The mission that is really being accomplished in the suppression of the vote is part of the larger task: the destruction of Americans democracy.
Crossposted at
Texas Kaos.
A friend of mine who belongs to DFH recently wrote this:
This is just another reason why Harris County residents "must" support the election of James G Pierre over Beverly Kauffman as Harris County Clerk (the woman who sold us out to Hart Intercivics---otherwise known as e-Slate voting). Beverly neither believes in
a "voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT)" because it serves no purpose, in her estimation, and she is a paid consultant and advocate for the Hart Intercivics e-Slate machines, which she travels the country to promote. (Harris County, being the third or fourth largest county in the country, was bought and paid for by Hart Intercivics in the name of Beverly Kauffman.)
Don't kid yourself. The Republican Party's decision yesterday to "delay" the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with objections of the Republican's White Sheets Caucus.
Complaints by a couple of Good Ol' Boys to legislation has never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.
This is a strategic stall - meant to de-criminalize the Republican Party's new game of challenging voters of color by the hundreds of thousands.
In the 2004 Presidential race, the GOP ran a massive multi-state, multi-million-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of Black, Hispanic and Native-American voters. The methods used broke the law -- the Voting Rights Act. And while the Bush Administration's Civil Rights Division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers are circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the Act before the 2008 race.
Therefore, Republicans have promised to no longer break the law -- not by going legit ... but by eliminating the law.
And, when Jim Crow poll-tax efforts do not succeed, Republicans can always turn to non-verifiable voting machine vendors such as Hart Intercivics, and then refusing to add their available "voter verifiable paper audit trail" printers, because she (Beverly Kaufman) feels no need to make voters "feel better", or some such nonsense.
Get rid of this itch, as soon as possible!
True democracy must be open, honest and verified by the public. Beverly Kaufman represents none of these! (and has no intention of doing so). She must go if Harris County is ever to have democracy again!
Michael Fleming
We swallow the bile that rises when we read about the latest outrage from the Republican gang that runs America. Voter suppression and election stealing are only two of a thousand indications that the present gang that runs the once "Grand Old Party" are not really in favor of democracy at all. In many ways Rick Perry, John Culberson, and all the other minions of the Republican gang are able to succeed , at least in part, because they are following the same script.
In my darkest moments, I recall the words of another anti-democrat, "We shall destroy democracy with the weapons of democracy." Unless we see voter suppression and the thousand other tatctical details of the Republican Neo-cultists program as part of a overall strategic effort to literally destroy American democracy and its progressive, people centered roots, we will lose not only the battle over the vote, but we will lose our Demcoracy itself. It is all laid out in the writings of the Godfather of the Neo-culists, Leo Strauss. [See here]
Lest we forget, this anti-democratic elitism is not unprecendented in history. Lenin knew this game as well. Talk democracy, create anti-democracy. [ see here]
As for the current Bin Laden crowd, well they don't even pretend to love democracy. [see here], but are perfectly willing to use it to their purposes. The power given to fundamentalist in Algeria in their last free elections ( which lead to the miliary crackdown) stand evidence of this.
In all these cases, the average citizens had or has little working understanding of popular democracy . They literally didnot know what was happening to them.
But this is America. We know what is happening, don't we? Why are there not riots in the streets over the ongoing, relentless efforts to destroy our Democracy, to steal our children's democratic legacy right before our eyes?
The answer is , of course, like all anti-democrats before them, the Neo-Con gang that stole the Republican Party go about the process of destroying democracy with the incremental weapons of democracy. Americans are not immune to these tactics. If they ever were, consider the cumulative impact of the attack on quality public education which has been systematically attacked and gutted by this crowd. Consider also the fate of our mass media turned into the bread and circuses of "reality" programing.
For example, when the Neo-cultists remove rights and privileges from the majority they do so by taking those of the minority , too small in numbers or too unpopular in the public mind to be able to fight back. As for the assualt on civil liberties, recall that the ever widening violation of mass easedropping and wirte tapping , of bank transaction "mining" is always defended by pointing to the threat posed by demonzied minorities . Willing to do anything, say anything, no matter how outrageous or untrue to achieve their ends, these Neo-cultists could teach the other anti-democrats a few new tricks. Upon this altar of corruption, lies and greed they have sacrificed compromise and moderation, the soul of American politics for over 200+ years. Recall Tom DeLay's observation in his "farewell address", itself given outside of the rules :
LINK "It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.
If you have any illusions as to how serious a threat these Neo-cultists are to our America. Consider this observation , again from Mr. Delay:
LINK "Politics is war conducted by other means. In political warfare you do not fight just to prevail in an argument, but to destroy the enemy's fighting ability...In political wars, the aggressor usually prevails."
Like other "military leaders" of the past, these "arm chair warriors" have their strategic plan. Their tatics are forever changing, but the strategic goal is not - destroy mass democrcacy replace it with corporativism and elitism . The soundtrack of this ever accelerating revolution is their master narrative, the story they have been insinuating into mainstream culture and politics for 40 years. It goes something like this:
"After an era of decadence and weakness, strong and righteous Americans stood up for right against wrong. Despite the impediment of liberal apologists and appeasers, they defeated totalitarian communism, then turned their attention to releasing Americans from the shackles of big government and restoring respect for the family. Empowering entrepreneurs and liberating citizens, they cut onerous taxes and regulations, enabling Americans to live freer lives. But at every turn they are hindered by powerful liberal elitists who want to take Americans' money, waste it on programs for the lazy and the sinful, banish God from the nation and tell us all how to live our lives. " [from Being Right is Not Enough , page 162-163
Every argument they make, every scheme to undermine democracy is tied back to this story, even voter suppression, even stolen elections. Consider the "arguments" made against voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). It is called unnecessary, economically wasteful. As for the voter suppression, well it is only the lazy and the sinful who will be cut of the vote rolls, so what is the problem here? It all seems to make sense, because all of the details are part of a nice, simple story, told over and over again in the mass media, from right wing pulpits and even , most insidiously around the water coolers and dinner tables of America
Whether we like it or not, that simple story is easier to dissiminate than our "truth" especially when our truth is doled out one isolated issue at a time. The time of the average American worker, father, mother is filled with the simple effort to survive in the Social Darwinian state created by the Neo-cultists. They literally have no time nor energy to read blogs or study 10,000 word political manifestos or ponder expert refutations of Republican pseudo-science.
What is to be done? Well many things. One thing is to create and start spreading a counter narrative. I will propose a tenative first draft of such a story in my next post and also talk about how such a tool might be used.