KKK as model of vote tampering and suppression.

[Helga Scow Stern]

In another thread, fearnobush brought up Randi's suggestion that we look at massive voter suppression as our best shot.

Thanks to fearnobush's post, which I added below, I got to thinking about the confluence of the Klan as a model for voter fraud and wrote this on another thread:

Voter suppression was a specialty of theirs, and they were an organization with ties from the White House all the way down to the local precincts. They found ways of suppressing the minority vote without overtly violating laws. It is a model of a network of influence that was widespread and very effective, and very secretive. The idea that a lot of people are involved now may not be so farfetched at all.
There are quite a few parallels between the KKK and the present operatives. Morality was one of the KKK's favorite excuses for their shenanigans. They had to find means other than violence to attract the masses that they did and to win elections. That's why they became masters of ballot tampering and vote suppression.
I have often wondered if Rove purposefully selected a man of color for Ohio Secretary of State just to avoid suspicion of being accused of racism, and perhaps even of using Klan tactics.

I was asked to post this as a thread, so I did a little more research, which is here:

The Klan has arisen in US history whenever there is a market of unaddressed hatred and helplessness to exploit: first by that engendered through the loss of slave labor; then in the 1910's and 1920's as a response to worldwide dissatisfaction w/ capitalism; now perhaps the hatred that is tapped by the RNC is a response to helplessness felt in the face of multinational corporations.

The Seven Tenets of the KKK parallel the agenda of the RNC:
(Borrowing from Derrick Jensen)

1) Tenets of Christian Religion -- still applies in the same way. In the 1920's the Klan lobbbied to have creationism taught in schools. Back then it came to nothing, but now it is "pushed by some of the most powerful politicians in the country."

2) White Supremacy -- now changed to plain Supremacy of the neocon and Christian fundamentalist variety. Color of skin issue is deflected by recruiting people of color who believe in Supremacy, but the values are the same.

3) Protection of Pure American Womanhood -- now morphed into Pro-Life--the fight to control women's reproductive rights; also ban on gay marriage. Hate needs something to outlaw and keep "pure."

4) Preventing unwarranted strikes by Foreign Labor Agitators -- is now outsourcing, GATT, NAFTA, WTO, IMF.

5) Upholding the Constitution of the United States -- there is a lot of urgency about this on the propaganda machine of Christian radio stations--how not allowing prayer in school, for instance, is not upholding the constitution; not allowing religion to rule the state is not upholding the constitution. I heard one Christian radio show preacher informing his listeners that the constition was written by Evangelical Christians and that Bush is trying to protect it, therefore their political action was needed.

6) Sovereignity of our State Rights -- this is used when it is necessary to subvert national interests--upholding election results, for instance. Since state leaders are an invaluable source of the power base, this tenet is selectively upheld.

7) Promotion of Pure Americanism -- Patriot Act, etc.


It happened before, and it has happened again, no matter what you call it.

By 1924, the Klan had four million members. It was an incredibly effective grassroots organization. At least 75 U.S. representatives owed their seats to the Klan. 30,000 clergy were enrolled in the Klan, and the US President, Warren G. Harding, was sworn in as a KKK member in the White House.

Now, instead of "klaverns," the name given to the state committees of KKK governor, judges, journalists, sheriffs, legislature, business leaders, and clergy, there are fund raising and campaign groups, like the Rangers, Pioneers, etc. Instead of "Grand Dragons" at the state level, there are Campaign Chairmen and women, with a complicated, pervasive trail of IOU's between corporate privilege, elected officials, and individuals themselves.

What we need is more research into how this works now in stealing the vote. This research also gives plausability to the fact that a widespread undertaking, such as stealing the election, could, and did, in fact happen.

In the past the Klan dropped from the apex of popularity fast when its nasty underbelly of corruption was exposed, since, as with the current RNC, morality is what is used as an excuse to hate. When the immorality of illegal behavior has come out, the people have fallen away. The same thing will likely happen to the popularity of the RNC when the stolen vote becomes public knowledge.

[Helga Scow Stern]

1. fearnobush's excellent post:

fearnobush posted this last night, 11/15:

Subject: Massive voter suppression is unconstitutional. It's an ugly part of our

past and present yet little is done to end it. I heard Randy say today that it may be our best shot as a real course of action since the evidence looks overwhelming. I think I may be able to help in finding past case studies of voter suppression and with any luck, may be there is some cases out there that actually led to a revote or a retraction of a candidate or party that was convicted.

I will put some examples here for some thoughts.


Racially-Based Suppression of the African-American Vote:
The Role It May Play in the Upcoming Presidential Election

In less than one week, the 2004 presidential election will take place. One ticket might win a decisive victory, but it is also possible that, as John Dean predicted in his recent column, we could have a replay of the uncertainty that engulfed the 2000 election.

