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demographic to base a general strategy on. Busby wasn't "beaten badly"--she almost won against huge odds INCLUDING the use of extremely insider hackable, Bushite-corporate controlled electronic voting machines, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code. The very corrupt San Diego political establishment had furthermore just introduced Diebold touchscreens, the worst of the election theft machines, as the result of the 'swiftboating' of our good Democratic CA Sec of State Kevin Shelley--who had sued Diebold and decertified these machines prior to the 2004 election, and demanded to see their source code--and the installation of Schwarzenegger appointee and Dieobld shill Bruce McPherson, who ILLEGALLY RE-CERTIFIED these machines.
You must not base a strategy on the results of a Diebold election, especially in what was touted by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies as a "bellweather" on Bush and the war. It's playing the Bush junta's game.
I'm not against smart strategy, and I certainly think the point about accountability is vitally important. This is the most egregiously unaccountable administration in our history, and maybe in anybody's history--the Tsars of Russia come to mind. BUT THAT ISN'T ALL. And that ISN'T the chief thing on peoples' minds in all other polling, now and over the last several years. Opposition to the Iraq war has steadily risen from a MAJORITY of 56% BEFORE the invasion (Feb. '03), to a whopping 70% today. The will of the American people has been ignored ALL ALONG. Some Americans have felt that, despite how the war started, we can't just instantly pull out and leave the Iraqi government we set up stranded. But a recent poll showed 55% for IMMEDIATE withdrawal. In other words, they consider the situation so deteriorated that even the goal of a stable government has to be abandoned.
However, the chief thing on peoples' minds right now is the Bush junta's intent to EXPAND the Mideast war. Not to withdraw, not even to pull back, but to EXPAND the warfare beyond Iraq and Lebanon, to Syria and Iran. According to one poll, that was posted here at DU, last week, EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of the American people oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war.
To TEMPER our message in these circumstances is a huge mistake. And to actually tailor it to BUSH's nefarious plans in the Middle East--by stressing oversight over withdrawal--is tantamount to endorsing those plans. Here is the message I'm getting from this memo: "We really like this war, despite its horror and lack of justification and illegality, and despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people, but we're going to shove it down your throats in a different way. We're going to let Bush get away with this HORROR, and even EXPAND this horror, but with more financial efficiency and accountability. No war profiteers! Isn't that great? "
It sounds NO DIFFERENT than Kerry's message during the election: Americans DO NOT GET THE CHOICE OF NO WAR. We only get the choice of a MORE EFFICIENT WAR.
Not good enough.
It's okay for the message to be REALISTIC, as to what a Democratic Congressional majority containing many Diebold-(s)elected (pro-war, pro-corporate) Democrats might be able to DO. But to pander to the MINORITY rightwing and the MINORITY war profiteering corporate news monopoly TRUMPET of rightwing views, with a message of mere "oversight", and NOT address the illegality and immorality of this regime's SLAUGHTER of over 100,000 innocent people, and torture, and spying, and egregious assault on the Constitution, and the on-going deaths of U.S. soldiers stuck over there in an UNTENABLE position, is a bad mis-reading of the mood of the country, and IRRESPONSIBLE. Leaders must LEAD, for godssakes! They must not bend and waiver and namby-pampy around in this situation. They must SAY WHAT IS RIGHT and pursue it as best they can.
Our country is HORRIBLE TROUBLE! Everything we ever held sacred about it is under assault. The rule of law. The balance of power. Honest, transparent elections--the heart of our democracy--vote counting in public view. Fairness, tolerance, rational debate. These people OUTED a CIA agent! They committed TREASON. They tortured a 15 year old boy!* They've broken the law--time and again--and refuse to stop doing it! It's not a time for "messaging." It's a time for standing up and speaking the truth.
But the chief failure of this sort of thinking--as reflected in this memo ("messaging"--thinking of what will "sell")--is that it does not address the matter of the war in the context of the BLATANTLY NON-TRANSPARENT election system, which was quite deliberately designed by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, to perpetuate Bushite power and to conduct a war that NOBODY WANTED.
The people of this country--and the Democrats running for office--need GUIDANCE about this. PRACTICAL guidance. What do you do about the votes being counted inside a "black box" that nobody can see, controlled by corporations with very close ties to the Bush junta? What, practically, do you do? Promote Absentee Ballot voting--and enlist hundreds of hard-nosed vote counting monitors to make sure the AB votes get counted? (I favor this--I think we should revolt against these election theft machines, and FLOOD election officials with MOUNTAINS of paper AB votes.) Or, how to analyze the election system in a given situation? Who's in control? How bad is the non-transparency? No paper trail, for instance. (Get your legal team ready!).
If you base your analysis of the political landscape on very riggable elections, you are going to be WRONG. You are going to mis-read the public. And then the unfair advantage that these riggable machines give to Bushites and warmongers is going to beat you. Because you CAN'T INSPIRE SUFFICIENT TURNOUT TO OVERCOME THAT ADVANTAGE with a half-assed message!
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