Voting Rights: I fear that American democracy may already be dead.

[Cyrano]

Without the right to vote, and having those votes properly counted, there is no freedom. Many of us DUers, and a majority of Americans, believe that we still live in the country that existed up until January 20th, 2001. Do we? Or are we just clinging to some fantasy that the country into which we were born, still exists?

So many of our freedoms have been stolen from us over the past 4 1/2 years. It was made possible by the BushCo exploitation of 9/11. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans still haven't grasped that concept.

Whether it's the words that come out of the mouths of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, Cheney, Junior, or so many others like them, reasonable people seem to have become numb to just how despicable and anti-American are their words and the ideas behind them.

My greatest fear is that, even if the majority finally caught on to what is being done to us, nothing would change. There's another election coming up in about 18 months, but how many of us have any confidence that our votes will count?

I rarely hear people speaking of how we go about getting rid of Diebold and the other corporations who are pirating our votes. Or, of once and for all, putting an end to voter disenfranchisement.

To restate my premise, our democracy and many of our freedoms are gone -- perhaps never to return in our lifetimes.

(And please don't lecture me about negativism. How would you suggest that we go about reclaiming our birthrights?)

[leftofthedial]

1. it died in December of 2000

dead as a doornail

won't come back either.

we'll (humanity will) have to start over


edit: manual dyslexia

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. December 2000?

[leftofthedial]

3. oops, typo!

[Cyrano]

4. The Supreme Court decision that appointed Bush.

December, 2000.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. That's what I was referencing.

[Carolab]

5. Then, DO something about it.

"I rarely hear people speaking of how we go about getting rid of Diebold and the other corporations who are pirating our votes."

I DO. I hear it all the time. Want to know why? Because I am actually WORKING on election reform in my own state. Instead of singing dirges for "democracy" I am trying to fix the problem.

Want to help? Contact your representatives and educate them. Ask for a meeting. Give them information from all the many election reform activist websites out there. Work on changing the election legislation in your state. Work on writing initiatives if you can't get the legislation passed.

Whining and moaning isn't going to help. DO SOMETHING.

[Cyrano]

6. Sigh, so much for the last sentence of my original post.

A little politeness would go a long way.

[Carolab]

8. Okay.

Please do something. Thank you.

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. I believe the OP was looking for suggestions.

I can sympathize with being at a loss for ideas. The situation does seem overwhelming.

[bonito]

12. Do you know of a election reform movement

that is really doing something nationally? I think if there is a way out, this would have to be it. I know the difference of being in the world and of the world, but while I'm here theres nothing wrong with truth and fairness.

[Carolab]

13. Voters Unite.

www.votersunite.org

[stillcool]

10. you, my friend are not alone....

there are many who feel just as you. And the enormity of the daily barrage of horrendous actions being reported here and there is very difficult to take in. There is a sense of urgency to bring this all to an end, that can leave one feeling woefully powerless. However, we all do what we can, where we are. And it has to be enough. Peace.

[lady lib]

11. My knowledge is extremely limited on this, but I think we could

call our Democratic congresspeople and ask them to go on TV and publicly denounce the Republicans for being afraid of a paper trail (and by extension honest elections). My understanding is that HAVA is stalled in committee right now. But if they keep publicly challenging the Republicans to ensuring honest elections, the public pressure will build.