Regardless of who wins, however, a continuing, and execrable, election-related practice merits our attention. This practice has tainted electioneering for more than a century: It is racially-based vote suppression, the most recent practitioners of which have been Republicans.
More
<http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:fsd8BuGLgPwJ:writ.... >

REPUBLICAN BALLOT SECURITY PROGRAMS: VOTE
PROTECTION OR MINORITY VOTE SUPPRESSION—OR BOTH?
A REPORT TO THE CENTER FOR VOTING RIGHTS & PROTECTION
SEPTEMBER 2004
(Operation Eagle Eye)
<http://www.votelaw.com/blog/blogdocs/GOP_Ballot_Securit... >

[Vincardog]

5. Good post Kick nt

[fearnobush]

12. Ojai Person, Thanks, here is a case study from votelaw that lays out

the black vote suppression the GOP have adopted since LBJ. It's scary stuff, take a look:

snip

The Southern Strategy Endures

LBJ’s landslide victory in November appeared initially to be an overwhelming repudiation of Goldwater’s racial conservatism, as did the strong bipartisan support the next year for the Voting Rights Act. But appearances were deceiving. Gradually, the influence of the civil rights wing of the Republican Party began to shrivel, partly because the Democrats continued to champion civil rights (thus maintaining strong black 16 John W. Dean, The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment That Redefined the
Supreme Court (New York and other cities: The Free Press, 2001), 129. The friend of Goldwater’s quoted by Dean is Richard Moore. Goldwater also asked the advice of Yale Law Professor Robert Bork, who concurred with Rehnquist. See Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), 363.
17 Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1964 (New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1965), 155.

support), partly because many succeeding Republican candidates and almost all Republican presidents made racial appeals—some subtle, some otherwise—to southern whites still angry at federal abolition of the Jim Crow system, the re-enfranchisement of African Americans, and various federal policies supported by Democrats seen as giving special consideration to blacks.21

One of the least subtle of these appeals was presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s decision to launch his post-convention campaign in 1980 by appearing at the Neshoba, Mississippi, County fair—the county still notorious for the murders of Goodman, Schwerner, and Cheney.22 The fair, first organized in 1889, had a long tradition of featuring segregationist politicians as speakers. Reagan, who was wellknown for having voiced opposition to both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, gave a speech advocating “states’ rights” to the almost all-white audience of 10,000, which responded with thunderous applause.23

In summary, the election of 1964 is crucial to understanding the dynamics of partisan politics in the forty subsequent years. The American party system, observe Carmines and Stimson, “was fundamentally transformed during the mid-1960s. The progressive racial tradition in the Republican Party gave way to racial conservatism, and the Democratic Party firmly embraced racial liberalism. These changes unleashed political forces that permanently reshaped the contours of American politics.”24 The national black and Latino leadership, as well as many of the rank-and-file in minority communities across the nation, are still poignantly aware of the role race has played in transforming the American party structure over the past generation.

The efforts of some Republicans to focus ballot security programs primarily in black and Latino neighborhoods thus rubs salt in old wounds. To many minority voters, it is as though the historic animus towards their racial and ethnic groups harbored by segregationist white Democrats of yore has been passed on to modern white Republicans, and finds dramatic expression in the behavior of “ballot security activists” in minority precincts at election time. Acting on an unproven stereotype of minority precincts as rife with fraud and chicanery, such Republicans eagerly send teams into these precincts to “observe,” to challenge—and sometimes to misinform and to intimidate—racial and ethnic minority voters, who still live in the shadow of massive historical disfranchisement.

More

A link to the full pdf download can be found half way down this page - (see - REPUBLICAN BALLOT SECURITY PROGRAMS: VOTE PROTECTION OR MINORITY VOTE SUPPRESSION—OR BOTH?)

<http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:lvVjQ8fO7zoJ:www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/voter_suppression/+Voter+suppression+case+studies&hl=en>

[Helga Scow Stern]

13. Thanks, fearnobush. There are some good examples of GOP

"voter terrorism" on that site. I will keep watching it and please, anyone, post here anything else that might be valuable in gathering this information correlating KKK tactics with present day TeamStealAmerica strategeries.

I didn't know this new wave of voter suppression had been going on since 1964, since the civil rights movement became strong. And no wonder Reagan seemed like such a creep:

"One of the least subtle of these appeals was presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s decision to launch his post-convention campaign in 1980 by appearing at the Neshoba, Mississippi, County fair—the county still notorious for the murders of Goodman, Schwerner, and Cheney.22 The fair, first organized in 1889, had a long tradition of featuring segregationist politicians as speakers. Reagan, who was wellknown for having voiced opposition to both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, gave a speech advocating “states’ rights” to the almost all-white audience of 10,000, which responded with thunderous applause.23"

[jbnow]

15. I don't think they mean to be racist.

Heck if other Democrat's had such an easily seen marker to use they'd be intimidated more too. If only we were all redheads and 90% of redheads voted Democrat we'd make their job even easier!

Further showing they aren't just racist...poor white city neighborhoods and voters get picked on too. And I am sure most blacks from very rich neighborhoods don't have much trouble voting.

