Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Democalypse 2014 - voter suppression


The really funny thing about 'voter fraud,' as I've said before, is that there's a public record of everyone who votes. Who you vote for is secret, but not the fact that you did vote.

So if voter fraud were happening at all, it would be the easiest thing in the world to discover. The Bush administration wouldn't have needed to spend eight years searching for evidence (and they would have found some, if they had).

Voter fraud isn't even plausible. It's so clearly an excuse for voter suppression, that...well, it really couldn't be any more obvious.

It's the whole idea of the big lie, I suppose. It's like Charles Krauthammer claiming that the Democrats can't run on the economy. You have to know, if you're old enough to vote, that it was the Republicans who crashed our economy. When Barack Obama took office, the collapse looked to have no bottom. He not only stopped the collapse, he's started us growing again - and against the complete opposition of every Republican in Congress, too.

Today, the elections are supposed to go badly for Democrats. I just don't get it. Are our memories that short? Have we not seen the Republicans, at a time when our country is at war and during the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, refuse to do anything to help?

The Democratic Party is no great prize, I suppose, but I find it hard to believe that the Republican Party - the Dixiecrat Party, in fact, if not in name - still exists.

3 comments:

jeff725 said...

I read a comment at the bottom of one of the British news websites expressing astonishment at how much shit Americans are willing to eat politically.

It seems like America is one gigantic battered wife/girlfriend; no matter how much the Republicans beat her, she won't leave him.

Bill Garthright said...

Yes. And yesterday's election results really seem to demonstrate that, don't they, Jeff? I'm just astounded that America hasn't had enough of the Republican Party by now.

Note how, here in Nebraska, Republicans won every statewide race by a two-to-one margin. But the vote to increase the minimum wage was also two-to-one, but in the opposite direction. It won.

Even we Nebraskans don't seem to be as right-wing as we vote. Most of us (not me, of course) vote Republican because we've always voted Republican - but also because even the Democratic candidates don't stand up for the Democratic Party.

All across America, Democrats ran away from the own party, ran away from their own president, and ran away from their own accomplishments. But they lost anyway, so even as a campaign tactic, it was a complete and utter failure.

So why not stand up for what they believe? Maybe they would have lost then, too, but they lost anyway, while also reinforcing Republican claims about the Democrats, instead of working to refute them.

I liked this comment by Dave Letterman: "The Republicans, of course, have turned against Obama, and the Democrats have also turned against Obama...Gas under $3 a gallon. Unemployment under 6% -- whoever thought? Stock market breaking records every day. No wonder the guy is so unpopular."

What's crazy is that even the Democrats have forgotten what things were like six years ago. Heck, even the Democratic candidates have forgotten.

The Republicans, of course, forgot immediately (and deliberately). That was to their political advantage. But what's with the Democrats???

Man, if the Republican Party weren't so crazy, it would be hard to support the Democrats sometimes, wouldn't it?

jeff725 said...

I think this song fits the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMHPDIz02gQ