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In The Clearing Stands a Boxer, Score One For
Democracy
By Anthony Wade
January 14, 2005
Votergate 2004 has reached the mainstream. In
the early afternoon of January 6th, 2005, a Congresswoman
from Ohio stood up to protest the seating of the Electors from Ohio,
and this time, a Senator stood up with her. This time, democracy
actually worked. A politically dangerous move, meant nothing to
Barbara Boxer, who stood up and said, “As we are shedding the blood
of our military to this end, we must realize that we lose so much
credibility when our own electoral system needs so much
improvement.” Amen Senator Boxer, God bless America.
Let’s make sure we all understand what has led
up to this moment in history. There is no doubt in any objective
mind that there were gross “irregularities” in the 2004 vote, not
just in Ohio, but around the country. Overwhelmingly, these
glitches, computer errors, and irregularities favored George W.
Bush. In Ohio specifically, the Secretary of State, who is
responsible for ensuring fair elections, was also the State Chair of
the Bush reelection campaign, a clear conflict of interest. Ohio has
been the site of widespread voter fraud, voter suppression, and
voter disenfranchisement. There is no doubt about this. It has been
recorded for the past two months and there have been congressional
hearings attesting to such facts. Secretary of State Blackwell has
thwarted any fair attempt to recount and investigate. He has stalled
the certification process, in essence trying to run out the clock.
He has illegally stopped the recount at one point. He has sent in
Triad employees to utilize cheat sheets to fraudulently fix the
recount. He has hidden himself behind other GOP operatives to refuse
to answer questions about the election he oversaw. His actions
portray a guilty man. Displaying his arrogance however, he recently
has sent out a fundraising letter BRAGGING about delivering Ohio to
Bush. The fundraising by the way? Blackwell is running for Governor
of Ohio. The GOP will be sure to throw their might behind him as
payola for his services in ensuring Ohio went Bush. After all, they
made sure Katherine Harris won a Congressional seat after she
delivered Florida to Bush in 2000.
Despite the Congressional hearings, sworn
affidavits, and overwhelming evidence of underhanded practices
before, during, and after the election this story has received no
coverage from the corporate controlled media, that prefers the
deregulation presidency of Bush. For two months the Internet has
been abuzz with the story, screaming in the wind apparently, while
the country at large was clueless to what really happened in Ohio.
January 6th, represented our last chance to have this
debate in public, and demand coverage for it. It was never about
overturning the election results; it was about tabling the most
important subject in our country, in public. Thankfully, Barbara
Boxer stood up for all of us and allowed that discussion, for a
couple of hours.
Word about Boxer got out the night before and
apparently the GOP got together to get their talking points
straight. Forever insulting the intelligence of America, the GOP
believes that if you simply say something enough, regardless of the
truth, people will eventually believe it as being true. You remember
that Al Gore invented the Internet, right? On January 6th however,
you had two sides presenting their case. The democrats simply wanted
everyone to work toward fixing a broken electoral process and the
GOP was puffed up with faux indignation at the mere prospect that
they had to spend two hours discussing a democracy they thought they
had stolen already.
These apparently were the talking points of the
GOP, because nearly every republican that bothered to speak on
January 6th said some variation of this:
1) Bush won. He won by a lot. He got more votes
than anyone in history.
2) I can’t believe we have to debate whether
Bush won.
3) John Kerry knows that Bush won.
4) We need to get on with the work of the
people.
5) The democrats are sore losers.
6) There is no evidence of any fraud in Ohio.
7) Our soldiers are fighting; we shouldn’t be
talking about this.
8) Look at how many papers said that Bush won.
9) Ohio has democrats too; the conspiracy would
be too difficult to pull off.
10) The votes have been counted, and now they
have been recounted.
Every republican Congressperson said some
variation of the above talking points. Unfortunately for them, they
have no merit. Let’s debunk them point by point:
1) The democrats who protested never said Bush
did not win. They never said they sought to overturn the results (I
assume because they know it would not work with the GOP in control
of everything). The fact that Bush got more votes than anyone in
history does not mean anything other than we had the highest voter
turnout in history, further buttressing the argument that Blackwell
seriously under managed minority districts and shorted them of
voting machines. Bush actually only won by 118,000 votes. We are
talking about disenfranchisement beyond those numbers. Either way
though, the results were never being questioned, just the conduct in
Ohio and how we can improve our elections. The GOP wanted
desperately to muddy the issue though and pretend the debate was
about overturning results. Their hope was to make the democrats look
bad, while avoiding having to talk about any serious reform.
2) The GOP kept trying to make this be about
the democrats trying to contest the results. It was a transparent
political ploy though, as Boxer and Tubbs both said they knew the
results would stand. In the end, the GOP just sounded whiny.
3) Yes, John Kerry does know that Bush won. So
does Tubbs. So does Boxer. This was about massive fraud and
suppression and how to correct those problems. The GOP, who benefits
directly from the fraud and suppression, refused to address the
problems and hid like children behind these fake points that had no
merit and were not in dispute.
4) In four years the GOP controlled Congress
has passed an unfunded education platform, tax breaks for the rich
that have crippled our economy, and transferred war powers to the
president based on lies. No offense, we can wait two hours before
you go back to work.
5) Hmmm, no, the democrats want to make sure
that every vote is counted and that the mistakes that were made in
2000 and 2004 do not occur again in 2008. You can call me a sore
loser if you like because I think that Kerry won. The democrats
however, they never said that.