It's easier to pick on someone who looks different enough to identify.I'm sure it is nicer for them to have nice Arab terrorists to make the country hate too but that would be for another thread.

And I don't mean to make light of any of it.

So many minority and young and poor DID come out this time and patiently waited despite all the hassles...

Every vote DOES have to count

[Helga Scow Stern]

16. I agree. It's whatever they do to have to win.

Even in the 60's it sounds like it wasn't necessarily just race, but the fact that they voted Democratic that made them suppress minority vote.

[noiretextatique]

23. of course they MEAN to be racist

they have a total mindfuck program based on racism.
1) they are hostile to civil rights.
2) they have used resentment about some issues, e.g., affirmative action to attract some, and to get excused by others.
3) they claim the want to attract black voters, and they completely LIE about how many they are attracting. it was perfect setup to claim, as several have done, that they have some huge increase in black voters...which is total nonsense, btw.
4) suppressing the black vote is traditional...hardly anyone really thinks a thing about it.

i don't mean to suggest they aren't suppressing the votes of poor whites, or other people of color...but they sure as hell mean to be racist.

i am not talking about personal racism; i am talking about systemic racism, though i have no doubt someone like rhenquist, who actively participated in voter supporession, is probably a racist. most of the racist act is for their idiot followers who do fall for it.

and you know what...it's working very well for them.

[Helga Scow Stern]

26. I heard on Bill Moyers' NOW about the ripping off Indian tribes

by top Republican operatives, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations executive Michael Scanlon, who extorted over 4 million from one tribe alone and funnelled much of it into Bush's campaign.

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/indiangaming.html

[noiretextatique]

28. i saw that tonight.

caught the tail end anyway, and they did another segment on tom delay;s bogus fundraising/money laundering scheme to get republicans elected in texas. a district attorney in texas will be indicting him very soon. i have a feeling that the republican facade is truly crumbling, and i eagerly await the perp walks to come.

[Helga Scow Stern]

30. But look at how they move to protect DeLay:

Ethics Panel Scolds DeLay Accuser 11/19/2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House ethics committee leaders say the complaint that led to a rebuke of Republican leader Tom DeLay in October was filled with exaggerations. They warned lawmakers of possible discipline if it happens again.

The complaint against DeLay by Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas, violated a committee rule barring use of "innuendo, speculative assertions or conclusory statements," ethics Chairman Joel Hefley and senior Democrat Alan Mollohan wrote Bell.

Hefley, of Colorado, and Mollohan, of West Virginia, also used the four-page letter to place all House members on notice that future use of exaggerations and innuendoes could result in dismissal of the complaint in addition to disciplinary action.

The letter to Bell was not a disciplinary action.

Bell lost in a primary earlier this year because of a redistricting plan engineered by DeLay, a fellow Texan.

A freshman, Bell said he has "grave concerns that this is going to intimidate other members from coming forward to file meritorious complaints in the future. We need to work to open the ethics process up, not clamp it down. This is further evidence that the ethics process in the House is broken and needs to be fixed."

Bell's complaint was not dismissed, the letter said, because it contained allegations against DeLay that warranted consideration; and because the committee had not previously rejected any complaint for violations of the rule against innuendo and speculation.

The committee concluded in October that DeLay appeared to link political donations to a legislative favor and improperly persuaded federal aviation authorities to intervene in a Texas political dispute.

Hefley and Mollohan wrote Bell, "Indeed, it appears there is no purpose for including excessive or inflammatory language or exaggerated charges in a complaint except in an attempt to attract publicity and hence, a political advantage."

DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty said the letter "demonstrates the contempt and reckless disregard Chris Bell has shown for the Ethics Committee and its members by knowingly violating the rules of the House to advance his and his party leadership's political agenda of personal destruction."

The letter said the most serious exaggeration was Bell's contention that DeLay violated a bribery law "by soliciting campaign contributions" from a Kansas corporation, Westar Energy, in return for legislative assistance on an energy bill.

"There can hardly be a more serious charge against a public official than that he or she solicited a bribe," the committee letter said. It added that DeLay's actions "did not come even close to supporting this extremely serious claim."

more

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/19/ethics.delay.ap/index.html

[noiretextatique]

38. this won't stop the indictment

or the prison term...it's still going to happen. if these idiots want an indicted conman as their leader, i say let them have him. it will only make them look more idiotic (and guilty too) when delay is led away in handcuffs.

[Helga Scow Stern]

44. Enforcement of Civil Rights Law Declined Since '99, Study Finds -NYT

Rose Siding posted this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1011629#1011804

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (AP) - Federal enforcement of civil rights laws has dropped sharply since 1999, as the level of complaints received by the Justice Department has remained relatively constant, according a study released Sunday.

Criminal charges of civil rights violations were brought against 84 defendants last year, down from 159 in 1999, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

The study also found that the number of times the Federal Bureau of Investigation or another federal investigative agency recommended prosecution in civil rights cases fell by more than one-third, from more than 3,000 in 1999 to just over 1,900 last year. Federal court data also show that the government has sought fewer civil sanctions against civil rights violators.

