Are the Democrats doing a Casey Jones and heading for a train wreck in November?
If there has been any recent punditry offering a rationale for the Republican "tough shit" stance, then this columnist has missed it and will offer our own suggestion about the inexplicable display of "tough love." The Republicans, who usually curry favor with as many small middle of the road groups as they can, have suddenly gone to a "let them eat cake" attitude. How can that be? Why aren’t they scrambling to pick up the swing voters who don’t see the old "compassionate conservative Christian" ploy in the callous Republican quotes?
Here’s one explanation: it could be because the ability to use the electronic voting machines to micro-manage the results mean that the Republicans don’t have to pander anymore – they know they are assured of a massive mandate this fall.
Last year while pouring through the Marina (del Rey CA) Tenants Association’s collection of old newspapers to document the points in their criticism of the local political scene, this columnist came across some 1989 stories in the Los Angeles Times about the vulnerability to unreliable results factor if computerized voting was adopted.
The only Republican response to any skepticism of the electronic voting machines has always been the same: "Don’t worry about it."
America relies on a free press to keep them well informed. The Republicans rely on the press to relay spin to a gullible audience. It’s a spin and grin good ole boy attitude. Hell what you don’t know can make war, tax cuts, and Republican candidate victories sound like jolly good ideas.
Has America’s free press done much (if anything) to protect the voters from:
A Republican majority in the Supreme Court deciding the winner in 2000?
A war which made stockholders in a company once run by Dick Cheney even wealthier?
The disappearance of WMD’s which were in locations "known" by American intelligence?
The decertification of Howard Dean and the anointing of John Kerry as "frontrunner"?
Ohio’s crucial role in the use of electronic voting machines to help Republican candidates.
The hackability of the "unhackable" electronic voting machines?
The disappearance of the exit poles?
The evaporating polar ice cap?
When a Republican Senator callously denigrates the plight of folks collecting unemployment, can anyone look into the eyes of the Republican candidates and not recall the old folk wisdom: "Never play cards with a man called ‘Doc.’"
So if folks naively assume that this fall the elections will be a honest endeavor, that leaves the Republicans free to say what they are thinking and then afterwards say that their promises to repeal the healthcare bill seem to be exactly what such phony results strongly endorse.
If the Republicans use the electronic voting machines to give themselves a veto-proof majority this fall, they can then take control of the legislature until they stage yet another bigger farce in the fall of 2012 and continue on their road back to control of the Legislature, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court.
With a fall "landslide," the way will be clear for the Republicans to repeal the healthcare bill and (why hold back?) maybe even Social Security. At that point the relentless Republican efforts to dismantle the New Deal will be just about complete.
Democrats who doubt the reliability of the electronic voting machines would destroy the triumph of the Obama upset victory in 2010. Some Democrats seem reluctant to admit that the Obama win was part of what con artists call "the setup." If the Republicans subscribe to idea that electronic voting machines can deliver predetermined results, then they can look forward to an astounding fall farce and eagerly anticipate the total and complete humiliation of the Obama administration.
There is some old folk wisdom that advises people to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. We offer this column in that pessimistic attitude. If there is another alternative interpretation of the cocky Republican attitude which seems to dismiss the strategic importance of pandering to the swing voters; then paste the URL for such an item in the comments section. (Republican boasting about "the will of the Fox audience" giving them the confidence to abandon their previous pursuit of the swing voters isn’t what we are seeking.)
Hunter Thompson is quoted as saying: "America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."
Now, the disk jockey will play the soundtrack album for "The Graduate." It’s time to send an e-mail to see if my pals in Fremantle are doing OK after the recent storm. Have a "sock it to me!" type week.