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And that isn't even the half of what he and his goons were doing in Latin America. Under the public's radar, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers were slaughtered in Guatemela with Reagan's direct complicity. We lost the rule of law there, and a number of other things--with Democratic Party complicity--including the progressive tax (the first set of tax cuts for the rich and shifts of the tax burden to the poor).
Now, in addition to everything else, we have electronic voting run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by far rightwing Bushite corporations--ALSO with the complicity of our party leadership. Bush/Cheney's shredding of our Constitution with impunity is a direct result of non-transparent vote counting, in my opinion. That's what it was FOR--that's why they fast-tracked it all over the country with $3.9 billion in boondoggle funding--to transform our country and our democracy into a "free fire zone" for corporate interests, with no consequences. What is the only power we really have, as a sovereign people, to INFLICT consequences on both office holders and corporations? Our votes! Non-transparent vote counting turns that power into a phantom. It's a power we once had. It's something we remember. It's a power we can still exert, if we make an extraordinary effort to outvote the machines--as I think occurred in some cases in 2006. But, no matter how hard we try, we really can't budge the system. It is very rigged against the interests of the American people.
And how that could happen UNDER THE RADAR of the American people goes back to that corruption of our party leadership that was evident during Iran-Contra. Non-transparent vote counting, controlled by rightwing Bushites, could not have happened if our party leadership had objected. They did not object. There was not one peep out of them about it. They fully supported it, and still do. It's beyond me to understand this, just as it was beyond me to understand Ronald Reagan continuing in office--and not being impeached--after his regime directly broke a specific law passed by Congress against a war on Nicaragua. But it was for FINANCIAL reasons that he was not impeached--because his FINANCIAL policies favored what was becoming our millionaire and multi-millionaire Democratic Party representatives. Reaganism was sweet for THEM. They had already abandoned their worker base.
I will never forget the debate between Gerald Ferraro, the first woman ever nominated for VP (Mondale's running mate) and Bush I, during the 1984 election. I had moved to a rural area and didn't have TV, but I was so excited about having a woman VP candidate that I rented a motel room to watch the debate. The thing I most remember was Ferraro joking with Bush I about their accountants. It was so cozy, such an "old boys' club" in-joke among millionaires. And I thought, 'This candidate may be a woman, but she does not represent ME, or most people.'
Do Democratic Party leaders who voted for, and continue to support, "trade secret" programming by Bushite corporations in our election system, represent you and me? They do not. Did Daniel Inouye and his Congressional committee on Iran-Contra represent the interests of the American people in those hearings, with their wrist-slappings of Reagan's murderous underlings, and avoidance of Reagan responsibility and complicity? They did not. It started there. And it has led to this: the Bush Junta. You nailed it, tom_paine--true to your name!
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