One of the study's authors, David Burnham, said the results showed that civil rights enforcement dropped across the board in President Bush's first term in office. "Collectively, some violators of the civil rights laws are not being dealt with by the government," Professor Burnham said. "This trend, we think, is significant."

It is unlikely the decline has occurred because of fewer civil rights violations occurring, the study suggests. The number of complaints about possible violations received by the Justice Department has remained at about 12,000 annually for each of the past five years.
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/22/national/22civil.html

[Helga Scow Stern]

46. Hate Crimes Reported by FBI: Race, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Handicap

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1014195

Hate crime breakdown for 2003:

Of the total 7,489 hate crimes reported in 2003, just over half were motivated by racial bigotry. Nearly 18 percent were caused by religious intolerance and nearly 17 percent were the result of a sexual-orientation bias.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041122/ts_nm/crime_hate_dc

[Helga Scow Stern]

48. MarkusQ on # of voting machines witheld equals # votes suppressed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x80851#82026

You can easily cap the votes in a given precinct if you have control over how many voting machines they get.

Say each machine can take a voter every three minutes. That's twenty an hour, or 480 if they work for 24 hours straight (meaning the lines reach 14 hours long). If people give up earlier, you don't get as many votes, so if people only are willing to put up with four hour lines, you'll only get 280 votes per machine.

If you put (say) three machines in a precinct with 2000 registered voters, you've suppressed at least 500, and probably more like 1200 of them without lifting a finger. Do this selectively, and you've rigged the election in broad daylight.

--MarkusQ

[Helga Scow Stern]

49. jmknapp's map of machine allocation by race in Ohio

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x84787

Look down the thread. It couldn't be clearer.

[Helga Scow Stern]

51. shraby's Ashcroft Sending Poll Watchers to Mississippi (and other states)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x85698

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANNOUNCES FEDERAL OBSERVERS TO MONITOR GENERAL ELECTION IN STATES ACROSS THE COUNTRY (including) Jones, Kemper, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, and Winston Counties, Mississippi.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Justice Department has regularly sent observers and monitors around the country to protect election-related civil rights. In addition, the Department has routinely deployed its own civil rights personnel to serve as civil rights monitors in jurisdictions not covered by the Voting Rights Act. Today, the Justice Department announced it will again send approximately 840 federal observers and more than 250 Civil Rights Division personnel to 86 jurisdictions in 25 states to monitor the general election on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. This list is not exhaustive, and other jurisdictions may be designated by election day.

Under the Voting Rights Act, which protects the rights of Americans to participate in the electoral process without discrimination, the Department of Justice is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the Act itself or by a federal court order under the Act.

Federal observers will monitor polling place activities in 27 jurisdictions:

* Apache, Navajo and Yuma Counties, Arizona;
* San Benito, San Diego, and Ventura Counties, California;
* Cook County (Cicero), Illinois;
* Lake County (East Chicago), Indiana;
* Wayne County (Hamtramck), Michigan;
* Jones, Kemper, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, and Winston Counties, Mississippi;
* Passaic County, New Jersey;
* Bernalillo, Cibola, Sandoval, and Socorro Counties, New Mexico;
* Kings County (Brooklyn), New York County (Manhattan), and Suffolk County, New York;
* Berks County (Reading), Pennsylvania;
* Buffalo County, South Dakota;
* Dallas County, Texas; and,
* Yakima County, Washington.

The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at select polling locations in the counties. Civil Rights Division personnel will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

In addition, Justice Department personnel, all of whom are Civil Rights Division attorneys and staff, will monitor the election in an additional 58 jurisdictions:

* Kodiak Island, Alaska;
* Pulaski County, Arkansas;
* Cochise, Gila, Graham, Maricopa, Pima, and Santa Cruz Counties, Arizona;
* Imperial and Orange Counties, California;
* Broward, Duval, Gadsden, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola, and Palm Beach Counties, Florida;
* Atkinson, Henry and Long Counties, Georgia;
* Polk County, Iowa;
* Jefferson County, Kentucky;
* Wayne County (Detroit) and Oakland County (Pontiac), Michigan;
* Hennepin County, Minnesota;
* City of St. Louis, Missouri;
* Alamance, Scotland and Wake Counties, North Carolina;
* Chaves, Rio Arriba and San Juan Counties, New Mexico;
* Clark and Washoe Counties, Nevada;
* Nassau, Queens, Richmond, and Westchester Counties, New York;
* Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton Counties, Ohio;
* Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania;
* Bennett, Corson, Dewey, Jackson, Mellette, Shannon, Todd, Tripp and Ziebach Counties, South Dakota;
* Harris, Hidalgo, Tarrant and Waller Counties, Texas;
* Chesterfield County, Virginia; and,
* Franklin County, Washington.

