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Do the Neo-Cons Need Karl Rove When They Can Count on the Democrats?
Karl Rove scoots off the sunken White House ship with his plans for future neo-con dominance safe and secure---in the hands of Democrats unwilling or incapable of challenging his dirtiest deeds.
Elected to end a lunatic war, the Democratic Congress has prolonged it, earning approval ratings even lower than those of George W. Bush, whom Rove designated as a "war president" long before the attack on Iraq.
The Democrats have also signed off on the GOP's all-out assault on the Constitution, meekly certifying a "unitary executive" with totalitarian demands for a blanket suspension of civil liberties, arbitrary detention, official torture and more.
Once again voters will approach a presidential election asking themselves---why vote for Democrats who won't challenge the most catastrophic GOP outrages?
That question must now be asked again about the illegal destruction of 1.5 million ballots from Ohio's stolen 2004 election. The mass shredding includes a wide range of official documents critical to conducting a valid recount in the state that gave Bush/Rove a second term in the White House.
Breaking a total mainstream media blackout, the Cincinnati Enquirer has finally printed a front-page story on the felonious disposal of these federally-protected records by 56 of Ohio's 88 counties.
The records were shielded until September 2, 2006 by federal mandate, and since then by a federal court order obtained through a class action lawsuit. The counties were also required to inform the Ohio Historical Society before any such records were destroyed.
The counties have responded to critics with an absurd array of "dog ate my homework" excuses reminiscent of Rove's laptop during his lighter moments. Some of the ballots were ruined by a coffee pot, says one county. Flooding hit others, they say. In one county, recyclers were to blame. In another, counterfeit ballots have been discovered.
In short, the excuses for destroying Ohio's election records are every bit as credible as Rove saying he's resigning to "spend more time with my family."
But far from reacting with outrage, the Democrats have merely shrugged, much as they've done with the continuation of the Iraq War and the shredding of the Constitution.
Ohio's Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has told the media she sees "no evidence" this mass deep-sixing of official records was done "purposefully" by nearly two-thirds of the state's counties.
By contrast, under Republican Governor Jeb Bush, only one Florida county destroyed its records and ballots from the 2000 election. The rest of the materials are safely on file at a repository in Tallahassee. A thorough media-sponsored investigation used them to conclude that Al Gore was the rightful winner.
While campaigning in 2006, Brunner promised to establish a similar facility in Columbus. Riding a huge popular revulsion against incumbent Republicans, she won in a landslide that also ushered in a Democratic governor, attorney-general and U.S. Senator.
But except for Freepress.org, no independent team has conducted a systematic analysis of Ohio's 2004 election. Our conclusion remains that John Kerry was the rightful winner. Evidence continuing to surface has deepened that conviction.
As part of the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville lawsuit that secured a federal court mandate for the protection of these materials, it was our expectation that the Freepress.org and other media teams would have time to access those preserved materials for a definitive, ultimately conclusive study.
In a new reality emblematic of the Age of Rove, that will now be impossible.
By all rights, the staff and election boards of all the 56 counties should be subject to investigation and possible federal and state felony charges.
Emblematic of the Democratic Party in the Age of Rove, there seems no movement in that direction.
In the wake of the destruction of these historic materials, Brunner has also told the media she sees "no evidence" that Kerry could have won the 2004 election.
But Bush's official margin was less than 119,000 votes out of 5.4 million counted, with exit polls showing him the clear winner. More than 100,000 ballots remain uncounted. The litany of ballot stuffing, electronic manipulation, voter intimidation and fraud has now been overshadowed by the illegal destruction of 1.5 million votes cast in precincts that had inflated totals for Bush, according to exit polls. Essential auditing materials were destroyed in the key Republican counties that gave Bush his official margin of victory. In at least one of those counties, counterfeit ballots have surfaced in large numbers.
The Democrats also don't seem to care that the servers used to compute the Ohio 2004 vote count were the same ones that housed the web site for the Republican National Committee.
