Avedon Carol talks about the most recent spate of election fraud being carried out in broad daylight, yet we don't seem to grasp how important this is and what to do about it. As I have said countless times before,
what do the polls matter if the elections are rigged? Yet we seem to lack, maybe not the political will, but the political
savvy to prevent it. The old ways of organizing don't work any more. If the elections are rigged, then what difference do the get-out-the vote programs make? If the elections are rigged, what difference does it make how many protesters there are? If the elections are rigged, how can we ever hold those responsible accountable for their actions? And most important: if the huge mass of American citizens who are currently indifferent to all of this remain indifferent, how can we return control of the political process to us, so that it accurately reflects the will of the people?
I get chided from time to time for being a little too apocalyptic. I've said time and time again that the powers that be aren't going to give up power without a fight (and I don't mean a political fight), and I don't see any reason at present to think otherwise. Frankly I think the time for a political solution passed when GW Bush took office, possibly earlier than that: when the Republican leadership was taken over by corporatists and religious fanatics, and the Democrats stood by and let it happen.
If I seem like a pessimist, I think I have some good reasons to be. Karl Rove is still doing his work. So is Tom DeLay. And despite the clear evidence of the numerous crimes that have been committed by the Bush administration, no one who has any real power to do so, or to sway public opinion, is suggesting that he should be impeached. In other words, despite all our work, things are still pretty damn gloomy.
We tell the Republicans that "clapping louder" is not going to make the situation in Iraq improve, but we don't seem to understand that the same works for us, too. I remember in the weeks before the 2004 election saying that Kerry (or any of the Democratic contenders, for that matter) would never take office, yet I was yelled at for being "negative". I hear the same thing from people when I say that we won't re-take the House of the Senate in 2006, and we won't. Barring a miracle, it will stay pretty much the same as it is right now. Some of you out there may not want to hear it, but if you ignore the facts you're as bad as the right. And while I certainly admit I can be wrong (and I hope I am, of course), you have to admit that my track record up till now has been pretty good.
Anybody who reads my blog regularly knows that I'm not really a pessimist, I believe in the long term that things will get better, but I believe that things will have to get pretty bad before the conditions for that sort of improvement will take place. And if there are any out there that still doubt the seriousness of this struggle, let me remind you of a few things:
- People who issue "hunting licenses" for those they disagree with are capable of anything.
People who think torture is perfectly acceptable regardless of the results are capable of anything.
People who fully support going to war and killing thousands of people, based on flimsy evidence and under the guise of "safety" are capable of anything.
Being somewhat of a student of history, I know that things were far worse for people in the days before the New Deal. But things were different then: the New Dealers had a program, and there were no Diebold machines to make election fraud so efficient. And now we have a public that has been raised on the idea that
everything the government does is evil. Under these circumstances, how then can a political solution even be suggested? These are the issues we have to deal with, and we're a long, long way up that famous creek without even a boat, never mind a paddle.
I don't know how, when, or even if we can get power back. But the minute we do we have a lot of work in front of us. When FDR came into power he had to deal primarily with domestic issues, now the US economy is part of a larger, more interdependent global community. The right thinks it can deal with international issues with military force, the left still doesn't understand that the economic future of America depends a great deal about the rights and salaries of working people in Mexico and China. The answer has nothing to do about what's right for the Democratic Party, but what's right for everyone, everywhere. It's time we on both sides stopped clapping and started facing reality.
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