6) There is no evidence of fraud??? Now, I
understand why the GOP would be confused since they refused to
actually attend any of the Conyers hearings but if they had, then
they would have had a chance to hear the evidence. If there is no
evidence of fraud, why is Blackwell trying to legally ensure he
never has to testify about an election he personally oversaw?
7) Never afraid to use the troops for their own
selfish benefit, this argument is insulting and baseless. If we are
really trying to bring democracy to the ends of the earth, maybe we
should fix it here first.
8) Many republicans brought with them
editorials from newspapers that said that Bush won and the
allegations in Ohio had no merit. I cannot think of a more childish
argument then saying that because a paper says there was no fraud,
there must not be. Considering the papers did not cover the
hearings, or the allegations, I would proffer they have no base from
which to draw their conclusions.
9) Yes, Ohio has democrats, but none that are
in control of anything. They were not responsible for voting machine
allocation that saw black neighborhoods get shorted. They were not
involved in the vote tabulation either. In many cases they were not
permitted to even be at meetings held by the republican operatives.
This argument is the ultimate red herring.
10) Ahh, everyone remember this one? That’s
right, it was used by the GOP in 2000, the problem is that it was a
lie then, and it is a lie now. In 2000 the Supreme Court actually
stopped the recount. If it was allowed to continue we would be
certifying the reelection of President Gore today. In 2004, the
votes have not been recounted. 3% of the votes in certain counties
were recounted but the recount was done illegally, in several
instances. Using cheat sheets to ensure proper counts is not legal.
No, the votes were not recounted.
Now, the two hours were filled with poignant
testimony from many representatives that just wanted to make sure
that our votes are counted. They were opposed though by
self-righteous sanctimonious republicans who want to bury their
heads in the sand and pretend that Ohio did not happen, just like
Florida before her did not. It was quite sad for example to listen
to Senator Mike Dewine, from Ohio. He opened his comments by saying
he cannot believe that we are discussing whether Bush won Ohio (see
point # 2 above), thus dispelling the notion that he has any clue
about why he was even there. He finished his comments by quoting
newspapers that said that Bush won (see number 8 above). Just
remember Ohioans when he is up for reelection, that he had no
concern about whether your vote actually got counted. Mike Dewine
stood up on January 6th and showed beyond a shadow of a
doubt that he does not care about his own constituents, period.
It is a sad statement in latter-day America
when the opportunity to simply talk about gross election fraud, for
a period of only two hours, is considered a great victory for
democracy. That is what this was though. The bottom line is that
moving forward; the GOP controls all three branches of government
and 80% of the companies that count your votes. After 2000 what did
the GOP Congress do to reform the electoral process? Nothing. They
passed the useless HAVA, which paves the way states to use their own
standards and purchase voting machines made by GOP-backed companies.
Besides that the GOP actually SUED to make sure that there would be
no paper trail for these machines. Good job.
Senator Boxer correctly pointed out,
“A year ago, Senators Graham, Clinton and I
introduced legislation that would have required that electronic
voting systems provide a paper record to verify a vote. That paper
trail would be stored in a secure ballot box and invaluable in case
of a recount. There is no reason why the Senate should not have
taken up and passed that bill. At the very least, a hearing should
have been held. But it never happened.”
Did you get that America? A year ago,
legislation was proposed that would simply allow a locked record of
every vote cast, to protect our democracy. To lend transparency to
the process. To ensure that today, would never be necessary. But
because the GOP controls the Senate, they NEVER EVEN HAD A HEARING
ON THE MERITS OF SUCH A PROPOSAL. Now, I wonder why that is? Maybe
because they knew already that they had control of the main swing
states and 80% of the machines that do the counting were made by two
brothers who run two companies that were outspoken about their
desire to see Bush reelected.
What do you think is going to happen over the
next four years? Do you honestly think that the GOP will enact any
significant reform of an electoral process which they completely
control? If they were so put off on January 6th to have
to discuss the rampant disenfranchisement of thousands of voters in
Ohio, for two measly hours, the only answer about their sincerity to
reform has to be no. The Help America Vote Act has about as much
credibility as the Healthy Forests Initiatives or the Clear Skies
Act. The forests are not healthy, the skies are not clear, and
America was NOT helped to vote, period.
Senator Boxer correctly recognized some salient
facts. One, she recognized from the voluminous report completed by
John Conyers, that thousands of people lost their right to vote, or
lost their actual vote itself in Ohio. Secondly, she recognized that
if the issue was not tabled on January 6th, it never
would have been because the GOP controls all branches of government.
Lastly, she realized that if voters could wait ten hours in the rain
to vote, then by God, Congress can meet for two hours and discuss
why. The GOP of course would have none of it. They discussed nothing
and addressed no problems. It does not matter now though because the
problems are now official. They are in the record. The people got to
see where their elected officials stand on the subject of voter
fraud and suppression. They saw the GOP line up to whine about
having to even discuss the possibility of voter fraud. They heard
them lie with impunity and try to twist today’s events into
something they were not. They heard them sound petty and small,
against a backdrop of the very fabric of our republic.
On the other side they got to hear that all
votes should be counted. They got to hear that all voting machines
should have a paper trail. They got to see democracy in action. They
got to see some real American patriots stand up for the right to
vote, period. Thank you Senator Boxer. On January 6th you
gave us all back a small part of our collective American soul, which
was stripped away from us four years ago. You gave us hope that in a
political town, sometimes politics can take a back seat to the
concerns of the people. History will remember you well Senator
Boxer. We all will remember you well.
Anthony
Wade is co-administrator of
a website devoted to educating the populace to the
ongoing lies of President George W. Bush and seeking his removal
from office. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York
with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A
Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor
working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can
have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and
excess.
