In case you don't already think the Republicans operate like Tony Soprano...

Before I started this blog, and before the '04 election I was freaked out and rabid about making sure Bush was consigned to the dustbin of one-termer history. I called lots of voters in Brevard Co., FL for MoveOn, went to a bunch Atlanta Democratic "Meetups" (waste of time), loved Howard Dean's anti war ass and sent him lots of money, spent election day working for ElectionProtection (what a joke), and gave lots of our hard earned cash to just about every progressive organization and candidate. Well, it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Bush still "won." But he "won" with all kinds of questionable--seriously questionable, like 10 times more people voting in certain districts than there is total population--voter returns all over the place. Only noone, it seems, cares to question. Well, like everyone else, now I just want to get to this years midterm, and the election in '08.

But, my friends, if Republicans seriously stole the last election by having goons--I mean serious goons of the Tony Soprano variety-- with laptops tamper with vote tallys, nothing is going to stop them, unless they are busted. Maybe not even that, given that their "team" will support them till the death, even if they are guilty of bloody murder.

Here is a quote from this months Harpers Magazine, the reason that I feel compelled to not write my usual garden-variety post fetishizing the house Steven and I are trying to unload or this lovely, lovely new laptop. I love the Harpers index, and long ago used to wait for it to come out every month, for a while there, discussing some of the more salient points with my friend Dawn. Geez Dawn, we never realized that those were the GOOD times, politically speaking, did we? And sometimes not so salient points could also be like elephants in the room. Anyhow, I'm seriously digressing, but I want to get these 2 entries from this month's index down...especially since I was trying to remember and tell my Mom and BC about it the other day, and didn't exactly get it right:

"Margin by which total votes for Democrats in the last three Senate elections exceeded those for Republicans: 2,900,000"

"Number of seats won by Democrats and Republicans, respectively: 46, 56"

Hmmmm...what is wrong with that picture?

Now I'll come to my point (finally). The Sopranos [insert Republicans] are not only tampering with votes in a Presidential election in Ohio and Florida. They have systematically gotten Party loyalists in local election board offices and state-level secretaries of state overseeing same (remember Katherine Harris?) who will do the bidding of higher ups, even if it is criminal. They don't question, they do what they are told. They have systematically gerrymandered just about every district in the country to minimize the impact of Democratic support, and overinflate flagging support for Republicans (Tom Delay has butchered Texas districts, and in my home state of Georgia, you should see some of the shapes of our new "districts.").

All of this is done to fix the system, insure that Republicans keep "winning," whether Democrats get substantially more votes or not. And all the while, there is not a single mainstream (with an audience) investigative journalist working on this scoop.

Folks, if we can't have fair elections in this country, not a single other issue matters. If our democracy is lost, and no one even knows it, we're in big trouble. These people don't care a bit about democracy, due process, or good will...vox populi be damned. I really think, after they successfully bury scandal after scandal after scandal that these people are truly criminal, pathological, and a cancer on us all.

Here's another quote from this month's Harpers:

"They say if you want to cook a frog, you don't just throw him in a pot of boiling water....If you do that, he's liable to jump out. No...to cook a frog, you put him in water and you turn the heat up slowly. By the time the frog figures out he's in trouble, it's too late to jump; he's already cooked."

The Republicans have cooked us all, it's too late to jump.

It is time for EVERY vote to count as much as the next, it is time to do away with ridiculously shaped districts and the electoral college, and most of all, it is time to make sure that our election system, whatever it is and however it runs--because that will and should always change with technology--cannot be hijacked by any political party. And while we are at it, it is definitely time to solve the corrupting influence money has on our political process...however lofty and idealistic that may be.

Click on the title of this post to surf to Harper's Index. This is last month's index, not the one i'm referencing...it seems there is a month delay, I suppose to punish slackers who don't pay for a subscription?