Some folks never got over the way Bush stole the election in 2000

[kentuck]

They saw the danger signs even then. He and his friends would do anything to gain power, including stopping people from counting the votes. What did they have to fear? That they might lose? In the end, we all lost.

Now, eight years later, he exits the stage. Every way we turn, we face a disaster. This is our reward for suffering fools lightly. May we never again surrender to such ill-tempered and arrogant people in their pursuit of power and greed. I now know why the German people never rid themselves of Adolph Hitler.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. "Suffering fools lightly" Yes, I think that is exactly what happened. :^(

[driver8]

2. I couldn't believe that 2000 was allowed to happen like that.

To top it all off, Ohio was stolen in 2004 and that was fine, too.

I will never understand why our country allows our elections to be handled like this. We are supposed to be the shining example of democracy, yet we cannot even be certain that our election results are accurate.

We suffered through 8 years of hell and now are stuck with a country in shambles because no one spoke up in 2000. The election in 2000 was a coup -- plain and simple.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

52. And if PE Obama doesn't hold Bushco accountable, we'll know nothing will change. n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I never got over it

And I never will.

[hamsterjill]

12. Me, either!

I couldn't believe that I stood watching my country move in the direction it was going. Bush had been an atrocity when he was governor of Texas, and when he was inaugurated, it was as if I was watching a scary movie.

And I honestly believe that his actions while in office proved to be WORSE than even *I* anticipated they would be. He and Cheney's audacity even surprised me (and others of like mind) at times.

[Poll_Blind]

4. I don't think we've learned anything either. I don't mean to be cynical...

...but, really, Americans on the whole have not done 25% of what it would take to oust him. Interestingly, many of the marches which have been against Bush had their organizers derided (here, on DU) for being Commies and indications that attending those marches was tantamount to some sort of declaration of war on the party. And that meme was even...enforced...if you get my drift. Now that's a sorry state of affairs but it is what it is. What it means, though, is that another one just as bad as Bush could walk into the office (Read: We dodged a bullet with McCain) and they'd still have another 4-year sleigh ride.

 Our disasterous position is a result of us suffering fools lightly, or nit-picking and squabbling among ourselves instead of organizing and I go further and assert that if the same thing were to happen again America would not have developed enough of an immune system to help fight it off and repair it. Maybe 2 more two-term presidents like Bush, but I doubt it would take less.

 As it is, we're heading into what is most likely an actual depression. I feel, again, most of America will confusedly shuffle off to whatever grim realities that infers, again the passive (and only sometimes complaining) victim instead of behaving like the Sons and Daughters of the Saints of Liberty as we choose to fashion ourselves.

PB

[kentuck]

7. And it is even more likely to happen again if we "move forward"...

...and forget all the crimes and misdeeds of this Administration. We deserve to know all the truth about what has been done in our name. It is not acceptable to move forward and let these folks continue to undermine our laws and our country. There must be some accountability somewhere?

[tbyg52]

41. Those who do not remember history....

etc., etc. And the best way to make sure we remember this is to prosecute the @#$%ers.

[mahina]

29. The Communists really were a force, because their organization remained intact, while ours dissolved

after every election. I wasn't too happy about it at the time, but kept asking "where are the Democrats" at all the rallies and marches.

We marched, but we went home. We should have stayed in the streets. There are examples from recent history all around the world of how people kicked out dictators. We just felt powerless and had no network.

No longer!

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

Never get over it for good reason too

[yellowcanine]

6. I am still convinced that Katherine Harris has "a tale to tell" about that whole mess.

Remember the first day of the mandatory recount when the vote totals suddenly froze for a good 12 hours? It was about the same time that James Baker, the Bush family "fixer" was braying about something to the effect of "all of the vote changes being in favor of the other side". I am convinced that at that moment Gore was actually ahead and time was needed to "correct" that situation.

