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deliberately back-paged. 56% of the American people opposed the Iraq War just before the invasion (Feb. '03, NYT poll; other polls 54-55%). 56% is a significant majority. It would be a landslide in a presidential election (and believe me, it was). The opposition to the Iraq War has now grown to a whopping, epochal 70%, and STILL the American people cannot get their will enforced. We vote, and somehow Congress turns out to be the opposite of the American people (the people 70/30 against the war; Congress 70/30 or so FOR the war, i.e., keep funding it).
I think this is why the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA-$3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle to fast-track 100% NON-TRANSPARENT voting systems all over the country) was passed by the Anthrax Congress in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution (Oct. '02). The public may not have been aware that a significant majority opposed the war, but our political establishment was well aware of it--and knew that opposition would only grow bigger--so took care to provide a voting system by which they could shove this unjust war down our throats, no matter how big opposition to the war became. And non-transparent vote counting has other uses, of course (total looting of federal coffers and ordinary peoples' pocketbooks).
That WAS the fascist coup, in my opinion--HAVA. Very stealth move to end U.S. democracy.
Non-transparent vote counting is not the only thing wrong with our political system, but it is the 'coup de grace'--the final blow--to any effort of reform. It is blockading reform--the natural ability of democratic countries to correct the course of the country, when corruption and tyrannical leadership get out of hand.
I think that the Obama campaign has attracted many supporters from the anti-war MAJORITY--a majority that is so big now that it SHOULD BE directing the nation's course. Yes, he has also attracted young people--some of them very well-informed, some not, but probably many of them naive to some degree about the ability or willingness of Obama and his chief advisers to enact real reform. But I would guess that some of the smarter ones, and many of the adult supporters--especially the most activist supporters--are aware that Obama is not everything they want. He is all they have left. He is the ONLY one of the three remaining candidates who opposed the war at the beginning. And I can't imagine that his activist supporters are unaware of his pro-war funding votes. Some may think that he didn't have a choice (had to obey the leadership, as a freshman Senator), or make other excuses for it. But I think a lot of his supporters, from the anti-war majority, KNOW that he is less than he appears, as to change, and hope that, by electing a president with some obligation to the people, the past to change will be opened, or facilitated, for the grass roots citizenry to pursue.
And whether Obama wins or not (i.e., whether he has bowed and scraped to the war profiteers sufficiently to be permitted into the White House), the new, impassioned citizen activism will continue. If he is Diebolded, this new movement may turn to election reform. And if he is permitted to become president, it will put pressure on him and on Congress for serious reform, and will furthermore organize and implement reform at other levels--the necessary grass roots work that needs to be done all over the country, in every jurisdiction, at every level. I have never been of the opinion that reforming the U.S. would be quick and easy, or would occur as the result of one or several elections. It took a lo-o-ng time to prepare this fascist coup. It did not happen overnight. And it will not be easily reversed. We're in for a long struggle. Obama's supporters are the first big sign that I've seen that the people are awake and mobilizing, on a large scale. The election reform movement which sprang up just after the 2004 election was a good sign; the anti-war protests of Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink and others--and the huge anti-war demos that occurred--were another. Dissent within the military and the intelligence community was another. There have been many signs along the way, including the grass roots mobilization for Kerry/Edwards in 2004. But the Obama grass roots mobilization is the biggest, most impressive sign of life in our democracy--by its size, and by its recovery from the blows of 2004 and everything else that has been done to kill it.
Those of us who lived through the Vietnam War, and through all the crap that has happened in this country over the last four decades, will have to help the young keep their peckers up (so to speak), if, a) Obama is Diebolded, or b) turns out to be less than a real reformer (or, if he is a real reformer, gets blockaded). One of these two things is very likely going to happen. And the young need to buoy us up as well, with their energy and enthusiasm. We can't give up. Period. We MUST get our country back. All of us, working together. It's happening all over South America. It can happen here, too.
The three main lessons that I've learned, from closely watching the amazing, peaceful, leftist democracy movement unfold in South America, are these:
1. Transparent elections (!) 2. Grass roots organization. 3. Think big.
Also, never, never, NEVER give up! The South Americans had more reason that we do for despair. They never gave up on their democratic ideals and social justice goals. And we are seeing the fruit of that determination today, with good, democratic, left and center-left governments elected in Paraguay (of all places, this last Sunday!)--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Nicaragua and Guatemala (and more to come, in Peru and Mexico). The left is sweeping the region--after decades of U.S.-supported, horrible fascist dictatorship. If the South Americans can do it, so can we.
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