Democracy: Bush Style

There is nothing quite as hypocritical as a politian preaching the virtues of democracy while doing everything he can to destroy it. But as Election Day appraoches, that is exactly what is happening....the president has deployed his operatives to rig the outcome on November 2.
-David Sirota
In These Times

Former President Jimmy Carter said this week in a WaPo article( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52800-2004Sep26.html) that it is probably too late now to expect a fair election in Florida next month. His explanation shows that this predicament was completely avoidable. Carter and former President Gerald Ford led a commission after the debacle that was the 2000 "election." The commission recommended changes in the American electoral process. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. But as is the case with so many good-sounding acts and edicts, many of the key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes. This is the methodology of the Bush administration when they do not want something to happen. Don't fund it, or create a problem that requires a delay. Either trick is easy. Funding is provided by a Republican congress which is almost always in lockstep with George Bush. And problems can always be made up out of nothing. Karl Rove and Frank Luntz are always at the ready.

Carter and his organization at the Carter Center specialize in monitoring elections all over the world. However, this group is able to monitor about 5 elections each year. Florida is not one of them since they concentrate on the crucial needs of other nations as a rule. Who would think that our own elections would be so suspect that we would need Jimmy Carter to police them? It is a sad commentary.

The most significant requirements of a fair election have not been met in Florida: 1) a nonpartisan electoral commission or nonpartisan official and 2) uniformity in voting procedures, including paper ballot printouts to insure the integrity of the process.

These basic standards were not met in the 2000 debacle in Florida, and there are disturbing signs that once again some of the state's leading officials hold strong political biases that prevent necessary reforms. Katherine Harris' dastardly deeds are well-documented. Her successor, Glenda Hood, holds the same strong bias. For example, several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities in 2000. This time attempts have been made to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans) as alleged felons. There has also been a major effort to get Nader on the ballot, since it is believed he helped get George Bush appointed as president in 2000. Ms. Hood saw to it that Nader's name was put on the absentee ballots even before the state Supreme Court had ruled on the issue. Shame on her! Florida's Governor Jeb Bush has, perhaps understandably, taken no steps to correct the problems that ocurred in 2000 or to prevent them reocurring this year. Shame on him!

On a number of occasions during his presidency, President Bush has preached about the need for democracy to be preserved and elections to be fair. (Can it be any more ironic that he himself got into the White House by spurious means?) But, as a new report shows, Bush and his party are doing everything they can to reduce democracy as the election approaches.

Here are a few of the tactics accomplished to prevent or impede American voters from exercising their constitutional rights. In August 2003, the CEO of one of the manufacturers of new voting machines wrote a fundraising letter saying that he was committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president! How blatant can it get? Just a few months ago, Jeb Bush tried to remove 48,000 traditionally Democratic voters from the Florida voter rolls, a move that prompted the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights to demand an investigation. (And let us not delude ourselves. This is racism in America. Racism promoted by government officials. Will we be outraged?) In July, a top GOP official in Michigan indicated that his party intended to reduce minority voter turnout, saying that the GOP will have "a tough time if we do not suppress the Detroit vote." Then, back to the infamous presidential brother Jeb. Just last August, his political appointee tried to hire two top Bush fundraisers to represent the election office in Broward County in case of a recount.

Dear Gov. Bush,
Just a reminder. The definition of nonpartisan is: not supporting any of the established or regular parties; objective, not partial to a specific party, unbiased.
Has it occurred to you that you may have a teensy tinesy bias when it comes to your brother being elected in November? Just asking.

Sincerely,

The voters of America

[click on the blog title to go to The Daily Mislead article and links to the supporting documents.]