Thursday, October 30, 2008

IF DOGS RUN FREE

IF DOGS RUN FREE: “So who’s gonna win the election” asked a friend a few weeks ago.

And the problem was that we didn’t have to ask “which election” because like the other sheeple, this person had no idea what was going on locally and had become distracted by the circus of the presidential election.

To listen to the soothsayers on big brother’s wall mounted screen, it appears it’s all over but the actual voting and even the pundits have stopped looking over the polls as the gap between the young smart guy and the old codger widens toward an apparent landslide.

Yet the answer we gave a few weeks ago still stands when we didn’t hesitate to ask in response “what makes you think there’s gonna be an election?”.

Let’s qualify that a little- “what makes you think that 2008 will be any different than the ’04 and ’00 stolen elections?”.

That the election will be rigged to some extent seems to be almost a given these days, detailed across the alternative and even mainstream press as the ubiquitous electronic voting machines are poised to flip votes and voter suppression and purging of voter rolls has reached heights previously unimagined.

And yet all of us still whistle through the graveyard and talk like we are really going to have a free and fair, democratic presidential election.

No one who pays attention can deny that the last two elections were decided by a crooked balloting, first in Florida then in Ohio. That history is written.

And those who did the rigging have had eight years to perfect the theft of the 2008 presidential vote.

So the actual question we hear most over the last few days, asked calmly and matter of factly, is how big of a margin does Obama need to overcome the fraud we all know will take place.

That seems to sum up the state of the American democratic body politic these days.

And it begs the question of whether the fraud will be massive enough to actually overcome any margin in enough states to fool the corporate media and it’s supplicants into once again believing the declared outcome is legitimate.

So naturally, that said, a conversation yesterday with our “who’s gonna win” friend turned to what will take place when the deed is done- will people actually get angry enough to take to the streets in this county as they do across the world when illegitimate elections are held?

It took three-tenths of a second for us both to double over with laughter.

And the joke goes beyond the fact that Americans are too fat, lazy and stupid to care enough to put their own asses on the line to protect the very so-called democracy they cherish and fight for but goes to the underlying hoax of the circumstances that compelled us to ask the question.

The most germane circumstance of all is that most Americans are, as we’ve said, too dumb to live. We deserve the Patriot Act. We deserve to lose our children in fake wars waged solely to fatten the bank accounts of oil executives and other assorted plunderers.

Many years ago we wrote a column about a future America where all our rights had been eradicated except for one- the right to vote. And every year we’d sadly schlep our sorry asses down to the polls where we’re given a choice between bullshit and horseshit sandwiches- and be grateful to have that.

Sound familiar? But we were wrong in one respect- we’ve gone beyond that vision to the point where no matter how much we want the bullshit sandwich we are force fed the horseshit one.

Stalin had something obvious to say about the relationship between those who count the vote those who win election. And in the fascist police state that is 2008 Amerika the only question is how good we germericans will be Nov 5th when we’re denied our choice of sandwiches.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Andy, I think you are being too hard on the American people, but you raise a good question: what should we do if the election is stolen?

I would propose large demonstrations, leading to massive civil disobedience. Each island should figure in advance the best spot for a display of resistance to the theft. On oahu, it would probably be at the Federal Building to start, perhaps moving to the State Capitol as a place to settle in and wait.

We could have a camp-in, a teach-in for democracy, with shared cultural events: music, talks. No business as usual until democracy is re-established.

Heck, I think we should start gathering if the election even starts getting stalled out due to "malfunctioning machines" or obvious voter disenfranchisement in Florida, Ohio or Pennsylvania.

I think most Americans want a strong democracy and are tired of eight years of GOP lies and greed. With Obama, many of us began to hope. If they steal that hope away, we will have to react.

I suggest it should be deliberate, disciplined and non-violent.

Perhaps we should already start scheduling the workshops on non-violent civil disobedience?

Andy Parx said...

I hope you’re right Sylvia. I’ve just spent the morning reading up on all the horror stories of DRE electronic vote flipping http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6592 and the like. And there’s a Washington Post article today http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102904105_pf.html on how Maryland and Virginia are ditching the DRE’s after this election and just eating millions in costs after the legislature told them to do it.

I still wonder what would make ’08 any different than the complacency of ’00 and ’04 if/when the election is stolen for the third time

One thing we can do is to get our legislature to direct the elections office to go to a paper only balloting system in 2010 since we have the opportunity to do so when the contract is re-bid next year.