oust the junta--and whose majority vote got Diebolded and ES&S-ed--knew what the stakes were. The word on the street was that "this is the most important election in our history." (Trouble was, Karl Rove, Tom Delay, Bob Ney and their rightwing buds at Diebold and ES&S evaluated it the same way.)
According to Diebold and ES&S, that's half the voters. 20 million of the 120 million whom Diebold and ES&S say voted (the biggest turnout in history), that is, the new voters, 60% of whom registered Democratic (a blowout success for the Democrats in new voter registration) also must have thought it was especially important--they registered and voted for the first time, in huge numbers. Also, all the poor black people and other minorities and students in Ohio, who stood in 4 to 10 hour lines to vote--I think they had some pretty important things on their minds, and were damn worried about the country.
Then, today, figuring Bush's approval rating to be about 30% (if you take into account the rightwing weighting of most polls), we've got 70% of the people disapproving of Bush. Among Democrats, it wouldn't take a grave Consitutional crisis and signs of a fascist junta to produce disapproval of Bush. But this number--70%--has to include many Republicans, many Bush voters and supporters. It would have to, even at 60% (disapproval of the war BEFORE the invasion--Feb. '03).
So there is large-scale disapproval, discontent, worry and concern--possibly even more acute among many Republicans than among Democrats (for the reason that it would take a lot more for a Bush voter to tell a pollster that he/she disapproves of Bush).
I am totally convinced that the majority of Americans are a lot better informed--and also a lot more progressive--than anyone gives them credit for. I don't think they are 'sheeple' at all--not most of them. I do think they are demoralized, depressed, and, above all, DISENFRANCHISED. But not stupid, and not ignorant. I will never forget the story a friend told me of some elderly, well to do, military/diplomatic/legal professionals, in a supposed Republican stronghold, whom she had become friends with between the invasion of Iraq (just before) and the 2004 election. They all thought Bush was nuts (their word--nuts)--the matter under discussion being mainly the war.
Republicans. Former military and other establishment types. They thought the president was insane.
An informal, anecdotal survey, to be sure. But still--rather amazing. (My friend thought for sure that Bush would be ousted, but neither of us knew enough about Diebold and ES&S at that time, especially their close ties to Bush, to fully realize what they were capable of, both technically, and as to utter lack of scruples.)
Wild guestimate: At least half the adults in the country (how many is that?) are concerned to the point of alarm. The more they know, the more concerned they are. Add to this another 30%, less well informed, who are in various stages of worry and concern.
But I do think we have then to consider what happens to people who are carrying alarming concerns around in their heads all day long, and going to sleep at night--and who feel demoralized, depressed about the country, disempowered, some in despair. One thing they likely DON'T know about--because it has been held under such an "iron curtain"--is that the election system is utterly compromised. It is now--as of 2004--entirely in the control of rightwing Bushites, and is utterly non-transparent, the votes "tabulated" by "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls.
And because many don't know this, they tend to feel that the country has gone nuts--they feel outnumbered, they feel alone. They don't understand that the very mechanism of our power as a people has been taken over by parties who are very hostile to the majority in this country, and are looting our country blind, and destroying our democracy.
Knowing HOW this coup occurred--and consequently WHY the majority of Americans have no proper representation in Congress and WHY the junta is getting away with so much--is helpful to morale. This is a SPECIFIC, FIXABLE problem--still doable at the state/local level.
I think that the great majority--who are alarmed or concerned, and some of whom are likely burying their worries, because they feel so helpless--could be mobilized on the election reform issue. They KNOW something is wrong. They just don't know what it is (many of them).
I wouldn't lie to them (out of fear that they won't vote). Tell them the truth! They NEED TO KNOW the truth! They can't mobilize to fix it without knowing what the problem IS.
My idea reduced to a bumper sticker: "Help Us Beat the Machines--VOTE!"
Get people involved in trying to overcome the fraud by sheer turnout. Get them fully involved. Let them know the odds. (5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites and warmongers.)
I don't think we have a public education problem, on the whole. I think we have a power problem--the people have, in essence, lost their right to vote, and their sovereignty, due to the deliberately created NON-TRANSPARENCY of the election system.
Urge absentee ballot voting, as a protest. Not a complete solution (due to the Diebold/ES&S controlled central tabulators), but at least you have a paper ballot. Closely monitor the '06 elections--get people very involved in that. Demand that the Democratic Party fund independent exit polls (desperately needed--and it's the least they could do, for their malfeasance and in some cases corruption regarding Bushites controlling the vote count with electronic voting).
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Some further ideas and resources for American Revolution II:
Breaking news:
California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org--just announced--is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.htmlwww.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors).
http://www.rushholt.com/petition.htmlwww.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)
*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477Also of interest:
Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk
Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htmAmaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340
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Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!
:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:
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"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
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