The OPM observers and Department personnel will monitor whether certain counties and localities are complying with federal voting laws, for example: determining whether any voters are challenged improperly on the basis of their race, color, or membership in a language minority group; complying with the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act; permitting voters who are blind, disabled, or unable to read or write assistance by a person of their choice; and permitting all eligible voters to cast a ballot.

At all times, complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be called in to the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division at 800-253-3931.

Voters in the counties in which federal observers serve in Arizona, California, Illinois, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington may also file complaints about discriminatory voting practices in this election by calling the federal examiner at 866-885-4122. Voters in such counties in Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York may call the federal examiner at 888-496-9455.

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/politics/comments.php?id=4411_0_13_0_C

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. That is FRIGHTENING! These people are Hitleresque!

:scared:

[Helga Scow Stern]

4. It's all about tapping into the fear and hatred of the people

because they feel powerless. At least we are doing something that is another response to the fear and the evils.

[PATRICK]

3. GOP substitutes strategies

for any policy attempt to serve the honest needs of nation or people. They accrued the lessons of Tammany Hall, the Dixiecrats, Chicago and jumped a giant step ahead with a crude realization of the potential of computers. They borrowed from Madison Ave, the Kremlin, the Third Reich, any old and new substitute for an honest base of honest informed voters.

Simultaneously the Dems were led, in reaction to these dastardly techniques(some of which they invented in the hustings), to purify and purge themselves of all hint or knowledge of criminal actions in this regard. Like lambs to the slaughter, but unsympathetic figures because of their adamant blindness.

The current horror show is still obscured for the mass of the public, but it would have been GREAT if the abandoned Kerry voters had been focused on this damning situation instead of a divisive nonsense about "values" which debate had tricked us again and again and again since the Dark Lord Nixon invented the humbuggery.

[Helga Scow Stern]

6. What is this adamant blindness?

Surely it will lift as the truth keeps coming out. Isn't it akin to the same that happens in families in response to unspeakable acts?

[Straight Shooter]

7. Any Repub who claims to be tolerant but ignores these tactics

is just as guilty as those who actually employ the tactics of suppression and bigotry.

If you eat stolen fruit, you are as guilty as the one who stole the fruit from the tree.

Have I mentioned how much I hate racism?

[Helga Scow Stern]

8. Good point. Perhaps we could reach some of those with decency

using this point. Surely some of them must be in shock and horror as their cognitive dissonance wears off and they see what's been done.

[Straight Shooter]

9. I agree. For now, the benefit of the doubt.

But as the truth emerges, they should be called what they are.

George W. bush may choose Condi Rice as Sos, but he knows damn well that his minions employ racist tactics. Thus, bush is a racist.

It isn't a class war, not really. It's still a race war. Mind-boggling. And I do try to educate people, but some of them have their blinders fused to their head and cannot grasp the notion that bigotry is alive and well and flourishing, just because the pales and the people of color can drink from the same public fountain.

[Helga Scow Stern]

10. It's a way to dehumanize, to destroy any shred of innate dignity and right

to exist, whether by race, class, or by judging anyone wanting the truth. That's a way of seizing power and silencing any outrage about massive assaults on rights, freedoms, quality of life, and the environment.

[bloom]

20. This is an interesting thread

The idea of multiculturalism (Republicans being against it) was brought up in Lakoff's essay:

http://www.wwcd.org/issues/Lakoff.html

Metaphor, Morality, and Politics,
Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals In the Dust

Those in the "Strict Father" mode presumably favored by Republicans...
From the perspective of these metaphors, multiculturalism is immoral, since it permits alternative views of what counts as moral behavior. Multiculturalism thus violates the binary good-evil distinction made by Moral Strength. It violates the well-defined moral paths and boundaries of Moral Bounds. Its multiple authorities violate any unitary Moral Authority. And the multiplicity of standards violates Moral Wholeness.

Whereas - the opposite position would be:
Multiculturalism: Nurturant parents celebrate the differences among their children, and so governments should celebrate the differences among its citizens.

----

It stands to reason that people who feel their way of life is threatened by people who are different would seem racist (or homophobic, or misogynistic, etc).

They have also given every indication that they will stop at nothing.

As threatened as we feel - at having our rights taken away and democracy dissolved - it seems Republicans (those voting for Bush* anyway) may feel even more threatened at having their idea of society as they know it taken away.

It may have become a game of "who is the most threatened" - or has the perception of being the most threatened.

Many of us - didn't recognize the extent of the threat (of having our rights taken away and democracy dissolved) until the 2000 election - while the organization to make the "right" feel more and more threatened has been building over decades - or maybe never ceased - but simply has recruited more followers.

It may be possible that our most worthwhile goal (besides restoring the integrity of the vote) is to convince people that people can be different without it being a threat to them.