Those servers (which were lodged in the basement of a bank in Chattanooga, Tennessee) mysteriously "malfunctioned" during a critical period in the deep night of the election when a 200,000-vote exit poll margin for John Kerry somehow morphed into a victory for Bush/Rove. Rove's notoriously missing "extra-official" e-mails flowed through those same servers.
Congressional Democrats now pursue Rove over the firing of federal attorneys who refused to play along with the GOP plan to disenfranchise millions of American voters in the lead-up to 2008. But Bush is certain to shield Rove with a pardon, and the matter seems as likely to fade away as those 2004 ballots.
The fifteen months until the 2008 election can qualify as many lifetimes in American politics. Unless the Democrats confront this horrendous war and stop the obliteration of the American Constitution, they'll give voters little reason to bother coming out for them in 2008.
And unless they face the realities of the last two stolen presidential elections, Karl Rove's twisted vision for a neo-con America could easily survive the loss of the presidency to a nominal Democrat in 2008, just as it thrives unimpeded after the 2006 loss of Congress and the Ohio statehouse.
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030, is at www.solartopia.org. He is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and writes regularly for www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.
© 2007 The Free Press
30 Comments so far
Show Allbilljv is correct: there is no distinction between Democrats and Republicans, or between left and right. There is only one party: the corporate party. Democracy is dead here. Fascism - soon to be accompanied by a totalitarian state - is what we have now.
I'm not sure what we can do about it in the voting booth, other than vote for Ron Paul. Perhaps the best way to effect change is to de-legitimize the whole system by refusing to participate. I mean, if voter turnout in the next presidential election is a mere 10%, I think that would send a loud message that we don't regard the system as legitimate. I'm not sure what response such a message would elicit, but what have we got to lose?
Dave
Things will fade away only when the American people will allow them to fade away. This will be the main challenge in many issues after the changing of the guards in 2008. Of course the republicans will try to play dirty to win, but I think they have only little chance to succeed and that the next president will most likely be a democratic one.
What worries me most is the attention span of American citizens when it comes to politics. Is it going to be: now we have a democratic president (and probably a democratic house, democratic senate), we are now all happy ?
After the excesses of Nixon, Ford pardoned him. After the excesses of Reagan and Bush I, Clinton pardoned them and all the republican crimes disappeared from the record. The republicans, who make it their specialization to commit the most vicious atrocities and injustice under the disguise of 'politics', only were encouraged by these events and one can and should only conclude that the entire Bush fiasco happened because the previous crimes were never penalized so that this gang of thugs was kept in check.
So yes, when you have a democratic president and the gays and lesbians and environmentalists and pacifists and feminists are left alone to live in peace, you should still pay attention at what is happening. Make sure that the Democrats worry more about their GREEN opponents than their REPUBLICAN opponents. Politicians do their work because they are afraid of the voter; so make them afraid, in the media, in the polls and on the ballot.
And foremost: make sure that they clean up the mess of the present regime. Investigate, prosecute, correct all the wrongs. Don't let them get away with a lousy excuse like "We still have to work together with these people".
The vast majority the officials in the Bush Regime and in the republican party belong in prison, so really, ... you don't HAVE To work with them.
Whether any of this happens depends purely on the will and the persistence of the American people. Nominally you still have a democracy so make use of it ! And don't give up !!
The Democrats are clearly their own worst enemy. Again they field a front runner who will be easy for the GOP to defeat (I refer here to Billary), and again they prove the GOP mantra that they are "the party soft on terrorism." The fascists who have been running and wrecking this nation for the last 25 years are the real terrorists, and we see how easily the Dems cave in to them any time an opponent whispers the word "liberal." Enough of the Brown and Black of fascism. Enough of the neutral grey or greyish brown of the Dems. Give me a party that is Green. Or maybe even RED.