[marew]

9. You betcha!

And, here in Fl, the Rethugs have really dissed her. A few years ago when she was campaigning, she wanted to take a plane ride from Orlando to Tampa with other campaigning Rethugs. They wouldn't let her on the plane and she had to drive to Tampa to meet up with them instead. I loved it. They used her and threw her away. They detest even their own stupid slimeballs.

[marew]

8. And isn't it interesting that

when the Justices gave down their ruling, they actually said this is the only time this reasoning should be used and it does NOT set a precedent for future cases. And when the Justices are approached, to this day about it, they REFUSE to talk about the decision. Corruption is screaming out there. I haven't respected the Supreme Court since. They don't give a whit about justice. Neocon shrills, most of them!

[nebenaube]

10. and in a Just world they would be impeached...

but we all know how that works... laws are for little people.

[suston96]

16. Very interesting, indeed. Isn't Norm Coleman using precisely that argument ....

....in the Minnesota election lawsuit? Recounting the ballots "uniformly"....?

[shintao]

42. A Military Coup??

I really suspect that the CIA pulled a USA Coup on us. I suspect they have threatened every representative & their families. I suspect 911 is their doing to show they mean business.

And I am not a conspirarcy nut, a UFO/god/big foot type of guy. Something extreme happened in government in 2000. I find it strange such drastic occurrances have been allowed to happen. Why didn't the Democrats move to impeach Bush? Why was Pelousie appointed speaker? Why was she allowed to prevent an impeachment? Why didn't Dems impeach Pelousie for failure to act?

Why did an entire congress vote for war & turn around and say they didn't read the documents or understand the power they turned over to Bush? Why did they sell out America with these bailouts? Overlook Haliburton/Brown & Root? Overlook 2 murdered POWS & many others tortured?

This isn't Bush & Cheney working alone. Congress is there as well. As is the Supreme Court. I suppose if your entire family was threatened with death, you would act accordingly as well.

[Kashka-Kat]

11. Some are not over the way that our whole election system still IS for the most part easily hacked

& totally vulnerable to the next criminal endeavor. I'm of the opinion that the only reason it wasn't stolen again this time around is that too many of the zealots who wouldve implemented another theft had turned against Bush and his successor Palin.

[Libertyfirst]

13. I have not and do not intent to "get over it." I intent to continue getting even.

[shintao]

44. That makes two of us!

I am not about to roll over for Republicans and the destruction they have delivered to America as far back as I can remember in the 50's. It has been a continued attack on the Constitution & anything that has stood in the way of nuturing Coporations over the common good of the American workers and people.

[Vogon_Glory]

14. In 2000 We Were Hornswoggled, In 2004 We Did It To Ourselves

I am one of those who believes that the 2000 election was stolen by the Florida GOP. As much as I hate to say this, though, I also believe that in 2004 the American electorate finally elected Dubya as President, notwithstanding the stuff in Ohio.

May we never again elect another disaster like George UU Bush.

[bottomtheweaver]

60. Ohio would have put Kerry over, and without a doubt Kerry won Ohio.

"What Really Happened in the 2004 Election in Ohio"

In this lecture, author, reporter, and activist Bob Fritakis discusses the 2004 elections and what happened in Ohio. Fritakis argues that there was a "very intentional" process through which numerous tactics were used to ensure that Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush won the state. He outlines what were essentially "high-tech Jim Crow conditions" designed to keep people from voting including everything from changing polling places at the last minute to problems with the voting machines. While the efforts of the Republicans (including J. Kenneth Blackwell) helped them win the presidency, Fritakis convincingly argues that the 2004 election in Ohio about more than whether Kerry or Bush won the presidency. Instead, Fitrakas asserts that the election has much to do with the future of our democracy.

http://www.mediamouse.org/video/2005/11/what-really-hap...

I wish I had better documentation, but Fritakis is the expert and I've heard him explain several times how Blackwell and company swiped Ohio for Dumbya, mainly by forcing Dem voters to vote with provisional ballots and then failing to count the provisional ballots.

