OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: The Show Me! Spirit; Taking Back the Vote

And each of these people, most voicing the opinion during the Q&A, did so because they believed their voting rights had been eroded, that control of their Constitutional rights had been taken from them, and they wanted the control back in their own hands.

Seems simple, right? And a piece of good news, too? Truly it is, I think.

But the message for us in the ER movement may be this. Not one single time (though that may have been on their minds) did I hear a phrase that meant, in essence, "We need this Initiative Petition to prevent fraud!"

What I did hear, repeatedly, is “We need this Petition regain control of our own elections and our Constitutional rights! Asking, pleading, begging and complaining are getting us nowhere."

What does this mean for us in the ER movement? I would suggest that it means this.

We have been spending entirely too much time and effort chasing the phantom "proof of fraud" which we think we need to get our fellow citizens to back Election Reform. Somehow, someway, we in the ER movement have come to believe that we must prove an ancient fraud before we can bring the public to a critical mass.

However this belief came about, and even if it may have once been true, it continues to be postulated, and has now become a great canard. It stalls an Election Reform army at the very gates of what is nothing but a Potemkin Village, built and steadfastly maintained by the “Election Industry”, and their syncophants.

I would posit that we are stuck in the past, while the citizenry has moved ahead, finding another perfectly good reason to seize control of their elections, thus bringing the Election Reform we all claim to want. And that they are ready to do it now.

I believe that the critical mass is already there. Because of the theft of citizen oversight, transparency, and control, not because of the theft of some old election. All we in the ER community need to do is to listen. Listen to the current message of the citizens and forget that old canard that some want us still to believe. Do that, and we will have Election Reform.

Four days with voters of the Show Me State leave me convinced that they will support an Initiative Petition to wrest control of their electoral process from the Powers-that-be. And that is because their Constitutional Franchise has been pillaged, not because of some relatively ancient election that was stolen.

Personally, I am willing to spend the better part of the next year attempting to prove that. And I hope that you readers would do two things in return.

First, re-examine the reasons you think you must convert the "unenlightened" in order to win their support for Election Reform.

Second, support with your hearts, your minds, and (to utmost degree you are able) with your pocket books, this Show Me! Initiative.

If the people of Missouri, or your own state, are ready to throw off the shackles of an oppressive Election Directorate because it is, in their opinion, the right thing to do, to retake their own Constitutional rights, then let them do so. And help them do it!

Isn't it better to have Election Reform quickly, than to have your previously unconvinced fellow citizens say to you, "OK, you were right. There was a theft in 2004! Now that I’ve said that, can we work on a way to get our franchise back? “

For me, the choice is obvious. How about you?

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