What amazes me is that people are still making a distinction between Dems and Repugs... you're joking, right? THERE IS NO PARTY OF THE PEOPLE ANY MORE IN THIS COUNTRY. There is no party that represents the true interests of the American people. Our political system has been sufficiently bought and sold to corporate interests. The rest is window dressing and play politics, just for show. The Right vs. Left argument is all that is left of our old Democratic system, while the leaders in power continue their rampage against the people and suck the corporate/military/media tit. They swim in a sea of collusion together, and all the while fool average people into believing that they still care about what average people need, or want.
You can also forget about any rogue rebel alternative party or candidate getting into the folds of power. If someone does manage to break through the initial veil and manage to get elected into a position of true power, they will be killed. Any direct threat to the established order will be dealt with in the most swift direct action possible, whether it be through tar & feathering in the media, or at worst, murder.
Personally I'm sick of the endless rhetoric about weak Dems, or cheating Repugs... let's start being honest and call a spade a spade - they are both only shells of their former representation of the people, now filled with corporate money and dictates from the halls of the richest people on the planet. Stop kidding yourselves!! Democracy is over. How many stolen elections and ignored public protests, failed reform bills, ignored public health issues, disasterous recovery efforts, signing statements, and other blatent signs of fascist control do you need to get it through your head????
The Dems are triangulating again, and at their peril. It was a trick that worked once, but now the other side has figured out how to defend against it. And they are on the verge of nominating their greatest triangulator, Hellary. They appear to be doomed.
billjv,
I have to agree that we appear to have entered a post-democratic phase. The corporate media sneers at any candidate who actually wants to improve the lot of the common people. In their model of the world, politics is a cynical game played best by the most mendacious and bold. That is why they always like Bush and Cheney and despised someone like Gore, who took good government seriously, or like Kucinich, who believes the government should serve the interests of the majority.
Back in the 18th Century, when the whole system was founded, it was new and exciting and the best minds found challenge and opportunity in becoming involved in it. Now it has been gamed, focus-grouped, poll-tested, gimmicked, sloganeered, rigged, redistricted, and triangulated to death, and candidates who take the system seriously are ridiculed and treated as naive simpletons.
well, they learned after Florida.
Soon after winning the whitehouse, Hillary naively mentioned a mysterious phone call that suggested something about a future plan to tradeoff election outcomes. I have never seen another mention of that, although, at the time, it was commonly known. Anyone else recall it? I never forgot it. The fix is in and has been for awhile.
kivals @ 3:07 -- well said, pefectly describes the situation and how it evolved (devolved?).
Thank you.
yes i like that phrase (but not it's meaning and impact). post-democratic phase.
Missing from Mr. Wasserman's otherwise on-point essay:
(1) While the Democrats have surrendered in large part to the Bush agenda, the Green Party has maintained consistent and outspoken opposition. Press release headlines currently posted at gp.org cover the surveillance bill and the extremely dangerous 'Security & Prosperity Partnership' expansion of NAFTA, something that the mainstream media has almost completely ignored. The Green Party is pushing for immediate US troop withdrawal, impeachment of Bush & Cheney, and a lot of other things from which most Democrats have retreated.
(2) While Kerry and his fellow Dems sat on their thumbs after Election Day 2004, it was Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb who, along with Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik, responded to the thousands of complaints of vote obstruction and manipulation in Ohio and New Mexico and launched the recount investigations and recount efforts. Greens raised most of the money for the recounts, and the best source of news on the Ohio votescam was Columbus Free Press journalist Bob Fitrakis, who had just run for Governor of Ohio on the Green Party ticket. (A lot of the Free Press's recount coverage came from Wasserman and Fitrakis sharing the byline and was posted at Common Dreams.) Michigan Democrat John Conyers got involved later and set up the Conyers Commission. If there's any hope remaining for fair and accurate US elections, we probably shouldn't invest it in either of the two old parties.
Brunner,Pelosi shows what happens when someone is in a job that's way over their head, in Pelosi's case she took impeachment off the table before the democrats were sworn into office.Brunner is proving she is in way over her head and has no idea how to run her office.There are exception's of course but these two should never been elected. Harry Reid is another who in in way over his head.
