll dance as the palaces burn.

A shot gun blast into the face of deceit
You'll gain your just reward.
We'll not rest until the purge is complete
You will reap what you've sown.

My redemption lies in your demise.

In such a world as this does one dare to think for himself?
The paradox of power and peace will destroy itself
To know the truth and live in fear of no man.
To realize that this in itself is an ascension
Toward the day we revolt.

As the seeds you've cast away take hold
War will be born.
Rejoice, the age of the fall has begun
We'll dance as the palaces burn.
My redemption lies in your demise.
Rejoice, the age of the fall has begun.
We'll dance as the palaces burn.

Music And Lyrics by LAMB OF GOD

I think you can tell what my answer is. I will not allow my children to grow up under a dictatorship... period.

Jay

[yella_dawg]

39. I want a choice

with something about impalement.

[cmayer]

40. Let's try non-violence first.

I think there's nothing the f*head administration would like better than a few Molotov cocktails. It would justify martial law and polarize the middle against the "radicals." My guess is some "private contractor" would be the first to throw them.

Whereas a national strike that shut down every business and government office in the country might work wonders. Perhaps the firefighters would march at the head of the parade.

[NuttyFluffers]

42. leave the country and find a safe house for my family, friends

then once they are cared for i'm willing to go back and fight back in the build up to civil war. i would be so sad if that happens. it'd mean my future along with millions of others is forfeit; all that'd matter is keeping the world's largest military and weapons stockpile out of the hands of the fundamentalist theocracy coup d'etat

[carols]

43. "All of the above" is good except that would include "nothing"

And nothing is definitely not an option!
Carol

[Zookeeper]

44. I would not be willing to leave my country...

I would move my children out of the country to save them from dying in the current (or any future) insane war created by Bush and his war-profiteer cronies.

However, I would stay and fight against any attempt to overthrow the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and free elections. My ancestors helped found this nation and I am not surrendering it to fascistic Rethugs.

[G_j]

45. a few million people withholding taxes might also be effective n/t

[laruemtt]

47. i 'd leave - assuming

we'd be allowed to.........

[Gman]

48. I find it mind boggling that this is even being discussed by Bushco

This should be something that is not even up for debate yet Bushco has floated this idea.

They will cancel elections if there is a terrorist attack prior to the elections AND Bush is seriously behind in the polls.

The "first Tuesday after the first Monday in November" is not open for discussion or debate, it is unambiguously clear and immovably set in concrete.