[lonestarnot]

15. No they didn't.

[geomon666]

17. I know I haven't.

If you were there, how could you ever possibly forget it.

[stuntcat]

18. the entire world will continue to pay

for decades, then our disregard for the environment will catch up with us even worse, in ways we can't even prepare for now.

We will always have Bush's voters to thank for the nasty hopeless state of the world. He's the embodiment of Evil.. and just by being so stupid.

[DemBones DemBones]

19. I'll never get over it or the way the media

worried about a "Constitutional crisis" if the election wasn't decided immediately. Then after SCOTUS handed Bush the presidency, they all said our system had worked, blah blah blah. Bah humbug. Media whores.

[Kashka-Kat]

24. And the way, when the numbers flipped that night in Nov 04 , the media just shrugged and said

Oh gosh & golly, isn't that funny, the exit polls musta been wrong!

There is guilt and complicity on SOOOOO many levels here....

PS - isn't it interesting that the exit polling was all right on this time around???

[leftstreet]

20. I know plenty of people who stopped voting after that

I don't blame them

[SidneyCarton]

21. We got off easy.

As bad as it is, our nation is not occupied, divided as spoils between our foes. One entire section of our nation has not been laid waste with enemy soldiers repeatedly raping any American woman between the ages of 10 and 80. Our cities, while desolate and in severe disrepair, have not been bombed into oblivion. Most of us will not be spending the winter searching for mushrooms in the woods in order to eat.

All things considered, as heavy a price as we've paid for suffering fools, the price could have been higher. We get to walk off the world stage bloodied, but still on our own legs, the Germans were beaten to a bloody pulp, and then their dismembered corpse was drug into the alley and backed over by a truck. We've gotten off more cheaply than we will ever appriciate.

[Kashka-Kat]

23. You make it sound so past-tense - the electoral system still needs repair - might not be so lucky

next time. We were VERY lucky Bush was such a boob that even a lot of the staunchest neocons turned against hime. Next time we may get a competent, charasmatic criminal in office. God/Goddess help us then.

[SidneyCarton]

25. You raise an excellent point.

My intention was not to argue that the danger was passed, though I can see how it could be interpreted as such, so I apologize for my lack of clarity. We have been given an opportunity to reconstruct our democracy, at a far lower cost than the Germans did, and on far more favorable terms, for they are terms of our own devising. There were numerous, and justified worries that Fascism would re-emerge in Germany in the years after 1945 (hence some anti-Fascist laws that remain on the German books, despite the fact that they are arguably antithetical to the principle of freedom of speech) There are many good reasons to fear a neocon relapse in the coming years, and we must do our best to root out this corrosive ideology from our government and the body politic. However, we are fortunate to have come to this point without being brought to our knees.

[madinmaryland]

22. I remember having a discussion with a Bushie before the 2000 election.

I was saying to him the things that would happen if Bush became president, which many of them have. I would imagine he is still one of the 19% Kool-aid drinkers out there.

[mnhtnbb]

26. I've never gotten over it. I kept waiting for someone, some organization, to put out the call

to mount a giant protest. I was ready to storm Congress, the White House, wherever I was told.

No one stepped forward. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.

[Kashka-Kat]

46. Isnt that interesting - I think it was an illustration of Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine"

We all knew it and we couldn't do anything - we were in shock.

[remember2000forever]

27. Yup, That's Me...See My Sig Line.....

[timtom]

28. Me! Me!

Oh, pick ME, sir!!

[HillWilliam]

30. Rec 5, on to the Greatest, and damned if I'll "get over it" either

I still burn when I remember the trucks in front of my precinct and the news cameras in front of loads of other heavily Democratic precincts in south Florida at oh-dark-thirty the morning after the 2000 election, before the first recount had even begun. Harris and her minions were destroying evidence before their peckertracks could be followed. Her excuse was "some drivers couldn't make it to all the precincts in time and Florida law mandates that all ballots had to be counted by midnight else they must be destroyed".