Uncle Dragon said: "If there's any hope remaining for fair and accurate US elections, we probably shouldn't invest it in either of the two old parties."
Exactly my point - there is no fairness or accuracy (or accountability) anymore. This is why it is an utter waste of time to think change will come from within the current system.
Count me in as another lifetime Democrat who will not vote that way in 08. I simply know no other way than for us to bail out en masse. Let the current Democratic party's concept of itself lose a few more elections, I guess, so that they will come to understand what is really wanted from them by the people. It will be a long, slow, and terribly painful process, but in time, barring a coup, a party will arise that is responsive to non-conservatives. In the meantime, I'm checking out, tending my own garden, turning off the tube. G'night.
As I recall, gays and lesbians didn't do very well with Bill Clinton at the helm. "Don't ask, don't tell" Gay marriage getting nowhere. Nope, sorry, I don't have any faith in the Democrats any longer. They've completely squandered their appeal by caving in to the Bushies since 2000. They're gone.
That dead Elvis gets more press than all other news of the day tells you why we have the Shrub, and will for a long time.
If the Democrats don't win in 2008, the party won't exist in 2012.
Hitlery, Obamanible Snowman and The Edwardsians are all Bush warrin' policy nominal Democrats. Looking for a little Lincoln from the heart of US? ORANGE y'all ready to switch to Kucinich, instead?
No, the neocons don't need Karl Rove while the DLC exists to ensure that the Democrats provide a weak "me too" to Republican excess and crime. However, since for an extremist enough is never enough, the Ruthless party will continue to go a-Roving.
billjv: You are right and also wrong. As long as the formal structure is there and large numbers of people are treating the mainstream parties as distinct, that is by default the context we are in. Therefore, in order to communicate with other people, we cannot just insist upon using coded language that makes sense only to lefties.
Dr Paul or Kuchinick could move and do something for the Common Good, if they let them be active...and, most of all, ....alive
Democrats = Bush enabler
Get over it.
Any progressives who can't bring themselves to vote for any of the democrats instead of the republicans should make sure they vote green or communist or anything.
Not showing up at the election is the secondary goal of the republicans and the PRIMARY goal of the corporations.
Who cares if the Democrats allegedly won in 2004?
Would it really have been all that different if they had one?
We'd still be in Iraq for the next decade or so and the war would be going just as badly if Kerry were President. My gut tells me that it would be worse. The right wing noise machine would have him so rattled that he probably would have instituted the draft.
The market meltdown would have happened. Perhaps a Kerry administration wouldn't be as vociferous about Iran but if AIPAC told him to jump he would and a Kerry administration would probably be looking for reasons to rachet up tensions with Iran.
Katrina. That's the one thing that probably wouldn't have occurred under Kerry.
Other than that you'd have a lot of the same shit. Just a slightly different flavor. It's the same shit we'll all be eating if Hillary wins. GOP lite.
I commend the black box voting people for their efforts but respectfully suggest that they devote their energy toward worthier causes. Until we remove corporate money from politics--the choice between Dems and Repubs will be meaningless. It simply isn't worth spending your time protecthing a vote between fascists and fascist lite.
And yet I wonder if it really is about money or not. Why does money matter so much? You could argue that it buys positive spin on the corporate media outlets, prime time advertisements, a large campaign team, lawn signs, etc.
On the other hand, you might argue that leadership is chosen by fiat, behind closed doors, anyway. And that money is just thrown at the candidate who is predestined to win -- to make it look like money made the difference.
I certainly wonder...
"But Bush's official margin was less than 119,000 votes out of 5.4 million counted, with exit polls showing him the clear winner."
Is it really possible Harvey writes this confusedly? I assume the "him", above, refers to Kerry...
Winnetou,
Yes, just as Clinton (I) let Bush I off the hook, so would Clinton II let Bush II off.
Why is the wife of Bush I's good buddy so popular with "Democrats"?
Arkitekton
Thanks. I was beginning to wonder whether it was just the late hour, but I read that sentence 4 times and still could make no sense of it as it stood...
