If Democracy Is Denied

The sheer momentum of the Obama-Biden ticket has triggered frantic and massive Republican vote-rigging operations in key battleground states designed to manufacture a counterfeit majority in the Electoral College.

Tactical operations now stemming from the McCain-Palin campaign and its surrogates are designed to lead to litigation in the Supreme Court now under the direction of Chief Justice John Roberts who capably served under James Baker and George W. Bush as the primary architect of the legal maneuvers that decided the presidential election of 2000 by a party line vote in the Rehnquist Court.

Given the current momentum and dynamics of the presidential campaign, it now appears as if the Democratic ticket led by Obama-Biden will capture a clear majority of votes on Election Day. That said, it is equally clear that Rovian strategies of electoral subterfuge are now being deployed to rig the election and morph a Democratic win in the popular vote into a narrow defeat in the Electoral College mirroring the election of 2000. Republican plans are now afoot to install McCain-Palin regardless of the outcome of the votes cast in the election.

Following a stream of reports in the mainstream media, it is now perfectly clear that -- due to the collapse of the McCain-Palin ticket in a growing number of national polls, Republican strategic operations have shifted gears and are now engaged in executing a tactical campaign involving vote suppression, vote-rigging, litigation and the ultimate nullification of the election results. The Republican Party is now deeply engaged in the process of deploying thousands of highly trained operatives in the guise of 'observers' to the polls on Election Day to target and intimidate poor, minority and recently foreclosed voters.

In court documents, Republican officials admitted that they have used foreclosure lists to target and disqualify registered voters on Election Day. The situation is critical -- voter suppression operations in key battleground states are targeting Democratic strongholds, intimidating voters and jeopardizing the ballots they cast in a coordinated operation to skew the results in favor of the increasingly unpopular McCain-Palin ticket.

There is little serious doubt that the systematic suppression of Democratic voters and the disqualification of their ballots will unfold on Election Day. In Ohio, Michigan and other states large-scale Republican-backed voter suppression operations are now well underway. Obama-Biden supporters have already filed suit in Michigan, but there is an urgent need for more proactive lawsuits - and more public awareness about the immediate threat to American democracy.

According to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and other electoral experts - partisan voter purges are taking place in Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and other battleground states to delete up to 20 per cent of eligible poor, black and Hispanic voters from the rolls. Greg Palast, the bestselling author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, has issued shrill warnings that Rovian election-stealing operations are already in advanced stages of execution. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed Mark Crispin Miller who attested to the covert threat of massive cyber-fraud to rig the election in key battleground states by agents he identified as evangelical computer technicians motivated by the anti-abortion agenda of McCain-Palin. Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow interviewed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who described some of the most insidious threats to the integrity of the vote and urged the audience to read his graphic voter guide, Steal Back Your Vote.

Given the history of the past two elections, this rapidly growing constellation of threats to millions of eligible Democratic voters must be taken seriously. To defend against the cynical and insidious scenario emerging from the McCain-Palin campaign, it is both prudent and patriotic to develop a preliminary contingency plan.

In American history, peaceful demonstrations have led to the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. In other nations, people have organized massive nonviolent demonstrations to protest unrepresentative governments and the stealing of presidential elections. For instance, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution in Prague propelled Vaclav Havel to power over an unpopular but entrenched Communist government in Czechoslovakia. Here is a brief synopsis of the early stages of the Velvet Revolution.

a. Students organized a peaceful demonstration in Prague to shed Communist rule. Labor unions organized simultaneous nonviolent demonstrations in several Czech cites.

b. The police clashed with the demonstrators.

c. Negotiations between students and the government led to assurances that the police would not crush the popular movement.

d. A massive demonstration was organized on Wenceslas Square, at the same time demonstrations unfolded in other Czech cities amid calls for a general strike.

e. Religious, civic, labor and artistic leaders announced their support for the students.

f. Employees of the state media threatened to strike if events taking place were suppressed or ignored by the media.

g. Uncensored reports of the Velvet revolutionary events were reported.

h. Military leaders refused to take any action against the people involved.

i. State television broadcast a speech by Vaclav Havel.

j. Leaders of the opposition were granted time on television, and large newspapers began to join the opposition movement.

k. A cascade of public demonstrations led to negotiations between the Public Against Violence and the civic authorities.

