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Edited on Tue Feb-06-07 03:48 PM by Peace Patriot
...this problem and '08 won't matter" is not realistic, and it may undermine courage for the difficult, long term work that we must do to restore our democracy. We may well have to endure years more of unjust war and other fascist policies before we can achieve proper representation of the American people in Congress and in the White House. The lousy representation we are seeing today--particularly in the Senate--was not created in a day, and will not be undone in day.
The Senate is a particular problem in part because only one third of the Senate was up for reelection in '06. So many Bush "pod people," rightwing dinosaurs and collusive Democrats continue to be a drag on the implementation of the will of the people in that body. If we had had a chance to throw them all out, many would be gone, and the Senate would be much more anti-Mideast war and anti-fascist.
We also have the problem of NON-TRANSPARENT elections. In many cases, we really don't know--and can't know--who was really elected to Congress. Our elections are now run on "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. We can presume that SOME members of Congress were genuinely elected, by looking at the opinion polls and other evidence. It is likely that the changed coloration in Congress is due in part to the people outvoting the machines, in their anger and disatisfaction with the country's leadership. But there is one quite good analysis (at www.TruthIsAll.net) that we should have won 50 seats in the House, not just 30 or so. So we are handicapped even in the House. (My guestimate: a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales," by Diebold/ES&S, in favor of Bushites, warmongers and corporatists.)
Think of it this way. In '06, the entire House was up for reelection. SEVENTY-PERCENT of the American people want the Iraq War ended (another poll today puts it at 74%!). I don't think I have ever seen a bigger mandate on an important issue. Is that % reflected in the House? No. There are at least 40 Democrats, for instance--the traitor "Blue Dog Democrats" (a rightwing Dem coalition founded by Gary Condit, as I recall), who want to cut spending on everything EXCEPT THE WAR BUDGET. There goes your majority. We would be lucky to have about a 50/50 split on the war. At best, 50% plus a few are anti-Iraq war--compared to 70% of the American people.
I don't have the resources to analyze the elections of those 40 "Blue Dog" traitors to democracy, but I would place money on Diebold/ES&S involvement (a good bet, since Diebold/ES&S "counted" 80% of the votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy), and on strange anomalous numbers in the vote counts, discrepancies with the pre-election polls, and a preponderance of "close" elections (easiest to fiddle, undetectably).
So, in terms of "the difficult, long term work that we must do to restore our democracy," restoring TRANSPARENT elections is probably Priority No. 1. Even associated election reform problems--like our filthy campaign contribution system, illegal purges of black voters, and corporate news monopolies dominating our public airwaves and dictating the narrow parameters of debate--are not solvable without us having enough legislators and officeholders to push through true reform laws.
How can we achieve transparent elections in this circumstance on non-transparent elections? It's not an easy task, but it is DOABLE. It's going to take time. The Dems in the House have a bill that will be only somewhat helpful--if they can get it past War/Corporate Democrat Diane Feinstein (now head of the elections committee in the Senate). This bill (HR 550) will require a "paper trail" and a 2% audit (automatic recount by hand). But it is absolutely MIND-BOGGLING that we don't have those things now, and that the bill is SO MODEST (in Venezuela, for instance, they do a FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT audit). Also, these lying criminal rightwing corporations, Diebold/ES&S, should be purged from our voting system. Instead, Congress will be rewarding them with more billions for upgrades, "patches," printers, security, testing, servicing contracts and even the paper receipts or ballots that are newly required (they get those contracts, too!). Furthermore, the central electronic tabulators--likely the main culprit in stealing elections--will remain in place, even with voting machines that have a "paper trail" (of which only 2% will be audited).
To achieve true TRANSPARENCY--not just bullshit "patches" to this broken system--we likely will have to go the long route, through local/state jurisdictions, where ordinary people still have some influence. And election reform IS happening at these levels already. (A similar phenomenon is occurring with regard to global warming--cities and states taking the initiative.)
There are three principles to keep in mind, which I have gathered from the awesome, peaceful, democratic, leftist (majorityist) revolution that is sweeping Latin America--where, not a decade ago, there were brutal fascist dictatorships (often U.S.-backed)--and where, today, there are leftist (majorityist) governments in Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaraga (and soon--next election cycle--in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico):
1. Transparent elections. 2. Grass roots organization. 3. Think big.
I might also add PATIENCE and LONG-TERM THINKING. If the Latin Americans can do it, so can we. Nothing is going to change that much in '07, '08, '09--except the possibility of nuclear holocaust, triggered by Bush-Cheney, in the Middle East, something that would be in no one's interest, and that even they can probably see is not even in the interest of the greedy. U.S. involvement in long term Mideast war--something that EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of the American people oppose (according to a poll posted here at DU last summer)--is a good possibility, with U.S. financial ruin and civil insurrection as consequences. We may not get our country back until they've thoroughly looted it and thrown thousands of us into torture chambers, or out of airplanes--as happened in the above-mentioned Latin American countries. Then we heal our broken hearts and rebuild, on the basis of democracy and social justice. But we have to plant those seeds, and build those grass roots structures, now, looking to the future. And I don't think that saying that "it's all over" if we can't do it by '08 is all that helpful. Miracles can happen, but you can't count on them. You need to strategize on the basis of truth and reality. And to expect this only partially representative Congress--operating within a fascist junta--to change things by fiat is not realistic. We should be ENCOURAGED that the people outvoted the machines, but not overly hopeful that the peoples' interests will now be served, nor overly-discouraged when that doesn't happen.
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