[Helga Scow Stern]

24. I agree about convincing that it's okay to be different, and it might help

against the politics of bullying: accuse the other side of what you are in fact guilty of so much that people believe it. Meet every request for integrity with an accusation of what you are accused of, like this comment from DeLay's spokeswoman, on the rebuking by the House Ethics Committee of Chris Bell (D-TX), who had questioned DeLay's conduct:

-snip-
DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty said the letter "demonstrates the contempt and reckless disregard Chris Bell has shown for the Ethics Committee and its members by knowingly violating the rules of the House to advance his and his party leadership's political agenda of personal destruction."
-snip-
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/19/ethics.delay.ap/index.html

The whole idea of someone getting in trouble, getting a letter from the Ethics Committee because they called into question DeLay's actions has got to be bordering on downright suppression. The fact that senior Democrat Mollahan went along with it is also part of what happens in situations where bullies take over--many people just want to be on the side of the power.

The dynamic of "who is more threatened" is one I have also seen with bullying tactics. I have seen it in junior high school, where a bully causes pain for a lot of people, and then when he is questioned on it, he immediately reverts to convincingly playing the victim.

And it trickles down from the bully to the ones who side with the bully, so that they begin to feel victimized by the victims of the bully.

Thanks for the essay and the distinction between Multiculturalism and binary Moral Strength. I agree that we need to see how we can teach others not to hate. If it is possible. And that is not the same thing as going along with the lies.

[Helga Scow Stern]

45. Conservatives are more angry and afraid, even in their dreams...

posted by jaysunb:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x87651

<snip>
In keeping with the idea that conservatives see the world as threatening, Altemeyer reported a study that found a strong, positive correlation between the perception of a dangerous world and high scores on the Right Wing Authoritarian Scale with a sample of Canadian college students. Other researchers replicated this finding with several samples in South Africa and New Zealand where they also noted a significant correlation between the perception of a dangerous world and scores on a Social Dominance Scale. Authoritarians in these studies generally saw the world as a dangerous place while liberals did not share this pessimistic perception.

In an ingenuous research program on the dream lives of liberals and conservatives in the US, the investigator found that Republicans reported three times as many nightmares as did Democrats. This finding suggests that fear, danger, threat, and aggression percolates more prominently through the unconscious life of conservatives than liberals.

To the extent that conservatives are especially sensitive and attuned to threat or possibility of loss, one reason they attempt to maintain the statue quo, it follows that they should also be more highly motivated by negatively framed outcomes or potential losses than by positively framed outcomes or potential gains.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/114/114_white_supremacy.html

[Helga Scow Stern]

31. McCain was on Committee of Indian Affairs disciplining(?) Rovian thugs

these former College Republicans, current thugs, Pioneers or Rangers, who ripped off Indian Tribes for millions and channelled it into Republican party. But I don't know what action was taken by the committee, other than to tell them that they should be ashamed.

[enough]

11. Kick

Interesting post, Ojai.

[Chili]

14. totally agree with you

I started a thread on this after reading article after article describing voter suppression all across the country:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=51830#56655

It's unbelievable when considered as a whole, and impossible to ignore the breadth of it all.

[Helga Scow Stern]

17. Info about campaign managers and organization? Thank you for thread

you started, and for your site collecting all of these reports. The posts in that thread made me think we should look more into the campaign managers and the structure and methods of campaign. Got any info on that, anyone?

[Chili]

22. I'm afraid I don't know how to tackle this aspect of it...

...except to say that I did watch "Bush's Brain," and Rove is capable of anything. In fact, I don't believe that Karl Rove is a racist, in the way that we think of as traditional racism; I think it's worse, I think he's completely amoral and unethical, and doesn't give a damn about whether the voters he disenfranchises are black or poor or rich and white if it gets him what he wants. It's simply a means to an end, and if the role had been reversed, he'd be just as eager and insidious in his effort to disenfranchise white voters. I think I despise somebody like that more than I do somebody like Strom Thurmond. Because at least you know what the open bigot believes in. This man believes in nothing. His God is winning, and it's the only thing he believes in.

[Helga Scow Stern]

27. Rove just secretly met with the Republican governors

and initiated them into the premise for the Mandate, I guess so they can keep from questioning too much when their stomachs start to churn.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1006804

Chili, I really appreciate your site by the way. It is easy for me to find things there and you keep it up well.

[Helga Scow Stern]

29. Guinn chosen as head of Republican Governors

More insight into the organizational pattern.

From NVMojo:

Guinn was the co-chairman of Nevada's Repuglicon Party's campaign for the re-election of * ...his co-chair was the state's AG Brian Sandoval who has already been rewarded by Reid and Senator Ensign with a nomination to a federal judgeship. I have always smelled a rat when I first heard that Guinn and top state Repuke officials and party officials met with Rove and * a year ago to discuss the Repuke and * campaign strategy for 2004. This is what is amazing about the mastermind manipulations and strategies of Karl Rove.

snip...

The architect of President Bush's re-election addressed the governors at a closed dinner Thursday night in a detailed, statistical explication of how Bush won, according to some who were there, including Missouri Gov.-elect Matt Blunt and Ohio Gov. Bob Taft.

Before departing, the Republican Governor's Association members chose Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn its new chairman, succeeding Taft. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was chosen vice chairman.

snip ...