Given the lessons of history, both American and Czech - non-violent public mobilization for progressive change strengthens democratic traditions.

In the event of a third stolen presidential election in the United States, peaceful public pressure should be brought to bear on what will be seen by the majority of American citizens as a rogue regime arriving in the wake of another corrupt presidential election.

Under any conceivable set of circumstances, it would be foolish to ignore Rovian plans for the stealing of the 2008 presidential election while Republican field agents are busy marshalling their forces to manufacture a synthetic majority of the Electoral College for McCain-Palin.

If corrupt Republican operations are allowed to steal a third consecutive presidential election - peaceful protest should be marshaled to morph a crime against constitutional democracy into a Red, White & Blue Democratic Revolution for America modeled on the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

Responsible contingency plans should be moved into position to organize peaceful protests in Washington DC, Chicago, New York and other cities in the immediate aftermath of November 4th.

Licenses and permits for marching in Washington, DC and other cities to enable students, organized labor, peace groups and progressive reformers to mobilize should be organized as a prudent first step toward defending and promoting democracy in America.

Initial contingency planning and preliminary organization for nonviolent demonstrations from student, labor, religious, civic and civil rights groups as well as the police, the military and the media should commence before the election takes place on the 4th of November. Planning and preliminary organization should proceed as a matter of course.

If Obama-Biden wins an outright majority in the Electoral College that now seems probable, peaceful public demonstrations of enthusiastic support for the progressive agenda will strengthen the political mandate for positive change.

Comments

[gonbald]

I voted already but still feel uneasy.
Maybe the last 8 years has something to do with it.

[parvo63]

I'm not surprised that the Dems are working on a contingency plan. They understand very well that they cannot win these elections, legally, and will blame the Republican party for fraud. The only fraud so far documented, however, is the Democratic party-financed left wing ACORN: they are being officially investigatef by the FBI for thousands (!) of cases of voter registration fraud. All other talk of election fraud is merely a tactics of distraction by the left wing.
BTW, there's no need to steal the elections. If Barack Obama does not present his official birth certificate to prove that he was born in the USA and not in Kenya, there's 100% chance that the court will disqualify him, and most probably either pronounce McCain as the winner, or (in the worst case scenario) annull these elections. If this happens, not only Obama's career will be over for good, but there might be civil unrest throughout the country, too.

[Michael Carmichael - Huffpost Blogger]

The 'legal' channel may be offering Democrats a glimmer of hope after the Roberts Court denied the Republican suit in Ohio that would have required 200,000 voters to use provisional ballots. Now Boehner and Bush are panicking and urging Mukasey to intervene to reinstate provisional ballots - read, disenfranchise 200,000 voters in Ohio and many more in other battleground states. When the Roberts Court opposes Republican vote-rigging via provisional ballots it is time for Republican operatives like Parvo63 to worry. After the 2000 debacle, the late William Rehnquist published a paper to plead for no future Supreme Court interventions in elections -- that is what Parvo63 means by 'legal' in his comment above -- ie. elections that can be litigated before the partisan Supreme Court.

The FBI investigation into ACORN is utterly frivolous, much like the Army-McCarthy-HUAC hearings of the 1950s. No vote fraud has ever been committed by ACORN. While there are less than 100 cases of vote fraud reported per year, the use of provisional ballots, voter suppression and voter purges routinely disenfranchise millions of American voters -- yet that is the definition of 'legal' elections in Bush's America that Parvo63 believes in so fervently.

Parvo63 makes another frivolous claim about Obama's Kenyan birth. From Parvo63's writing, it is clear that the Republicans are desperate to avoid a seamless transition of power -- the raison d'etre of democracy. It is the Republicans' lack of respect for democracy that makes a contingency plan vital -- ie. to restore constitutional

[parvo63]

There cannot be a "seamless" transition to power, if Obama does not prove he was qualified to be a president, i.e. if he doesn't produce his ORIGINAL birth certificate. He still hasn't done so. Why? What is he hiding?

[DasBoot]

Yup, I fully expect the coup d'etat to take place. Will the people roll over and take it, again? Given how shred the Obama campaign has acted so far, I hope they have a contingency plan. They should have learned from Gore and Kerry's mistakes. But we shouldn't count on it.

[BobLablah]

It is 100% true that McCain is going to steal the election. You will be wasting your time and look foolish if you go vote. Everyone stay home.