What I really have a problem with are Republicans like my parents who think that bad weather and smaller turnouts that favor the Rethugs are a good thing. They also say "they all do it" when I rail against the voter fraud - a reference to the supposed theft of Illinois by the Daley machine for Kennedy in 1960, when I was THREE YEARS OLD. Give me a break, if it did happen, it is irrelevant to today. These people, including my parents, don't really believe in democracy for all. My parents are in their sunset years now, but for anyone younger and more vital who doesn't believe in democracy, get the 'bleep' out of MY country and go to some overt dictatorship where you'll be happy.
Dave, I reluctantly agree with you about not voting, though I am torn between this and a vote for Greens, etc. Either way, the upshot of such would be, in a best-case scenario, encouragement to progressive third parties. I don't see the Dems "listening" to the message of a low or shifted progressive turnout...they have long ago stopped listening to us. At most, they may juice up the campaign lies to seduce us back into the fold, but I hope we won't buy it any longer. But one can hope that a party that promotes progressive values will rise from this, slim as the chance may be.
Once, again, a quick answer to get SOME message to this Congress (they didn't listen to our votes, did they?) is a switch to Green Party registration! A massive move would do wonders and really shake things up!
They are counting on their minions, give not a whit about your opinions, and would not be expecting this one. Time to throw them a curve ball.
Even more influential than a vote at this moment, a large registration swing to Green Party is a meaningful and statistically significant statement on the Agenda People Really Want: End this War, Start Impeachment, Give Us Single-payer Healthcare, and more.
Tell me, in what election can you say all that??
It's rare enough to have a progressive or enlightened candidate make it past the primaries, let alone get to elect one that sounds anything like your Heart and Mind!
Yes, your registration CAN say more than your vote right now.
If you really feel you need to, you can switch back temporarily for the primaries, but going Green NOW, *before* the Primaries, is a much better tactic, because it reinforces ALL progressive candidates' positions with numerical evidence of support and resolve.
Right now, for example, a significant switch to Green Registration (or affiliation in states not yet offering this registration) would give Dennis Kucinich greater clout in his campaign for the Dem nomination. A switch after the primaries would not have that effect. Kucinich supporters can get a double whammy here. Go for it!
A Green registration today represents the actual majority opinion (which is ignored in Congress) on many issues: the war, impeachment, trade, healthcare, women's rights, election reform, environment.
We can use Green registration as a political tool that helps identify and unify the antiwar and impeachment movements, by showing growing numbers and resolve to stand up to this cowering Congress. Just like Cindy Sheehan's challenge to Nancy Pelosi on Impeachment.
If we are serious, we must use every tool available to fight this criminal regime AND their enablers! And there are far too few tools out there. Campaigning now for '08 is not one of them (though they'd like you to believe that).
For once, let us register our values -- IN PUBLIC -- and show what we stand for.
How you actually vote will depend on who is running and what the situation is at election time. But you can influence the political dynamics between NOW and Election Day by your Green registration.
This can be far more effective than going to a demonstration (but do that, too). This IS a demonstation -- and you can do it yourself!
Remaining registered/affiliated Democrat, Independent (NPA), Republican or other won't have that effect! It just does not add YOUR position to the public debate on the war in such a decisive manner.
An important added benefit: by growing Green numbers now and supporting the Green Voice, it is YOUR voice and your opinions that grow louder in the public sphere.
Your Green registration today says: "The corporate hijacking of America -- its schools, its healthcare, its elections, its media, its foreign policy -- is over. It is time for the People's Agenda"
Read more about the rationale, if you'd like (and send a message to your congressperson notifying them you've switched), online, at switch2green.org.
You can make today -- any day -- Election Day, by voting with your registration. Then sit back and watch the ripple effects. They will hear us.
billjv Nails it one. I hate to say it fellow lefties but I think only a coalition of righteous Green lefties and true conservative constitionalists like Paul Craig Roberts can win the country back and it ain't going to be at the black box ballot box. :(