There was no mistaking the partisan nature of the group he addressed Friday, however, nor of the politics-oriented buzz that surrounded the gathering: satisfaction that Republicans have now increased their previous 28-22 majority by one, with the apparent win of Washington Gov.-elect Dino Rossi, and plotting to add more governorships to the GOP column.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-20-Sat-2004/news/25310610.html



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1008494

[Chili]

43. thank you much!

...it's hard keeping it organized into some readable format though, LOL!

And I just read your post below - I'm ill at the thought of them plotting behind closed doors for MORE power. They've been plotting for years, and now we see the rotten fruit ripening right before our eyes. Ugh.

[Eloriel]

18. I wanted to kick this excellent post

:kick:

[Helga Scow Stern]

19. Thank you.

[The Flaming Red Head]

21. I looked up Jim Crow laws and election of 1912 as a model this AM

More later

[Helga Scow Stern]

25. Looking forward to it.

[Helga Scow Stern]

32. College Republicans

As Carolab and others have suggested, the College Republicans seem to be a hotbed of dirty tricks, starting off with Rove in his younger days (from Bush's Brain). The sleazy lobbyist operatives who ripped off the Indian tribes, and who were Rove and Delay proteges, also belonged to this group, as did Reid, the "poster boy of the Christian Right", who was also involved in the scam. In his case he used his Christian morality position to shut down the casino in Texas, but he was actually recruited by Abramhoff and Scanlon, who had been hired by a Louisiana Indian Casino outfit to stifle the competition in Texas.

I will keep posting info here about College Republicans and their parallel to the KKK, and I invite anyone else to.

[Helga Scow Stern]

33. Carolab's posts about College Republicans

Hell yes it was coordinated and

What's REALLY scary is they recruited all these young men and put them in their organizations. College Republicans are just a bunch of budding young neo-Nazi soldiers just like Hitler's youth army.

Hell yes young Repukes were involved. They were running around stealing signs (caught on tape here in MN) and were doing the registrations (ran like hell when we told them we were with MoveOn), did the "poll watching"--I read an "admission and apology" on Dean's forum by a guy who was remorseful because he was working with the "college Republicans" and was at the polls and personally witnessed the sabotage--they jammed the phones so people couldn't call up and get help and thought it was real funny. I know these jerks called up radio stations here in Minnesota, 3000 calls on election day to NPR alone, trying to keep MoveOn people away. They said we were "pushing Kerry material on people" (OF COURSE NOT--we were there to check our voters in--people we had canvassed and we followed up with) and that we were too close to the polls (we had a string to make sure we were the required 100 feet away, OUTSIDE in the cold).

It was a veritable army of hoods.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=51830&mesg_id=56732&page=

[kk897]

50. This happened in Ohio, too

To me, AAMOF. "I know these jerks called up radio stations here in Minnesota, 3000 calls on election day to NPR alone, trying to keep MoveOn people away. They said we were "pushing Kerry material on people" (OF COURSE NOT--we were there to check our voters in--people we had canvassed and we followed up with) and that we were too close to the polls (we had a string to make sure we were the required 100 feet away, OUTSIDE in the cold)."

They hassled us a bit, indirectly, through the principal of the school where the polling place was, doing the EXACT same thing as you describe above. And this is Ohio.

It was all a set-up--that, along with the "buying votes for crack" story, the "Mary Poppins" registration, and the tire slashing.

They thought it was going to be closer than it was, and that they'd have to mobilize and cry "fraud and intimidation." Either it was simply "Plan B" or they really thought Kerry would win. Funny how you don't hear too much about *those* allegations now, huh?

Hm. Makes you think that there was some deeeeeeep politics going on there.

[Helga Scow Stern]

34. Supposed apology from young CR

Thanks for finding this Eloriel:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2664840&mesg_id=2664840&page=

I looked at his profile and it had a disruptor tombstone next to it.

[Helga Scow Stern]

35. States' Rights -- Power to the Thugs

The Limits of Federal Power by Carolab

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1376896

[Helga Scow Stern]

36. FBI refers voter complaints to Blackwell.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x66460

[fearnobush]

37. Here is the FBI quote from pg. 15 and 16.

"For the past 10 days I've been receiving email from all across the country - 1500 emails and counting - most of the extending thanks for documenting this discrepancy, drawing the conclusions, and asking the (obvious) questions that the media and everyone else with a public voice had been ignoring. But many have been allegations of mistabulation and worse. Three precinct workers from the Appalachian section of Ohio, for example wrote:

360 people signed the book and 33 absentee ballots were cast for a total of 393 votes. The Board of Elections is reporting 489 votes cast in that one precinct. WE HAVE A COPY OF THE ENTIRE POLL BOOK for this precinct. (other totlas were hand cheched)

They went to the FBI, who referred them to the Secretary of State's office, despite the fact the precinct workers believe that the Secretary of State's office is culpable. (Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell served as the state's Bush-Chaney campaign chairman this year)"

We, I here at DU like to call him Katherine Blackwell.

