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Edited on Sun Aug-26-07 06:00 PM by Peace Patriot
This IS the problem. Fascist coup, October 2002, in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution (IWR), and closely related to it: the "Help America Vote Act," which fast-tracked highly non-transparent, insecure and insider hackable electronic voting systems, all over the country, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, in time for the 2004 election. The IWR guaranteed unjust war. HAVA provided the means to shove that war down the throats of the American people.
"Trade secret" vote counting has many other uses as well--among them, to shape a so-called 'Democratic' Congress (with 30-40 "Blue Dogs"--traitor Democrats) that would ESCALATE the war, and give Bush and Cheney another $100 billion to keep killing Iraqis until they sign over their oil rights, to prevent impeachment or any accountability for unjust war, torture, spying, shredding the Constitution or any crime our Corporate Rulers want to commit, and to consolidate all the enormous war profiteer and global corporate predator gains under Bush, in prep for more of the same under Hillary, plus a military Draft.
"Trade secret" vote counting is not the only thing wrong with our election system, but it is the democracy-killer. It makes change impossible. We can out-fundraise, out-organize and out-vote the fascists, but with this "thumb on the scales" for Bushites, warmongers and corporatists, that they can now place without detection, we can never gain any traction, on a national basis, for reform, and we can never elect a true representative of the people as president, nor a Congress that reflects majority American opinion. 70% of the people now opposed to the Iraq War (up from 56% just before the war); we vote, and Congress does the opposite. Do the math.
So, how do we throw these election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor'? I don't mean it literally. Wouldn't want to pollute that ikon of the Old Republic. We have to do it locally--in county and state jurisdictions, where ordinary people still have some influence. Instead of picketing your congress creep or Bush, you should be picketing your county registrar down the street, and putting max pressure on county and state officials to count the votes in a way that everyone can see and understand.
Two basic demands: 1) a ballot for every vote; 2) count all the votes and post the results BEFORE any electronics are involved.
This campaign to restore our right to vote may be long, difficult and complicated (so many venues, so many different voting systems), or it may snowball and happen quickly, as some movements do, when they reach critical mass. I mean, "trade secret" vote counting is so unamerican, so undemocratic and so wrong, and it's such a no-brainer that we have to get rid of it, that most people (if they knew) would support a return to transparent vote counting. (A Zogby poll put it at 92%--a huge constituency for visible vote counting.) I do see signs of it snowballing--most recently in California but in other states as well. I think we have a "window of opportunity" to restore transparent vote counting, but I fear that it is not that big of a window, maybe through 2012--and we'll likely have to endure some more bad shit before we get it done (war on Iran, military conscription, more economic hardship on top of more impacts from global warming).
But once the American people are able to express their will, in real elections, the reform of this government is going to make our heads spin. Because the American people are PISSED OFF. The great majority have all along been peace-minded and justice-minded and progressive (no matter what the war profiteering corporate news monopolies have been telling you--to demoralize you). And it has taken unprecedented fascist ingenuity to oppress and disenfranchise them. But once Americans get their dander up--and figure out what's been done to them--knowledge that is spreading like wildfire (especially re: the vote counting)--LOOK OUT! There has never been a more creative, hard-working, can-do population committed to progressive ideals than the American people--a product of our history of revolutionary movements (independence, anti-slavery, women's rights, labor rights, anti-robber baron, pro-socialism (FDR-the New Deal), pro-UN (world peace; no more world wars), pro-human rights, anti-segregation, pro-civil rights, anti-Vietnam war, and the environmental movement), our multiculturalism (variety is good--new ideas, new DNA always coming in), and our combined, collective intelligence (putting men on the moon, putting Hubble in the sky, giving older people artificial hips that work better than the real ones, etc., etc.).
That's why the global corporate predators who are running both political parties took away our right to vote. THEY'RE AFRAID OF US!
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