Features > September 28, 2004

You Call This a Democracy?

By David Sirota

There is nothing quite as hypocritical as a politician preaching the virtues of democracy while doing everything he can to destroy it. But as Election Day approaches, that is exactly what is happening.

President Bush is traveling the country bragging about supposedly bringing democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan while waging a stealth campaign far different from his rhetoric here at home. Unwilling to wage a fight within legal bounds and undeterred by the odious stench of the 2000 debacle, the president has deployed his operatives to rig the outcome on November 2.

Before you call this conspiracy theory, read on:

• In August 2003, the head of one of the biggest manufacturers of voting machines wrote a fundraising letter saying he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Walden O’Dell, CEO of Diebold Inc., also “attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors—known as Rangers and Pioneers—at the president’s Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month.” The next week, he invited guests to a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for the Ohio GOP at his mansion in the Cleveland suburbs. This is the man whose machines have no paper trail and will be used by at least 8 million voters in the upcoming election.
• In June 2004, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his political appointees used the guise of clearing felons off voter rolls to hide an attempt to disenfranchise 48,000 traditionally Democratic voters. The list, which was disproportionately African-American, was rife with inaccuracies. Additionally, in a state with a heavily Republican Cuban population, a technical error caused the names of thousands of Hispanic felons to be excluded from the list.The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has asked the Department of Justice to investigate.
• In July, a top GOP official in Michigan gave voice to Republican efforts to squelch minority voter turnout. State Rep. John Pappageorge said, “If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we’re going to have a tough time in this election.” What did he mean? While Michigan is predominantly white (78 percent), Detroit has an overwhelmingly minority population (88 percent). This strategy is no accident: Polls show that more than four in five blacks believe Bush did not legitimately win the election and two-thirds think deliberate attempts were made to prevent black voters’ ballots from being counted.
• Also in July, the Miami Herald found the Republican Party staking out naturalization ceremonies for new immigrants to trick them into registering Republican. Specifically, GOP operatives have been handing out voter registration forms to new citizens just moments after being sworn in by the U.S. government with the party affiliation box already checked Republican. Once registered, the GOP can target mailing and other campaign outreach to those voters.
• In August, Jeb Bush was at it again—this time having his political appointees at a key county election board hire a law firm with direct connections to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Though the Broward County Elections Board is supposed to be nonpartisan, Bush’s official there hired the law firm Blosser & Sayfie. James Blosser is a top fundraiser for the Bush-Cheney campaign, and Justin Sayfie is co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Broward County. The firm, which was fired after public outrage, was to represent the county in legal challenges should another election debacle occur.

Outrageous, certainly, but at least we have our ability to freely protest against them without being harassed, right? Wrong. The New York Times reports that the FBI has “contacted” a number of people who have organized political demonstrations, forcing some to appear before a grand jury to disclose what they know of protest plans. Want to take your complaint to the top? Think again. The Albuquerque Journal reports that those who wanted to attend a speech by Cheney were refused at the door unless they signed a pledge to vote GOP in November. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that the Secret Service, led by the president’s top personal aide, accosted peaceful AIDS demonstrators during a Bush speech last month. Demonstrators were “shoved and pulled from the room—some by their hair, one by her bra straps—and then arrested for disorderly conduct and detained.”

Our political system is starting to resemble the kind of banana republic authoritarianism we claim to despise. The only things missing are government-sponsored mural portraits of George W. Bush splashed on sides of buildings and state-run television.

Who knows? With Bush’s aircraft carrier stunt, Fox News’ incessant propaganda, and the White House now telling journalists it has a “different set of rules” for those who give too much coverage to the president’s opponents, anything is possible.

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• Reader Comments

  If we continue to promulgate the idea that Bush was “selected, not elected”, especially among the least thoughtful of us (80% of a demographic thinks that the outcome of 2000 was not legitimate?), we could very well end up killing each other in the streets.

  One has to wonder - is gaining political power worth destroying the leading democracy in the world? Do we really want to use leftist rhetoric here?

  Surely it is a good thing to engage the electorate - but to stoop to encouraging violence (ala abortion clinic bombers and labor union busting heads) is a dangerous path to pursue. . .

  Posted by atThisRate on Sep 28, 2004 at 7:07 AM

  “If we continue to promulgate the idea that Bush was ‘selected, not elected’, especially among the least thoughtful of us (80% of a demographic thinks that the outcome of 2000 was not legitimate?), we could very well end up killing each other in the streets.”

  Ignorance is strength.

  Posted by Dayv on Sep 28, 2004 at 9:53 AM

  The choice of using sketchy and illegitimate means to keep and gain power has already been made by our opponents. Our choice is, do we lose by fighting fair or do we try to fight back, regardless of the cost to our principles? It’s not a great choice, but it seems to me that the cost of losing is higher than of fighting fire with fire.

  We tend to valorize the Civil Rights struggle as this great triumph of non-violence, but remember that most other liberal gains from 1860-1933 were made by labor groups who were not afraid to use violence and intimidation (or stand up to it in kind) in support of their principles. They got their hands dirty, and we are a better society for it. No one will thank us or think well of us for not using every tool at our disposal to beat back the tide of anti-democracy.

  Posted by Rob Salkowitz on Sep 28, 2004 at 10:30 AM

  Is George Bush planning to go into Iran the same way he went into Iraq!  I sure think if he is elected for the 2nd term we will see his army there!!!!

  Posted by Ray Riffat on Sep 28, 2004 at 12:58 PM

  Civil rights was not one by liberals. It was one from the right, research brown vs. the board of education and tell me how republican appointed judges voting to allow a small black child to attend an all white school is somehow a victory for the left. Then explain to me how democrate George Wallace stood on the steps with armed troopers to prevent that little girl from entering the school, is somehow a “liberal” victory. Tell me how Robert Byrd (D) a former member and grand wizard for KKK, is a liberal for civil rights. Then tell me how Republicans ending slavery in the United states was again a “left wing” victory.
  Then tell me how JFK who was a staunch interventionalist (Maybe you heard of vietnam)would oppose sending freedom to Iran and Iraq and Afghinstan. WOW I can not believe the level of uneducated people on this website. Feel free to email me if you have any legitmate questions. If your a hater with out a real unemotional thought in your head that please dont bother.
  Dave

  Posted by Davis Mendoz on Sep 28, 2004 at 1:26 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 78 posts.

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