This is what a Coup against Couch Potatoes looks like

[scottxyz]

Once again, we have the usual suspects raising a stink on the web - this time about vote fraud... while the media and the couch potatoes "get over it" and "move on" once again.

I've had discussions on the phone with friends and family where they get upset and sensitive if I even bring up the possibility of vote fraud... they same way they used to get upset if I brought up the possibility of LIHOP.

I think what's going on is this: several decades of TVs and cars and suburban sprawl have shattered American society to the point where most Americans have gotten so passive and feel so helpless, they can't even bring themselves to talk about a stolen election.

They're used to being talked at by their corporate TVs and papers (which usually have an undercover conservative spin) - they're used to sitting in traffic being talked at by the radio (where almost all talkshows are conservative) - and they've forgotten how it feels to talk back in a two-way political discussion. They sit in front of their TVs for 4 years, alone, isolated, without a community - then they go vote on flashy, rigged voting machines, and when they "lose", they go back to watching more TV and listening to more drive-time radio. Alone.

I believe that this time many people did use the privacy of the ballot booth to try to get rid of Bush. Eminem's MOSH video was #1 on MTV, Jon Stewart's takedown of Tucker Carlson was a rallying-cry for millions of people sick of CNN's irrelevance, dozens of newspapers and a leading conservative magazine endorsed the Democrat for the first time - and millions of people registered and voted to throw this bum out.

Then the rigged voting machines did their thing, the talking heads rolled out their bogus stories about "values voting" and "the anti-gay, anti-abortion vote" (because anyone could have seen it certainly wasn't Bush's strong foreign-policy that led to his "victory") - and the couch potatoes decided to just "get over it" and "move on" again.

In Madrid, people marched in the streets when their government lied to them about the March attacks. In America, we've been lied to again and... what?

Where there are streets to march on (in the big cities), people might come out and protest. But in the suburbs, where are people going going to march? Down the highway? At the mall?

This is what a Coup against Couch Potatoes looks like.

[Geek_Girl]

1. I think you make a good point

and it made chuckle at the same time :-)

[DemExpat]

2. Enjoyed your post!

But what a sad and tragic image of Americans within that post......

I have been an ex-pat for many years, but can imagine that your viewpoint is right on the mark.

Thanks for how you see a Coup against Couch Potatoes.

DemEx

[leftchick]

3. my neighbor makes me want to rip my hair out....

and she is a Democrat! I chatted briefly with her yesterday for the first time since Coup II. She was going on about how Kerry ran a bad campaign and wasn't strong in his speeches and that gay issue, blah blah, blah. I thought I was listening to CNN! I told her it was none of those things. You do not see a historic voter turnout to keep an incumbant. People were voting to throw the bum out and our votes were stolen! She just could not believe it. It is sickening that people just can not think outside of that tv box anymore.

:(

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Do you know what Ukrainians are doing right now over THEIR stolen

election?

Tens of thousands of people are in the streets because of fraud. How do they know?

"Mr. Yushchenko backers claim he won 300,000 more votes than Mr. Yanukovych. Some exit polls also put Mr. Yushchenko in the lead."


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041106.wkiev1106/BNStory/Front

While in America, the disconnect between exit polls which forecast Kerry wins and results which favoured Bush are blamed on bloggers, or Democrats, or their sudden "unreliability."

GODDAMMIT AMERICA! THE WORLD NEEDS YOU TO WAKE UP!!!

[scottxyz]

9. Exactly - Couch Potatoes Let Karl Rove Kill The American Dream

Karl Rove knows most Americans are Couch Potatoes - they're so lazy or frightened or depressed, they'll just roll over and believe whatever CNN tells them.

So... voting machines got rigged, totals are all out of whack (88,000 MORE people voted for President in Palm Beach County than the total number who showed up)... and what happens?

Nothing. People just go about their daily business. Never wanting to face the possibility that the biggest coup in the history of modern civilization has just taken place. And the corporate media doesn't even bother to report the mess.

If just 10% of Americans got upset enough about this to DO something - like posting something on a blog, or writing a letter to the editor, or calling up a few friends and sharing their thoughts, or mentioning this to co-workers around the proverbial water cooler (or coffee maker)... then American democracy might have a chance at surviving.

