There is no better time than now, while celebrating Obama-McCain Debate II and the apparent increasing inevitability of an Obama victory, to sober up for a moment and think about the very frightening and very real possibility that despite all the massive registration drives, the GOTV efforts, and our vigilence, this election could be stolen right in front of our noses -- again. Here's exactly how it could happen. The plan is not terribly complicated, it explains some otherwise incongruous developments, and if we're not well prepared, we could be seriously screwed.
So, here's the plan:
- Unleash Sarah a month before the election. Ratchet up the hate and the fear to the maximum level that the public will tolerate, and maybe even beyond that. Say at every opportunity, "Obama is running a dirty campaign".
- Ignore the blowback. It doesn't matter.
- Ignore the polls. They don't matter.
- Get all the right wing pundits speculating about the Bradley Effect starting a week before the election, and whip this speculation as much as possible.
- Rig the election: a) Suppress the vote. It doesn't matter that this is blatant, as long as it works. Scream about Democratic vote fraud at every opportunity. b) Hack the voting machines wherever possible, but especially in swing states.
- On Nov. 5, prime the noise machine to say in unison: McCain's victory is clearly explained by the predicted "Bradley effect". After all, Sarah (and John) have just spent the last month reminding voters of who Obama is, right? a) The polls of course were all meaningless. b) Voting irregularities? Bullshit, there was massive Democratic vote fraud. Our lawyers have all the evidence.
- The echo chamber repeats endlessly, everywhere, "Your guy lost. Get over it. For the sake of the country, we have to move on."
- People are horrified and outraged. Bush declares a national emergency. Whatever National Guard troops are not on active duty overseas are deployed in strategic urban areas.
- Nobody wants a repeat of Bush v. Gore, especially given the current make-up of the Court. Nobody wants wholesale violence. Obama urges calm. There is the real potential for a national catastrophe, and there is tremendous pressure for Obama to concede -- for the good of the country.
Am I being paranoid? Maybe, but I don't think so. Just think: under what other scenario could John McCain possibly win this election now? The apparently suicidal strategy now underway of fostering hate suddenly makes sense -- not because this will give McCain enough votes to win, but because it will give plausible deniability to charges of a rigged election in the face of an otherwise apparently incredible result. Is this a context in which Cindy McCain's clearly absurd charge, made yesterday, that Obama has waged the dirtiest campaign in American history, actually makes perfect sense?
It's not necessary to catalog again the rapidly growing list of attempts at vote suppression. Daily Kos is already full of these reports. Nobody here needs to be reminded of what happened in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio and elsewhere in 2004. Despite the fact that the CEO of Diebold was forced to resign in 2005 because of allegations of insider trading, Diebold machines are still being used in lots of states, and they are notoriously easy to hack. And many states still have on the books laws forbidding auditable paper trails for electronic machines.
So, our job is obvious: We must do EVERYTHING necessary to make sure that this strategy does not work. Because, while the plan may not be exactly as I've hypothesized, at least some parts of this are already under way, and it's clear that the Rovian storm troopers are absolutely going to pull out all the stops to win this election. Is there a compelling reason to doubt that the scenario outlined here could happen?
So, we must be even better prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure that this election is not stolen. The stakes are simply too high. Prevention of course is far better than having to attempt a radical cure, and prevention is clearly going to require not only vigilence and education, but aggressive, proactive legal intervention on multiple fronts. Whatever it takes. No complacency ("they could never pull this off") and no compromise this time.
UPDATE: Related postings on dkos this morning:
Protect the Vote: A Big Win in Montana by mcjoan.
ACORN's Nevada Office Raided by mcjoan.
Voter Fraud by Adam B.