http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/10/peaceful-revolution-is-elephant-in.htmlPeaceful Revolution Is The Elephant In The Room
The National Summit To Save Our Elections was held in Portland, OR last weekend, bookended by two meetings devoted to developing a cohesive national strategy for election reform. While I attended both strategy sessions, I am not at liberty to discuss many details. I will say the elephant in the room was called out and a big effort was made to address it. Unfortunately, as objects in rearview mirrors can be, it now seems to me the elephant was falsely identified. The election reform movement is inherently revolutionary and yet that is the biggest of pictures that we most completely ignore.
There are advocates of hand counted paper ballots who are at odds with other election reformers calling for any of a number of verifiable electronic solutions. As important as this is, we can't afford to get hung up on the minutia of these issues. We must focus on the larger picture. In my community, the City Council of Arcata, CA put this rift to rest with the
Voter Confidence Resolution (VCR). This document contains an eight point election reform platform, all of which must be enacted to achieve the true end goals of ensuring conclusive election outcomes, creating a basis for confidence in the results reported, and establishing an accountable government that represents We The People with our Consent. Consider just these three platform items:
1) voting processes owned and operated entirely in the public domain, and
3) a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast and additional uniform standards determined by a non-partisan nationally recognized commission, and
5) counting all votes publicly and locally in the presence of citizen witnesses and credentialed members of the media
Those words were chosen so as not to explicitly demand or deny any of the various narrow grounds on which election reform advocates have been divided. Having been through the process of crafting the VCR, I know that these three reforms alone won't lead to Democracy, but they also won't preclude advocates of paper ballots or otherwise from supporting the advancement of the movement. People on both sides of the debate need to consider the best case scenario rather than their narrowly defined success. Both sides should conclude that an enormous array of other issues will still prevent the true goals of conclusive outcomes, a basis for confidence, and accountable representatives seeking our Consent. In Portland, we did all agree on these three goals and I expect that we can grow the movement by asking for buy-in at this level. That buy-in will allow us to think bigger.
Also in Portland, I took comfort in observing that most if not all in attendance understand empirically, logically and emotionally that there is no rational basis for confidence in the results reported from U.S. federal elections. There was a lot of discussion about what has happened in recent "elections." But even more important were the projections, made with certainty, that future elections held under these conditions will guarantee inconclusive outcomes and fail to produce unanimous acceptance of the results. A good portion of Americans are still willing to argue about what is a fact. It is therefore a wiser strategy to avoid that confrontation and instead build on those points on which we agree.
As I wrote in the
Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution, Americans are engaged in a Cold Civil War as a result of the government's intentional divisiveness. Government power has been consolidated by pitting We The People against each other, thus preventing us from uniting against our common
fascist foe. Inherent uncertainty is one of the government's most frequently used techniques. If we can't recount the votes, we can't know who really won an election.
Looking at the real elephant in the room includes these questions: where is the movement going? What will it look like when it succeeds? How can we develop and facilitate the implementation of a cohesive national strategy? And how can we make the phrase "peaceful revolution" socially acceptable? This is why I went to Portland. There was some progress made but we did not get to the core of this matter.
As our post-Summit dialog continues, this is where I'll be directing my energy. Reformers from Portland as well as Berkeley, CA have told me of their intention to organize in support of the VCR. I will work to connect leaders with other volunteers, and also to engage other communities in this same pursuit. Listen up San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Ithaca and New Paltz, you are just
a few of the places where every City Councilmember has received the VCR and knows what we're doing. Let your City Council know you support this, and help them make connections with other like-minded communities.
These are the growing pains of the movement. Our movement is growing, and it hurts so good.
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