In the end, the decision couldn't be clearer. This is more than just a choice between parties, or ideologies, or policy positions. It's a choice between philosophies and worldviews. It's a choice grounded in moral psychology. We will choose between different portions of our own brains, between our baser instincts and what used to be called "the angels of our better nature."
In the end, this election is a referendum on trusting the electorate. It's a referendum on democracy itself.
One candidate represents collaboration, optimism... and yes, "change." The other represents fear and greed, and his campaign reflects the lower-order impulses that have guided his party and given it success. They've triggered fear in us so effectively for so long that they can't believe it's not working this time. They're still frantically sending memo after memo to our lizard brains: Khalidi, Ayers, redistribution... be afraid! And the more this old strategem fails, the harder they try.
Now they're trying to make us afraid of ourselves. That's what the ACORN con is all about. That's why McCain called it "one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and suggested that its "destroying the fabric of democracy." Sure, it's a calculated diversion, an attempt to delegitimize any Democratic victory and encourage resistance. But it also reflects a fundamental belief, one held deep in the heart of the powerful elite McCain represents:
Be afraid of the voters... voters are unpredictable... voters might do anything. We can't let that happen.
You probably remember Rumsfeld's line: "Democracy is messy." But you may not remember when he said it. It was in response to widespread looting of banks, offices, and museums. That says a lot. To this crowd, "democracy" is a violent mob. Representative government is an unpleasant necessity, not a value or an ideal. The rest of us think "war is too important to be left to the generals." They think self-government is too important to be left to the voters.
To some extent this is nothing more than greed and lust for power, the misuse of conservatism as a cover for naked self-interest. But it also reflects a difference in political philosophy that goes back to Locke and Hobbes. Their equation of democracy with mob rule, so clearly mirrored in Rumsfeld's comment, helps explain why they feel morally entitled to lie, cheat, and steal votes. To them, voters aren't reflections of a democratic ideal. They're suspects, threats, enemies. They're the Iraqi mob looting the Museum of Antiquities.
That's why they've condemned Obama's donors, too -- all 30 million of them. Somebody might have used a phony credit card! Never mind the lobbyists that crowd McCain/Palin's campaign staff, or McCain's apparent violation of his own "reform" laws during the primary. Lobbyists and big-money contributors are "us." But grassroots donors are the unruly mob the candidate will have to please if he's elected. That makes them 30 million "cronies," to go along with that list of 100 million suspects.
Voters are guilty until proven innocent. That's why they hate voter-registration organizations like ACORN. To them, minorities are nothing more than an especially untrustworthy subset of an unsavory crowd. The lines at the polls might as well be a perp walk.
The only thing that makes a citizen more of a threat than voting is "voting while black." That's why they can sleep at night after creating long waiting lines at "separate but equal" polling places in states like Ohio, despite the fact that what they're doing is no different from what was done under Jim Crow segregation. That's why they can live with themselves after creating photo ID requirements in Florida that disproportionately exclude minority voters (who are less likely to drive and therefore to have a driver's license.)
It's also why we fight. Don't let up. Vote. Help others vote. Bring camcorders, cell phones, and cameras to your polling place for some election "sousveillance" (surveillance from below.) Document the intrusions. You can sign up here to help track problems, or you can participate in the Election Protection Wiki described here. And work hard over the next few days to get out the vote.
Democracy isn't a subversive activity. It's our way of life, our highest ideal. They will try to overrule the will of the people on Nov. 4. Don't let them.
Democracy. It's the "real America."
RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:
A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog
Future-While-U-Wait
Follow RJ Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow
Liddy Dole's "godless ad" is blowing up in her face.
http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/liddy-doles-godless-americans-ad-is.html
I'm an independent research psychologist aka poet. I've been studying this since the 80s. This is our new method for manufacturing consent.
My hunch is, Muthee's heinous acts of social engineering in Africa were field trials for a new black psy op.
Physicists deliberately chose the absolutely isolated point particle as their fundamental unit. Psychologists, despite Oppenheimer"s 1955 warning to the APA convention, adopted this as our model of the ego. [SOURCE: Kinget, G. W. (1979). Objective psychology: a case of epistemological sleight-of-hand. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 11, 83-96.]
This implodes our psyches into quantum singularities of pain.That"s right, I"m saying we're cosmic pinheads. We are cellf-imprisoned in cellves of our own mistaken making. Defining our selves as essentially imprisoned is at the root of human suffering.
What are the hallmarks of the Bush-APA Torture Doctrine? Isolation and psycho-spiritual attacks. http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2007/11/17/leaked-guantanamo-document-confirms-routine-use-of-isolation-as-psychological-torture
Torture by isolation isn't aberrant for us, it"s what we do. Remember the abuses of Islam at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib?
