How to restore democracy in the United States?

[Peace Patriot]

I wrote the following in response to texpatriot2004 at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x272436

texpatriot2004 talks about being shocked into silence for many weeks now, by the election fraud and Kerry's non-response to it. ("It seems he is only interested in "election reform" for the future."). texpatriot2004 then asks, "Where do you draw the line? At what point do you say, 'enough is enough'! When do you stop allowing the abuse and take a stand? How bad does it have to get?"

I'm wondering if other DUers feel the same as I do about a solution. Here's what I wrote:

Peace Patriot.
23."It seems he is only interested in 'election reform' for the future."

This is the part I don't get. Over the last four years, after getting cheated of victory in 2000, the Democratic leadership (including Kerry) participated in setting up an election system in which they will never win the presidency or the Congress again, ever.

The election system is so blatantly non-transparent, and so blatantly in the control of partisan rightwing Republican Bush donors (I mean, secret source code running all the vote tabulation, held as proprietary by the likes of Wally O'Dell! Come on!)--you have to wonder about the Democrats' SANITY.

True, some few fought the BushCons on a few things, paper trail, for instance--and they got blockaded by Tom Delay (BushCons had to keep vote counting behind the curtain.)

Why then didn't the Democrats exit Congress en masse, hold a press conference, and tell the country, " We will not return to Congress until the Republican Party guarantees the country transparent elections. Until that day, this is no longer a democracy."

Or something like that. Why wasn't it a CAMPAIGN issue? Why did they not issue one word of warning to the voters?

Are they so blind? Are they so corrupt? Are they so stupid? Are they so insane?

It's beyond me to understand this. I DON'T understand this. And until I do--and all of us do--we have to be VERY WARY of what the Democratic leadership says that it is going to do about election reform. (We already know what they have to say about the Election Fraud 2004--"Get over it." Very truthful and inspiring.) (Not.)

I think we have ONE CHANCE left to restore democracy. We must retrieve our right to vote. And we must do it LOCALLY, state by state, county by county, while we still have the power.

Best solution:

a) paper ballot

b) hand counts

or at least

a) 1st count paper receipt in electronic voting (voter verified paper receipt that takes precedence over electronic results in any recount)

b) open source code!

and c) honest exit polls to check for fraud (as they do everywhere else in the free world).

We CAN do this. We are the majority. And most people would agree with it. It's an easy sell. But we don't have much time, and Congress is NOT GOING TO HELP. (Mark my words--the Dems do not have the power to push it through, and most of them don't have the guts to do what is necessary if BushCons blockade it again--f.i., denounce them as a fascist coup.)

So that's MY hit on where we're at (our democracy is hanging by a thread) and a plan of action (recover our right to vote NOW, or it's all over).

Let's get at it--and put off the kind of questions that you are asking until we have made this one last citizen effort: highly focused, local grass roots groups achieving the above provisions locally, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, perhaps in alliance with a group like Voters Unite.

Note: We DO have some allies in Congress, and some great heroes. And we should ask them for help (AND give them support). But if we rely on the BushCon Congress to give us back our right to vote, our democracy is over, in my opinion.

[liberal N proud]

1. I would be satisfied with electronic voting if there were paper receipts

and both were counted.
The paper by hand of course.
Then there would be true verification of the vote
The electronic results could be supplied to the media and public same day and then count the paper receipts over the next 2 weeks.
When the paper ballots are counted it is either verified that the winner matches the electronic of that the electronic results would be overturned.
It is going to take something like that to get the confidence back of the voter.

[Peace Patriot]

3. I think I'd like to see the media taken out of the loop.

Forbid ANY reporting of any result until hand ballots are counted.

Media has been so manipulative. They CHANGED the Exit polls (which showed a Kerry win) to fit the BushCon-controlled electronic "official results." They lied to us! We didn't know of the discrepancy.

[FreepFryer]

2. Excellent article. I suggest we look to the recent Anti-Apartheid mvmt.

That is our boilerplate, that is our inspiration. Apartheid = Dominionism.

Our foes have the same belief system as the South African whites who perpetuated Apartheid.

"He who would do good" wrote William Blake, "must do so in minute particulars. General good is the plea of the scoundrel, the hypocrite and the liar." It is also the plea of most political ideologues who do not hesitate, and often in the name of "the People", to persecute in minute particulars for the sake of the general good. The idea that heaven on earth is possible through the implementation of a political ideal is one of the most destructive ideas we have ever played with: Extract from Jeremy Taylor's Book - Ag Pleez Deddy - a South African musician