My fruit-flavored arse.

She could get folks asses out of bed at 3 or 4 am to get the trucks there under cover of darkness that next friggin' morning to destroy (Democratic) ballots when they had all goddam day the day before to get trucks to their destinations in broad daylight and couldn't manage that.

Funny as hell, idnit.

Nobody has said shit about it.

Hell, no, I'm not forgetting, I'm not forgiving, and I'll not get over it until justice is done. Like Rove, Harriss, Jeb, and every other perp who stole that election is depended from a tall, sturdy object by means of a short, stout rope just the way the Founding Fathers handled traitors when this country was formed.

[ColbertWatcher]

31. The GOP stole the 2000 election, it wasn't just Dumbass. n/t

[PM Martin]

32. In hindsight, there should have been mass civil disobedience actions.

to protest your Court's decision to stop the recount.

[Ani Yun Wiya]

33. It was fraud, plain and simple fraud.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


And if an attorney of my acquaintance had not been overcome by Alzheimer's disease in '04 we may have seen a prosecution AND impeachment of the SC judges which permitted this crime to go by without proper legal treatment.

[Samantha]

34. I have boycotted George Bush* for eight years now

I was no upset and felt so powerless to do anything about it. The first time he appeared on my television after the election, I walked over and turned it off. At least I can do that, I thought, I can keep George Bush* out of my house. And so I have. I have also boycotted Fox News since election night 2000. I intend to make no changes with regard to either, despite the fact Bush* is leaving Tuesday.

Sam

[blues90]

35. I'll never get over it, never.

And as others have said if we allow them to go free and just focus on moving or looking forward then we will once again repeat the past mistakes. I fear they will get away with all they have done.

I felt absolutely sick to my stomach knowing jr was the president and knew we were in for a bad time and 9/11 confirmed this.

My first thought when the towers fell was that it had to do with this admin, I still feel this way.

He could not get one thing passed before 9/11 and went to the ranch and then once 9/11 he had full power and the people somewhere like 70% backed this attack on the ME and then there were the cars with the american flags.

Out of more than 100 people I worked with only one was with me and against this attack on Iraq.

Others as some sort of sick joke would place american flag stickers on my car windows and right before the 2004 elections I was fired , first time in my life fired after 12 years at this last job.

[shintao]

36. The Price for being Wrong is High

Seems people do not realize that the candidates they choose hold the power of life & death over themselves and their loved ones. Your vote is the most important thing in your life.

Those who voted regardless of party are responsible for 4,300 US Troops deaths, 10,000+ dismemebered, brain damaged, PTSD cases in US Troops, and over 1 million innocent babies, women & men in the ME. Sad indeed.

[dmr]

37. I've never gotten over it, and never will forget or forgive

I speak often of the Coup; for example I mentioned it in a post last night.

I speak of Coup 2000 for basically 4 reasons:

1. The Coup was a criminal event that has had unmeasurable devastating world-wide effects;
2. As a reminder to those who tend to forget, and food for thought & something to research for those who were apolitical at the time;
3. We must end each and every instance of manipulation and mismanagement of both the voters and the ballots by GOP operatives.
4. Democratic leadership must finally take true action to assure #3 comes into effect.

Kudos to Senator-Elect Al Franken for disallowing GOP manipulation, and fighting for the citizens of Minnesota and the votes they casted. For this, he has proven to be an effective leader - not only for Minnesota, but for the rest of the nation, as each Senator has an impact upon us all.

[Greyhound]

38. Will it be known as "the American coup" in the future? n/t

[G_j]

39. Bush didn't steal it, Nader did

so don't blame poor little Georgie

[TheKentuckian]

40. I'll never get over it but the theft is in my opinion just a part of the problem

The bigger issue is that they consistently get enough votes to cheat. 46% voted for McPhailin even after the last eight years. The GOP's cheating is just a piece of the problem the bigger issue is a stupid, disinterested, misinformed, and probably insane electorate.