You had a nice 200+ year run, America. Too bad the Couch Potatoes let Karl Rove kill The American Dream.

This is what I would say to the Couch Potatoes:
Don't think this isn't going to have consequences, all you Couch Potatoes out there. Your Social Security benefits are going to be privatized into the pockets of Wall Street brokers, your health is going to be sacrificed to the HMO and insurance gods (and because of Tort Reform, you're not going to be able to sue), and eventually the rest of the world will destroy the American currency (and along with it, your 401(k)s) as the only way to stop America and its army of $30,000-a-month mercenaries.

If the Couch Potatoes could see things in this light, maybe they'd get off their asses and do something rather than hitting the remote or filling up the gastank again.

[bloom]

5. There are always going to be

a small number of people really interested in paying attention.

And it will be up to us to get others interested.

Some won't get involved until they see others get involved.... just like any "trend".

[Nay]

6. These are the type of people who are produced by the idiot box,

and 40 years ago people knew it. But it has become such a powerful force in this society because of its unbelievable ability to suck in cash for its advertisers. It's already a powerful medium because even the dumbest can watch it and be influenced by it. Once TV was established, reading went out the window. Reading for pleasure is now an esoteric hobby, and thus even the ability to recognize a good linear argument is gone. People truly do think and feel in sound bites and allow TV to wash over them, directing their thoughts and actions. It's not a pretty thing, and can only be seen by people who are not addicted.

[scottxyz]

10. You're right

This makes me wonder - what if we could get people to shut off their TVs for just one week - and talk to each other again instead of listening to the garbage the TV anchors keep spewing at them?

I know - it's just a lot of idealistic dreaming. But I do know that when people talk face-to-face (rather than being talked at by some corporate shill) they're pretty capable of figuring out their own best interests.

I think TV has been one of the biggest tragedies in history.]

[sandnsea]

7. Pull investments

That thread went over well too. People are just too comfortable in this country. They talk values, but they don't act on them if it will cause them pain. Until we believe in something to the bone and become willing to give up everything for it, nothing will change.

[acmavm]

8. Yep, that's it exactly. But people are so defeated right now there's no

organization or coherent plan of what to do next. Except for the posters who say that they're all leaving the country.

We need an organized effort to get our political party, or form a new one, to fight the bush* agenda that he mistakenly believes he was given a 'mandate' to pull off.

REMEMBER, even though he managed to steal it, they fake numbers aren't even that great. They couldn't steal it by too large a number, so they kept it to one that they thought was acceptable and (maybe) even believable.

Jump down the throats of every democrat in the House and the Senate. Tell them to straighten up and fly right or tell them they'd better have enough cash in the bank to avoid having to wear the Wal Mart smock in the near future.

This isn't just a matter of fighting off the attacks of the bush* cabal, it's also a matter of getting these guys to look to the future and see that other nations are lining up to take this country down. The dollar is losing it's value, our personal information is being stored in foreign nations that may one day not be so friendly to us, our computer systems are being developed overseas which means that they can take us out at any time since they have the codes, China and Iran are making deals, Russia is getting into the Middle East as well, and they aren't going to hesitate for a minute to undercut this country when it comes to oil and the money that goes along with it. They made fun of Kerry when he spoke about the need to cooperate with foreign countries. Well shit, since they have almost a stranglehold on this economy, we'd better be doing just that.

I say bring on the scare tactics. And by scare tactics I mean tell the American people the truth. Tell them that this country (run by the corporate interests) has already been sold out from under their dense little hides by the very people that they think are going to protect them from the big bad boogey man. Osama isn't our worst enemy, corporate America is.

[Kurovski]

11. Americans still don't believe it can happen here.

And people are so overwhelmed they won't take the time to do research.

I'm getting a similar response from family members. But they also know that the things I talk about end up in the mainstream days/weeks/months later.

I think the best thing to do when speaking with others is to say we need to get the evidence and a national dialogue going before we make any decision. It really does help to allow for the possibility that we may be wrong on the fraud, and to remain calm when talking to others.

Even if the facts are so obvious I feel like I could barf unabated for five hours.