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A majority of Americans oppose unjust war...(nearly 60% of Americans opposed the invasion of Iraq, Feb. '03, all polls).
A majority of Americans oppose torture "under any circumstances" (63%, NYT poll, May 2004).
A majority of Americans have ALWAYS supported STRONG environmental protection (many polls over many years--big numbers, 80% and more).
What good does it do us?
And why and how is our will overruled?
Well, I'll tell you one way that it was overruled in 2004, and that is by means of 'TRADE SECRET,' corporate-run, electronic vote 'counting' with virtually no audit/recount controls, which was fast-tracked all over the country during the 2002 to 2004 period, via a $3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress. The situation is actually worse now. New York, the last hold-out, just caved to 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting. And ES&S just bought out Diebold, to gain an 80% monopoly of the U.S. vote counting 'market.' ES&S is worse than Diebold as to far rightwing connections.
How do we have unjust war, with the U.S. slaughtering a million people to steal their oil, torture dungeons all over the world and gigantic oil spills and other vast pollution of air, water, soil and food, is by STOLEN ELECTIONS. With the power of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting, and of course the corpo-fascist 'news' monopolies aiding and abetting, our corporate rulers can play out various scenarios such as the one playing out now--a false narrative of Democratic failure and impending loss of Congress due to financial and foreign policy horrors inflicted upon us by the Bush Junta, and can then make their scenario come true. It wasn't enough that they packed the Congress with Pukes and 'Blue Dogs," shaved Obama's mandate for change, and fill the airwaves with a nutball fascist minority called 'tea baggers.' They want Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld back in power, to loot and plunder us some more, and destroy our democracy some more, and smash our great progressive American majority one more time. The combined power of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting and controlled media make this not just easy, they make it VERY easy. And we will be without recourse when and if it happens.
We can't do much about the corpo-fascist media, but it is still possible to restore transparent vote counting--the bottom line of democracy--because the power over voting systems still resides at the state/local level., where ordinary people still have some potential influence. It will take a massive and widespread citizen movement--a REAL "Boston Tea Party"--but it is doable. And it is something we must do--or our democracy is over.
I did not mention draconian, unconstitutional, fascist laws against brown-skinned people because that is just one "divide and conquer" tactic of those who rule over us. They can pass referendums denying equal rights to gays in a progressive state like California, and put the matter on the ballot there and elsewhere to pit us against each other. They can do the same to women's rights, and have done it. They can "fix" any office in the U.S., from state legislators to governors to Congress and the presidency. They set the "agenda." It has nothing to do with what most Americans want. And we must--we MUST--find the way to deny them this power over the very counting of our votes.
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