Many of our friends, family, and neighbors are just a big of a problem as the crazies they keep putting into office. The Reich is fudging numbers not manufacturing them wholesale.

The McPhailin 46% seems to not even phase people, in fact many are pretending a sea change has occurred and we have entered a brave new world when the reality is a few got fed up and switched sides to put them out of cheat range. That little 5-6% is flaky and could bounce right back.

Our grip is much more tenuous than many will admit but the smart money knows that we are only at the beginning of a possible swing to the left and politics will continue to have to be played to keep the momentum.

[tilsammans]

43. Two stolen elections . . .

I will NEVER get over it. EVER. And even if all the perps are convicted and imprisoned, it will never bring back the lives that were lost or ruined.

[proud patriot]

45. American Patriots Don't Get Over The Theft of The Presidency

I have that T-shirt.

[Skittles]

47. THE BLACK CAUCUS

forever an American shame that no one stood with them

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/06/se.05.ht...

[dbt]

49. Why do we learn nothing from our Black Cousins?

They were all over the place with signs and handbags reading Stay Out The Bushes. All we had to do was LISTEN to them. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Skittles]

51. I listened - I was always with them

actually, quite a few DUers were - the rest of America - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[PinkyisBlue]

54. You are so right. How I wish that someone had stood with them that day.

But what would have happened had Gore become President? He would have been persecuted from day one just like Clinton was. They wouldn't have stopped until he was disabled (politically) or dead.

This is why this administration must be held accountable for ALL their crimes, and the list of perpetrators must include Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, Rice, Rumsfeld, etc. Can you imagine if all of them were punished for their crimes? Atleast it would put a hold on their plans to transform our country and the world into their vision of a free market utopia.

[BrklynLiberal]

56. You are right. I was in tears watching the proceedings as shown in

Michael Moore's film. One kept hoping it would change...but it never could

[bvar22]

48. In the streets...

....shortly after the Supreme Court decided (5 - 4) that counting all the votes in Florida would harm George Bush.



I'm STILL "Not Over It!"

[DeepModem Mom]

50. K&R! Never forget! nt

[Cetacea]

53. And the media emphases on the Hanging friggin Chads

Most people in the country think that Gore "lost" on account of a bunch of seniors in Palm beach county who were either stupid or blind. The media were complicit.

[BrklynLiberal]

55. It seemed that everyone I knew understood what was happening.

How was it allowed to happen? There were so many lost chances to do the right thing, and it was never done.
There were so many of us outraged, but it was never heard publicly..

Very strange days...very strange indeed.

[lib2DaBone]

57. Wasn't it strange? I ask the same questiion...

..I noticed it first with the complete and total control of the Press starting in 2000. When so-called 'Reporters' started reading Pentagon Press Clips as "breaking News".

When Bush started with "you're either with us or against us" (and many other propaganda tactics used in Nazi Germany) and there was no public outcry.

Also, with the start up of a super right wing news organization (Faux News), without so much as a whimper from the public or the FCC.

Hate to by cynical, but our elected Democrats have let us down. Those Dems that voted FOR the Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, THe Use of Torture Act. Well, no need to re-hash that. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman... it's all been said before but yet it continues...

[BrklynLiberal]

58. You are right. It could not have happened without complicit Democrats and the complicit media.

[Raine]

59. I didn't and I never will

I can never ever forget the theft and the destruction he caused and how he was so hateful.

[bottomtheweaver]

61. 2000 came off like a FUBAR but 2004 was a theft in broad daylight.

Exit polling said Kerry was winning, and then poof, he lost, while the world watched and the media who had just reported it told us we were imagining things.

[KoKo]

62. Hey...Hey! That's what we get for "foolin' around.....