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let's concentrate on re-empowering and re-enfranchising the great progressive American majority.
With the Unholy Alliance between these 'christian' nutballs and the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, we have been given the IMPRESSION that their views prevail, and that we liberals, progressives and leftists--and lovers of the Constitution--are the minority. It has never been true. It never will be true. And that is the main thing that we must realize and seek to remedy: that the majority has been demoralized, disempowered and, above all, disenfranchised!
Look, here is the resume of the two corporations who "counted" all our votes in 2004 (and again in 2006*), on electronic voting machines and central tabulators run on "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls:
DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and
ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things).
We have been taken over by this rabid, punitive-God-besotted MINORITY. We have suffered a clever, uniquely designed (designed for us) FASCIST COUP, comprised of 'christian' fanatics, war profiteers and global corporate predator oil and other interests. The punitive-God-besotted MINORITY part of it is just being USED, by these other interests, as a distraction, and as part of the "national news narrative" that we have been sold as "reality." They have ever been with us. I remember them in my youth, as the "Christian anti-Communist Crusade," who held tent revivals out in the San Bernardino desert. They were not "mainstream" then. They are not "mainstream" now. They have been culled and used, and over-funded, and given a BIG TRUMPET to promulgate their insane minority views, are now drunk with power. But they are actually a minor element in THE COUP. Window-dressing. Scary, yes--but not viable in a country in which all the votes are counted in a way that everyone can see and understand.
These repressive Puritans and Calvinists have always been with us. They tried to import witchburning at Salem, back when. Religious war and a Punishing God are their M.O. They were the same sour, funless crowd who closed the theaters in London, during the Usurpation, and went around trying to look "pious." The Cotton Mathers. The Roundheads. The Cromwellians. But Thomas Jefferson and others put them down, royally (so to speak), with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It could be said that it was a singular purpose of Jefferson's life NEVER TO HAVE RELIGIOUS RULE in the U.S. of A. (He'd been inflicted with a Calvinist teacher in his youth, and, burned by that experience, determined upon religious freedom--and no state religion--as the first premise of democracy.)
Now, it's my opinion that we need to do some work to bring them back into the fold of democracy. It will be impossible in some cases. There will ALWAYS BE a repressive minority like this among us, whose LEADERS are ever willing to join with the latest fascist institutions (such as global corporate predators) to gain power over the majority (the rest of us). But I think we can de-program some of them, and get them to realize that, whatever their religious notions, they are better off in a democracy. Calvinist nutballs tend to eat their own. They are a vicious lot, as likely to persecute each other as to persecute Catholics or Jews. The more well-meaning and sincere people among the Evangelicals and other sects are a lot safer and freer to proselytize (to whoever will listen to them) in a free society.
But, to my mind, our PRIORITY must be to get the majority back in power--to get everyone's votes counted in a transparent process. (The fascists and 'christian' nuts will always lose in a fair contest.) THEN we can deal with their issues, in so far as their issues have legitimacy that merits discussion in a democratic country--gay rights, women's rights, "family values" and other such matters (always sexual--they have it on the brain), and with what the process should be for resolving these issues. Another fundamental of democracy is protecting minority rights, and allowing all opinions to be voiced in a free "marketplace of ideas." Maybe we need to heed the fear and panic that this minority feels at the huge and fast-paced social revolution that started in the 1960s. Maybe there is some wisdom in it, that even they cannot see and articulate. The fear comes out as the desire to repress, to stave off change. But I have always thought that this opposition to equal rights was evidence of a deeper fear--which I thought of as the corporatization of American life, the loss of community, the feeling of many Americans of being "strangers in a strange land." It has little or nothing to do with bigotry. (Operatives like Karl Rove USE bigotry--deliberately stir it up, but is that what people are really feeling, or is it more a loss of control over their lives that has a far different cause than gays seeking equal rights.)
But before we get to the pathology of repression, and why this minority feels so alienated, we MUST restore our right to vote, majority rule and the rule of law. And that is not so easy with all the colluders with Fascist Rule in our own Democratic Party leadership, who find it convenient to have a Fascist adversary, whose every anti-democratic outrage serves to make our leaders APPEAR TO BE "progressive."
When I explained the facts of our voting system--and its hijacking by rightwing corporations--to an intelligent friend of mine, some time ago, here is what she said, "But the Democrats wouldn't let that happen, would they?"
But the issue is not "would they" let it happen. The issue is that they DID let it happen. They all voted for it. They all support it. And they all have been mind-boggling silent about it, to this day.
In truth, the coup was not a Fascist Coup, exactly--it was a Corporate Coup. Global corporate predators now control the "counting" of our votes. And they can produce fascism-lite or fascism-brutal, at their will. If they need scary boogeymen like Bush and Cheney, that's who we get. If they judge that's it's time for a fake "progressive," we get Hillary. And if the time ever comes that they need Hitler II, that's who will ascend to the presidency with "unitary executive" powers. We have no more control over who is president than we have over the rates of taxation, or the use of our military. And that reality has been sealed by "trade secret," proprietary vote "counting."
It's not the 'christian' nutballs that we should be concerned about. It's Diebold and ES&S. It's not the people who applaud torture that we should be concerned about, right now--it's the POWER of their evil leaders to IMPLEMENT torture, despite MAJORITY opposition. (And God knows what they are using it for! You can be sure it's not to "keep us safe.")
'Christian' crazies (and Bush crazies, often one and the same) make easy targets. Not so Diebold and ES&S. (Ask Kevin Shelley! You oppose THEM, you get "swiftboated" out of office!). They are The Power. Their takeover of our election system WAS the coup. And they control ALL OFFICES.
Our only real power, as a people, is our vote. We can yell and scream all we want, but as long as they can fiddle the election returns, we have no power to effect any real change. And the powers-that-be can safely ignore us--as they are doing--on war, on "free trade" (global corporate piracy), on the tyrannical powers of the president, and many other vital issues.
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*(It's my opinion--and that of other election analysts--that, in '06, the people outvoted the machines, in their anger and disgust at this Junta, but they were not able to achieve a truly representative Congress, because a handicap of approximately 5% to 10% is being placed on their votes. The machines tip the balance. The handicap favors Bushites, warmongers and corporatists--in both the primaries and general election. This is how we end up with SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT of the American people opposing the Iraq War and wanting it ended, yet the war is being ESCALATED. More troops. More billions of dollars poured into. By a DEMOCRATIC Congress. We get the rhetoric of opposition to the war--because they are now cognizant of the peoples' ability to outvote the machines--but no substance. The war goes on. They claim they lack the numbers in Congress to stop the war, and to impeach Bush and Cheney for their many crimes, but who's fault is that? They all support secret vote "counting" by rightwing Bushite corporations. Even those who want who want a "paper trail" and a minimal audit--ridiculously inadequate measures--HAVE NOT CHALLENGED the SECRET CODE, nor the PRIVATIZATION of vote counting. That is a CORPORATE POWER that will long outlive the Bush Junta, unless we put a stop to it--which I think is possible to do at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence. But it's going to take time--patience, persistence.)
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