*'s Operation Clean Sweep: A Nightmare Scenario

[elfwitch]

Article on CounterPunch by JOHN STANTON
Read this today. Send this article link to as many people as you know. It is important that we aren't the only ones seeing what the horrific potential of a GW* election grab in 2004 will do. Print it out with a voter registration form and hand it out.

<snip>
Even though Bush II will lose the popular vote in the US presidential election of 2004, his electoral college victory seems assured. With Republican party governors firmly in charge of Florida, California, Texas and New York, and supported by a whopping Bush campaign war chest approaching $200 million, dubious electronic voting schemes courtesy of Diebold, Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors it seems certain that Bush will make it back to the Oval Office through the back door that is the Electoral College.

<snip>
Mediocre times produce the very worst that the world has to offer: Reagan, Bin Laden, Bush, Hussein, Sharon, and Blair. None but the feeble minded could draw inspiration from such a ghastly lineup of "leaders". This is the world as it has become absent the shortened lives of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X and Yitzhak Rabin, all of whom were murdered for their beliefs, or, rather, for the threat they posed to the established interests.

<snip>
And so the Bush-led PCS will continue to dress its god, its profits, its worldview in the colorful and flammable costume that is patriotism. The rallying cries are very persuasive to simple minds: Fight 'Em There Rather than Here! America is Safer Now! The Economy is Recovering! Do Your Duty and Buy! Cheaper Oil and Gas for Americans! Help Freedom Loving Iraqi's Rebuild! God Bless America! Go Team! That same sort of infantile rationale will continue to be used to not only further the economic and ideological divide in America, but to attack nations who, coincidently, have large oil and gas reserves, sit in the path of energy pipelines, or who happen to believe in Islam. But wait! The Catholic and oil rich nations of Venezuela and Colombia find themselves targets of the Bush PCS. Now there's a coincidence: Roman Catholics and Muslims the target of an Evangelical Christian American government. Catholics and Muslims Unite!

<snip>
Shortly upon taking office in 2004, Bush's PCS will move rapidly on a number of fronts. Unbound by the constraints of campaigning, the real work of the Bush PCS will begin. First, the Bush PCS will continue to rupture federal and state programs that assist the middle and lower classes of America and their culture and environment. The US Supreme Court will eliminate a woman's right to choose. Constitutional amendments banning gay rights, women's rights and civil rights/affirmative action will be proposed by the Bush PCS and, in all likelihood, will succeed. An additional amendment to the constitution concerning military rule in case of an attack on US soil by any foreign individual or state will be added easing the way towards military rule in America.


Entire Article
http://www.counterpunch.com/stanton12032003.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. Sit back and enjoy the ride while we can guys

It appears its all over, we have let the Pubs rule and now they are drunk w power. We are doomed.

[el_gato]

2. i read this last night

and the only flaw i saw was that all constitutional ammendments must be approved by a majority of states so any ammendments would take a while to be passed

anyway i think it is right on about the big picture

but hopefully not a fait acompli

[OneBlueSky]

3. gotta scare the shit out of young potential voters . . .

with the very real prospect of a draft . . . young conservatives will quickly become young moderates when they understand that their comfortable middle class American lives could be totally disrupted and that they could actually be put in harm's way, or even killed, for corporate profits . . . the Democrats should promise that there will be no draft, and challenge Bush to promise the same . . . in doing so, the Democrats should also pledge a return to addressing international problems through peaceful means and to restoring a sense of compassion and caring for those in need, both in our own country and abroad . . . those in need, by the way, include the plants, animals, water, air, and ecosystems that BushCo seems bent on destroying . . .

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. he seems to think the military just needs warm bodies

"Shortly upon taking office in 2004 ... Bush will quietly issue an edict supporting a return to the draft. The massive military campaign that is sure to follow will require millions of US military personnel that can only be had forcibly through conscription. As early as the Christian holiday of Christmas in December 2004, or more likely, the Christian Easter Holiday in April 2005 (celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ), the Bush PCS will attack ... it will attack North Korea simultaneously with its invasion of Syria and Iran.

3 invasions at once? With a draft in place for 4 months at most? You need to train and arm the draftees. Not to mention the organisational upheaval of switching to a conscript military (who's going to train the hordes of young men?)

I think Stanton's imagination is getting a bit feverish.

[WilliamPitt]

5. Do you really think Arnold can deliver California?

Do you think Pataki can deliver New York?

I don't. Florida and Texas were write-offs from the word go.

[lapislzi]

6. Arnold, maybe...Pataki, no

Although the "recovery" has yet to reach traditionally conservative (and depressed) farming and manufacturing areas outside the NY metro area. It might be a close one. Those areas were the Golisano stronghold. Even Suffolk County on Long Island, traditionally a bedroom community for NY City, has swung sharply to the right. You can see the billboards on the LI Expressway. God 'n Guns.

[dani]

7. unreal

A simultaneous war against Syria, Iran, and North Korea while maintaining control of Afghanistan and Iraq and also sending troops into Colombia to take care of FARC/ELN? Not to mention toppling Chavez.

I doubt it.

[Oilwellian]

8. One problem with this outlook

How would we pay for it?

[ACK]

9. Doom and gloom....

Listen, every other article talks about a nation divided.

Well, many times the Dems are a party divided on itself. If we as progressives in general cannot find inspiration and instruction in events like Wellstone's grassroots org., Warner in Va, Clinton in his re-election campaign, and Dean in his ability to use new media to back grassroots efforts the horrible trends will continue. I am here to say that this is not a forgone conclusion even with voter fraud.

That is right we are a nation divided nearly evenly in two. Repubs have the advantage of organization, discipline in the ranks, money and media savvy.

Still, that is no excuse for not having either house of Congress or the Presidency. Dems have bungled the great opportunity of the prosperity of the Clinton years gave us in a idiot's attempt to avoid being associated to Clinton and his scandal.

We do not get back the Congress by being Repuke-lite.

We do need new leadership in the DNC and the DLC.

We need to understand the gut issues of guns and the death penalty and move on.

BUT, we need to keep our progressive heritage in all other positions.

We just have to frame the discussion in a populist voice.

We have to find appealing candidates for the future willing to go into civil service. This sounds cynical but the candidate has to be appealing and I am sorry because that sucks ideally.

We need to as Michael Moore said appeal to the common man and let him know why it is in his/her self-interests to vote progressive and Democratic.

It is in the common person's self-interests.

Too many people see this as pandering the selfish but we must understand that so many people out there have lost sooo much that there first concerns MUST be their own family and interests.

We must find the populist voice to our progressive values to appeal to the population of this country.

We have to organize on a grassroots level and build a movement.

We have to utilize our base not piss on it. You can't have a movement without a base.

We have to utilize new media or the mass media will never even recognize you are there.

We must find candidates that will appeal to voters and has the voice to appeal to the nation.

That is all.