In all the great questions of life, here is one thing I've never understood: If the Republican platform is so wonderful, the right vision for America; if their policies are (as they claim) so great for the economy, national security, the military, the environment, big business as well as workers, international standing, etc.....then why in the world would they have to resort to some of the atrocities they have been accused of over the past 8 years (at least)? I mean, really, shouldn't the Republican party just be whaling away, beating Democrats handily, accumulating majorities of, perhaps, 80-90%?? Shouldn't we ALL be voting Republican in droves???? I mean, shouldn't we?
Instead we have: Republican hacks being flown down to Florida to protest against recounting the votes in 2000. Instead we have Republicans pushing through various "voter purge" efforts; ostensibly to make voter rolls more accurate, but funnily enough it often ends up disenfranchising LEGAL minority--read, mostly Democratic--voters. Instead it often means caging attempts by Republicans to deem legal voters unable to vote. Instead it means the New Hampshire Senate phone jamming scandal of 2002, where the get-out-the-vote effort by Democratic organizations was blocked, criminally, by Republican organizers. Instead it means electronic voting machines with no paper trail that many groups/organizations have PROVEN can be hacked easily. It means extreme resistance to such measures of accountability. It means Republicans that block, obstruct, delay, and denounce any effort to make elections more transparent, fair, and equitable.
Now I ask you: if you had unending, fantasmic, orgasmic loyalty to your candidate, and KNEW he was the absolute best candidate for the country, yet there was some question about the vote count: wouldn't you say something to the effect of, "Hey, you want to recount the votes? Absolutely, go for it! I want the most transparent counting possible, because I KNOW my candidate won fair and square, so count away!! I believe in what we stand for, so we don't need any counting shennanigans. And if by chance he didn't win, that is okay too, as long as the process is fair and transparent."
I mean, wouldn't you??
Wonder why the Republicans never do that? Hmmmm?
So the only thing I can infer from all this obstruction, delay, caging, scamming, "legal" manuvers is this: Republicans cannot win on their honest merits alone. They can't. If they could, we'd all be electing them in droves. When you have to resort to trickery and shady or downright illegal maneuvers--well, that says to me that you cannot stand on your own merits as a party. That says to me you're scared. That says to me that you cannot count on winning a majority, so you have to be willing to cheat. That says to me that what your party stands for just doesn't work for most Americans, and therefore you won't be elected unless you resort to shady measures. Because honesty, transparency, and fair play would mean you don't win.
So I'm just wondering: if it's so wonderful, why aren't we ALL voting Republican???