Katherine Harris Was in Sarah Palin's Spiritual Warfare Network
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/katherine-harris-was-in-s_b_140164.html?show_comment_id=17579666#comment_17579666
He was particularly good at Cal Poly on Russians @19.00. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=638103060646285609&ei=OtoNSamyJZn-qAOn24XQBA&q=gore+vidal+interview&hl=en
The only difference is that Hamilton's crowd was open about its distrust of democracy. Today's like-minded souls hide their intentions behind propagandistic rhetoric, powerful symbols and shouts of "USA! USA!".
1) a younger demographic favors Obama so that gives him an edge among first time voters.
2) more Hispanics than ever are voting Democratic.
3) Obama's organization is broader and more eficient than previous Democratic get out the vote drives, including in some Red States where polling shows the closest election in decades.
4) Palin has a high disapproval rating that has significantly increased every week.
5) McCain himself is lame, seems stumbling and creepy and capable of waging only a specious ad hominem campaign.
6) Obama was widely thought to have won all three debates by a large margin, as did Biden.
So why wouldn't the margin be much greater than the polls indicate?
My theory: McCain and Palin get far more MSM coverage overall than Obama and Biden, despite the latter's great advantage in ads. They have discovered that if you come up with new smears and revive old ones every few days, the MSM will dutifully give you free airtime and endlessly discuss the merits of the flimsiest allegations.
Who needs campaign funding if this tactic unfailingly dominates the newscycle?
This has been their formula, and it has successfully kept them alive, if not ahead. And unlike the Obama camp, they have "doubled down" with Palin, while Biden has hardly been heard from.
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There aren't exuberant enough characters to express my delight, my outright joy, with what you've said here, o brother my Brother RJ. You struck speechless this Zen poet (fair warning: it may not last!).
I bow deeply in your virtual direction (hold still a sec, I'm north of Seattle, and the Hallowe'en Ethereal-net traffic is heavy right now).
Think! Don't let your buttons get pushed.
Michael and TheSarge, I'm looking at you!
I bow deeply in your virtual direction.
(Thanks for the link to A Night Light, too.)
The important end of the Republican party are the rich folk paying for it. The Republican party is a profit driven operation. Imagine an outfit or an individual that makes two hundred million dollars in a year. In a forty percent tax bracket they will pay eighty million dollars of tax. That is eighty million reasons to influence the political process towards lower taxes. It's eighty million reasons to have a Republican party. Most tax money comes from a small percentage of people, because most of the wealth is concentrated - that's what capitalism means. That group of people at this point in history are not patriots - they don't care about America as such. They are short sighted in the extreme, because they are oriented towards a financial market that rewards short sightedness. It's the way many great nations fall, people who don't care about the institutions take control of them to make a fast buck.
My point is that the current Republicans aren't against democracy because it's messy. They simply don't want to pay taxes.
And it contains the most important advices:
1) Go vote
2) Brace yourself for fraud
3) Prepare to document fraud
The depressing thing: I can't do it. I'm not a citizien of the USA.
It's up to you guys ! Do it!
I agree. In this article, the author sums up a long history of the vote-jacking methods that have stolen democracy right from under our noses. Better still, he doesn't leave us stunned, but provides masterly advice on how to defend ourselves.
Now ain't THAT America!
They keep beating us with the Fearsome stick, even though it no longer works. Every move they make betrays their distrust of the sovereign citizenry.
"This could be made into a monster/ If we all pull together as a team." No let up! We haven't crossed the goal line yet.
One couldn't express it better.
It was a crazy year. It is somewhat surreal that it will be over on tuesday. That we will finally know how all of this ends. I have to say: I envy you guys. You really have a choice.
The choice my democracy offers is like the choice between rotten fish and smelly brown stuff coming from your behind (Germany).
One year back I had no faith in and no hope for democracy left. That has changed a lot!
Ahhh...the anxiety starts to ged a hold of me ;)
Make it happen!
Agreement in Colo. lawsuit helps purged voters
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081031/ap_on_el_ge/voter_purges
From www.theurbanprophet.com:
"The question was asked of Obama, should the heinous act of partial birth abortion be outlawed in America? Twice Senator Obama answered no! When he was asked if a child, who might miraculously survive the sentence of death by abortion, be protected from an abortion doctor after surviving? Senator Obama said no! (See Born Alive Victims Protection Law.) Has he no conscience? Is he misinformed on the facts of these barbaric practices? His response to these questions is not indicative of the Black community’s beliefs, and certainly shows a low degree of conscience and moral fiber."
"Each day, 1452 African Americans are murdered by abortion. 4,000 children over all."
"There have been over 15 million African American children dismembered in the womb by the abortion holocaust and as many women victimized."
"Marriage, since the 1970s, is down 17% in America and in the African Community it’s down 34%, which is twice the national average."
Blacks make up 13% of the population and 34% of abortions. Who are you really for?
I am not racist and not voting for Obama.
"In fact, because I am not a racist, I am not voting for Obama." This argument does not hold up. Try a logic class.
We need to scream this from the roof-top now and forever more.