Reply #26: I disagree that Americans are stupid. I think some are--a minority-- [View All]

[Peace Patriot]

but then some always have been. That is not the problem. The problem is the disempowerment, demoralization, and, above all, DISENFRANCHISEMENT of the great American progressive majority.

I've watched the issue polls for several years, and it's amazing what they show. There is huge disagreement with the Bush junta, way up in the 60% to 70% range, on every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic. The Iraq war (starting way back before the invasion--58% opposed--it's over 80% today). Torture. Social Security. The deficit. Women's rights. You name it. And this is not even to mention Bush's consistently miserable approval polls--so low before the election that Zogby said he couldn't win, and sinking like the Titanic afterward, to 38% or so all year--and many other stats, such as the Democratic blowout success, nearly 60/40, in new voter registration in 2004.

Yet we don't see this great progressive majority represented in anything like its true numbers in Washington DC, nor by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, who instead give a BIG TRUMPET to the rightwing minority to promulgate its views way out of proportion to its numbers. Even the corporate news monopoly polls indicate a 30% to 40% rightwing minority. Whose views do we hear/see 24/7?

Something is very, very wrong.

And I think it's very simple, in one respect--on the basic fundamental of transparent elections. 80% of the nation's votes were tabulated in 2004 by two rightwing Bushite corporations, using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls. Diebold, until last month, had a CEO who was a Bush/Cheney campaign chair, major donor and fundraiser ( a Bush "Pioneer"). ES&S is a spinoff of Diebold, initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson who also gave a million dollars to the far rightwing "Christian" Chalcedon Foundation (who, among other things, tout death for homosexuals). These corporations have an incestuous relationship. They are run by two brothers, Todd and Bob Urosevich.

These are the people who counted most of our votes behind a veil of secrecy.

Non-transparent elections are not elections. They are tyranny. And that's what we have.

But this tyranny does have some unique aspects to it, that need understanding. One of them is that many people feel attached to the war profiteering corporate news monopolies as if to an umbilical cord. They may even know that they are being lied to repeatedly and pervasively. But they somehow need this "line" to the nation. They think it's real, somehow. It creates the "nation" somehow. And that is the hook that is used to snare them, unconsciously, into believing, a) that progressive views are minority views, and b) that the rightwing is in the ascendancy, and it's hopeless to even think of changing that--with the members of the great progressive majority therefore feeling isolated and alone, and without a voice.

It's very insidious. I have someone close to me--a very smart person--and, after I explained the facts of our election system to her, here it what she said, "But the Democrats wouldn't let that happen, would they?"

She couldn't see (at first) that it wasn't a matter of whether or not the Democrats "WOULD let it happen." It is a matter of, they DID let it happen. It happened. It has been done--with hardly a peep out of them.

She needs to feel that SOMETHING is working right--in the face of the utter failure of every major political institution in our democracy, including American journalism, and the Democratic Party leadership.

I cannot call her stupid. She isn't. Nor is she egocentric or greedy. She's a caring person.

I think people like her--AND the great majority of Americans--feel very bewildered, also helpless, powerless, demoralized. They don't understand that the mechanism of our sovereignty as a people, our right to vote, has been stolen, along with the last three national elections (2004 mainly via electronics, with highly visible Ohio vote repression being an extra measure that was needed to overcome Kerry's win, which turned out to be bigger than the percentages that had to be pre-programmed into the central tabulators; and 2002 partly by electronics; and in both of these cases, House and Senate seats were switched as well.)

Once you grasp that our election system has literally been taken over by Bushite corporations, everything falls into place. How can Bush and Cheney do what they are doing? They are not beholden to us. They are beholden to Diebold and ES&S--to the most extreme rightwing tiny fascist elite. How can Congress not have impeached them for their egregious violations of the law and malfeasance? Congress is also, for the most part, not beholden to us any more. So they don't care what we think.

Thus, to my mind, election reform is the most obvious place to start turning things around. First, we restore our right to vote, THEN we address the godawful problems that the Bush junta has created for us and for our children and their children, probably to the end of the century.

Power over election systems still resides at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence. That's where we start. It's a difficult, multi-jurisdictional, long term struggle--much like the struggle of black citizens for civil rights and the right to vote, and similar also to South Africa--and to any place oppressed by a fascist junta. But it is doable. It is not a cut and dried situation--there are different types of corruption and fear involved, and occasional public official heroes to champion--and there are different levels of non-transparency (for instance, some states with no paper trail at all--the worst off; other states have a real paper ballot backup, but still with secret programming in the central tabulators, and if you can't get a recount, you may never find the fraud, etc, etc.).

This is what I think we have to do, seek as much transparency as possible, state by state, county by county, to full transparency, over a period of time. And, as we gain more transparency, better people will be elected.

South America is an excellent example. There is a huge leftist revolution occurring in South America right now--with leftist governments being swept to power over virtually the entire map of the subcontinent (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Bolivia--with Peru likely next). And one of the things that this revolution is based on is TRANSPARENT elections, the result of long hard work by local civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center. It did not happen over night. But it sure is happening now.

Transparent elections = good, leftist government, that cares about people, and responds to the will of the people.

As I said, it's simple, in this respect. Democracy works! --IF you have transparent elections.

Another unique aspect of this junta is the Democratic Party and its reasons for silence while our election system was taken over by Bushites. For a long time, I was thinking: are they insane? I couldn't figure it out. I've come to the conclusion that it's a complex mix of corruption and fear. (The legislation was passed in the era of the anthrax attacks.) And it's possible there are Democrats who are positively benefiting from fixed elections, who don't believe in democracy. (I suspect this of Sen. Christopher Dodd.) It was mostly Bushites Tom Delay and Bob Ney (two of the most corrupt) who engineered this election system coup. So it does not appear to be something that Democratic leadership deliberately did--although their silence, and coverup reports like that issued by the McAuliffe/Brazile faction of the leadership, make me suspicious. As a 40 year loyal Democratic voter, I am just appalled at the Party's corruption on this matter. I attribute some of it also to Democrats who like Bush's war--those tied into war profiteers, who do not WANT to be beholden to a grass roots anti-war majority (something over 90% within the party; something between 60% to 80% nationwide, depending on the question asked.) If you have Dem Senators and House members inexplicably voting with the Bushites, look first to the election SYSTEM.

There is more visible, detectable corruption at the state/local level, which is easier to grasp and to address--and to remedy--corruption more directly tied to the machines. (Lavish lobbying of election officials; "revolving door" employment, election officials purchasing these election theft machines, then going to work for the voting machine company; other state government contracts that these same electronic firms are getting, etc.)

I didn't mean to go into the election reform fight in such detail. I just wanted you (Oregonian) and "Just Me" to not feel so torn, and so negative toward your fellow Americans. I think most of them are really hurting, and truly bewildered by what's happened to their country. They need our help. And I think it's THOSE people we need to locate and help empower. It's the progressive MAJORITY that needs to understand that there IS a remedy--the one most vital, and most fundamental to overall reform: transparent elections.

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