To my Representatives in Congress:
It is a basic principle of fair competition in sports, that when a foul is called, the clock is stopped while the foul is addressed.
What would happen if a player committed a foul, the referee blew his whistle, and the offending team simply ignored it? What if the team that cheated was called by the referee on foul after foul, but the people controlling the clock and scoreboard never allowed the play to stop and ultimately the cheaters were declared the victors?
Something so viciously unfair would likely trigger a violent reaction from the fans. They wouldn't get over it. They'd get fighting mad. All hell would break loose.
Perhaps you think ordinary Americans care more about the outcome of a game than they care about democracy. If so, you are wrong.
The recount in Ohio was riddled with fouls, violating both the spirit and the letter of the law. The whistle has been blown again and again. Unfortunately, however, the clock and the scoreboard are controlled by those who brazenly choose to ignore the referees.
As just one example of foul play, the Ohio recount was conducted in a manner that openly violates Ohio law. In 86 of 88 counties, the clear requirement for random 3% sampling of the recounted ballots was NOT followed. This is a matter of public record. Random sampling is critical to a fair recount. If you think it's fair to select the recount sample by a non-random method, ask yourself if you would play a hand of cards that had been dealt before you sat at the table. More important, however, non-random sampling is against Ohio law. It is illegal. Doesn't that matter any more?
Since the recount was granted under Ohio law but not carried out as required under Ohio law, the certified recount results are not valid, and the certified electoral votes cannot be legally valid, either. Obviously, if we are to have a valid election result for the presidential election of 2004, a valid recount must be conducted immediately — before the clock runs out on January 20th.
And yet nothing is done. The clock continues to run, and the scorekeepers are resolutely ignoring all whistles blown until the final buzzer goes off on January 20th.
This is a national disgrace.
The 2000 election was stolen. The courts forced the recount in Florida to stop, and it was only months later (right after the September 11 attacks, when Americans were not paying attention to news about the results of the 2000 election) that recounters hired by major news organizations found that if all the valid votes had been counted statewide in Florida, Bush lost the election.
(Source: http://www.aei.org/docLib/20040526_KeatingPaper.pdf ).
Now, four years after that fiasco, Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio campaign co-chair for Bush, brazenly violates Ohio law to "deliver the state of Ohio" to his candidate, giving him a second illegitimate term in the White House. And once again, nothing is done.
Many millions of people across America are outraged — deeply, profoundly outraged.
If you do not immediately conduct a manual recount of Ohio — BEFORE the inauguration, as you SHOULD have done in Florida in 2000 — history will prove a second election was stolen.
If you let that happen, by God, the people will not forgive you.
What is the excuse you will hide behind a decade from now? That you were "following orders"? For surely you are not following your patriotic duty, or even the dictates of your own conscience.
Before the anger of the voters subsides, the traitors who broke the law will go to jail, and the public trust for all elected officials will be deeply eroded. If legislators are implicated in the lawbreaking, you can be sure that voters will do everything possible to see that they, too, serve jail time. If the legislators are guilty only of cowardice and venality, the voters will not be satisfied until they are voted out. We are outraged — do you understand that?
When President Reagan was elected, I was personally disappointed, because I voted for the other guy. But it never crossed my mind to protest. President Reagan won fairly. He was my President, and I accepted him as such. His inauguration reflected the will of the American people, and I respected that.
Why don't YOU respect the will of the people?
Bush is a tyrant who has stolen two presidential elections, enabled by the passivity and the active cooperation of scoundrels, cowards, and fools. How dare you sit in our nation's highest legislative chambers and not defend our democracy?
It is my personal mission to hold accountable all elected officials who do not stand up for democracy before January 20, 2005.
I have two children. How DARE you treat their right to vote as something that can be ceded away?
Tens of millions of parents and other ordinary hard-working, law-abiding people across America are deeply committed to righting this wrong. You have failed us utterly, and in so doing, radicalized us.
We will NEVER get over this. Your shameful passivity only makes us more resolute. Even if you no longer care about America, we do. We love our country, we love democracy, and we are willing to die for them. I am a proud American. YOU get over your disgraceful passivity and amorality. Get on the right side of history while you still can, because there WILL be a day of reckoning. As God is my witness, I will fight to protect democracy in my country, and I will fight those who trample on all I hold sacred.