[Helga Scow Stern]

39. Upholding the constitution as "sacred document."

This is the purpose of a law school that opened on Falwell's Liberty Campus--not "to legislate morality. Our goal is to get back to the underlying principles that form the law."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lawschool21nov21.story

snip--

...the school plans to offer select students hands-on experience with a law firm that takes on constitutional issues. That would occur when Liberty Counsel, a legal organization in Orlando, Fla., that focuses on cases involving religion and traditional values, moves its legislative arm to the campus.

Best known for establishing in 1979 the Moral Majority, one of the first evangelical efforts to affect political discourse, Falwell sees the law school as an extension of his mission.

"We certainly are training Christian activists," Falwell, who this month announced the creation of a 21st century version of the Moral Majority that aims to re-energize religious conservatives, said in an interview last week. "We're turning their attention to understand the Bible is the infallible word of God, that the American Constitution is a sacred document and that the Christian worldview is their matrix of service."

--snip

...it represents the latest effort by the religious right to transform American society — on everything from the division between church and state to such social issues as abortion and same-sex marriage — from the inside out. And it's an indication of the alienation that many conservative Christians feel amid the larger secular culture.

--snip

[PATRICK]

40. RNC has been gathering in all the crooks

The Dixiecrats gave a lot of Southern fraud experience to the party. Since they assumed this was what all Dems do they never thought twice about welcoming this in with their new Southern Repugs. meanwehilke the clean Gene dems has been scuttling all their disreputable stuff, now known intimately to the Repugs wearing the rings of power and are pretty much relegated to stretching registrations under thassumption more people means more Dem votes.

Then the idiot Repugs stumbled on the new and expensive electric aids and immediately sensed opportunity to fight back the tide. The Dems, witless and aloof by now, could never even be warned about how many votes they were simply surrendering to massive and small fraud. Florida exposed about everything. Some was challenged. Little successfully. No Repug did anything but profit from fraud.

It will get worse of course. I see no signs at all that the outraged Dems have countered ANY methodology or won enough public backing or press attention except for nearly urban legend style distrust of the monstrous machines.

Which will in turn only suppress votes and discourage hapless Dems.

[EndElectoral]

41. Good post. Problem is they now control investigative sources....

The CIA - Goss
The FBI - Mueller
NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, and have CBS terrified to do any real investigative journalism.

Without the whistleblowers, and muckrakers we are in serious trouble. Your KKK points are excellent observations. The problem is the KKK brings up white hoods, and hanging of black men in the South. Direct association with the KKK brings up today the David Dukes, but the Ralph Reeds are not far behind. This is a new age, the age of Rove. The ability to "reframe" KKK concepts in a new language without the wite hoods is here.

Somehow, Rove has managed to create the perception that the above KKK principles are "in the national interest" rather than that of cronyism, and that the vote is "a mandate of the people" when in fact, regardless of whether the vote was rigged or not, it was a very close vote, especially if one disregards Texas. But the media refuses to investigate voter irregularities, allegations of fraud and problems. One has to ask WHY? WHY does our investigative sources refuse to investigate and report thoroughly something so critical to our core as the process of the voting process? By simply saying enough that the election is over, they give credence to it and eventually the people acquiesce even thoguh polls showed shortly after the election that their was great suspicion and uncertaity about the reliability of the vote. There is not to say the vote was not accurate, but that the process of investigation by the media DID NOT OCCUR. THAT IS FRIGHTENING TO ME, because it means we are now in a very tenuous situation where grassroots groups are the only way that certain news issues cannot easily reach mass groups of people. My father had no idea form watching the mainstream news that there was ANY kind of investigation going on, or that ANY irregularites had been found. He did not know that Nader had asked for a recount in NH, and the Greens, and Libertairans had asked for a recount in OH, or there was a group like Black Box voting had been looking at voting irregularities. He never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and was unaware that a CIA report on 911 had been suppressed until after the election. One day DU went down for awhile, and I wondered HOW I would get information going forward. How hard it would be IF one was to rely on the talking heads on shows like The McLaughlin Group on TV, or the bias one seens often from Russert on Meet the Press.

My point is that I can feel true investigative media dissolving since the 60's, AND now I fear investigative law enforcement agencies now being compromised, and the rhetoric with the "reframed" language of the old KKK now emerging as the "American Way" emerging.

Even when the media tells us we need to move further Right as the Democratic Party tells me it is beginning even to affect the fundamental principles of our party. Frightening.

[Helga Scow Stern]

42. Looks like Grassroots is what we've got and prosecutors and

investigators around the country who will keep looking. Half or more of the country is not in sync with this. And even in the days when the KKK was all the rage on a widespread popular level, all it took was some serious scandal to bring it down. When morality is used as the calling card, it hurts when it is splattered with mud. Once the media gets a taste of it, it goes into feeding frenzy mode. Dirt is dirt. Once it reaches a critical mass.

[The Flaming Red Head]

47. kick