Randi: "What you have witnessed today is the end of American democracy"

[budkin]

She was pissed that the Dems didn't provide a unified front and that it appeared that only the "fringe" elements were concerned. Said that Republicans will now do whatever they want whenever they want.

I thought today was actually a good day for democracy. *shrugs*

[yardwork]

1. Randi's glass is half empty. Mine's half full today

[rodeodance]

17. me too. We had to start somewhere!!!!

[ewagner]

2. Good day, but could have been better

if there had been a united front...........

It was a great opportunity but it was marginalized by Dems not standing together.

[Generator]

3. No Randi don't be stupid-silence was the end this was just the first peep

Or if it aint then she could be right.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. Randi, honey you're way off on the date...Death of Democracy 12/12/00

[bunny planet]

27. yes sadly. But we must fight harder to get it back that's all.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. She, as many here in DU, are missing the longer term

consequences.

I have written this in other threads... when Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat back in 1955 nobody could think this would lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

Have a longer range view... in the short term they will try to frame this as disafected extremist democrats, and the answer is... we want clean and fair elections regardless who wins, as long sa they are clean and fair.

THis is just the first battle in a long war, and this is what Randi is missing. The true first battle was in 2000 in Florida, and we did not even show for that one, but this one... we did... and Randi has to learn patience.

[Cha]

44. So do I.."have to learn patience"..thanks

for pointing this all out, nadin.

[jackster]

45. THANKS for that

we need to look at this as the BEGINNING

this regressive takeover of our beloved country didn't happen overnight

it's not to change overnight and its not going to change if we don't fight and fight and fight

[foo_bar]

6. so what was the 5-4 scotus decision?

the beginning of the end? (Wolf!)

[bardgal]

7. I agree with her - this was the final nail.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

33. And I agree with you, the final nail.

Don't these victory chearleaders realize that Bush owns the Executive, the Legislative, the Judiciary and the Press? The man is a Fascist Sociopath. We ain't got a chance through the Democratic process.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Sometimes I want to slip her a prozac.

I love her dearly, but she needs to look up and see the horizon sometimes.

[KurtNYC]

9. She says that pretty frequently

or words to that effect about how the GOP will steamroll. I take it as angry hyberbole because she keeps on fighting.

[mattclearing]

10. She obviously wasn't here in DC.

If she had seen the speakers today, she would know that it was a great thing to behold the protest at Lafayette Park, and to march and see people on the streets of DC take notice.

[kitkat65]

37. How many people were there? n/t

[seito]

11. I love Randi, but I see America ,and our future, a bit differently

[katinmn]

12. She needs to get a grip.

A couple days ago she would have been happy to have just one senator stand up. Well, two did, and several spoke. We had 40 some reps vote for contesting.

We had our discussion in both houses and Chenney and LeLay and all the rest had to sit there and TAKE IT.

God, that felt good. :-)

[quiet.american]

13. What I witnessed was democracy in action. n/t

[Harry S Truman]

14. Randi is Right....Again

With the Dems who stayed silent (again!) and the corporate state media looking the other way, the path is crystal clear for the Right to do whatever they want. If you think we won anything today, you're whistling through the mine field.

And where was John Kerry? Trying to be Bush.
Damn them all to hell.

[FreepFryer]

15. Randi was kinda slow to get on the bandwagon, and slow to get off.

Boy, the radio pundits are kinda missing some points as they wallow in despair.

Hope they gather their collective wits and join in the optimistic effort to resolve our disenfranchisement.

<edited: I'm wrong here about Randi>

[itzamirakul]

20. You are very wrong here...

Randi was one of the ONLY ones to get on the voter fraud bandwagon from the very start. It was Mark Moran and Al Franken who kept telling us to "get over it" because "Bush won fair and square."

Today, Moran and Franken were as hyper as Randi in their desire to see ALL the Dems stand united. (I don't know how much they REALLY Meant it though.)

[FreepFryer]

24. Ah yes, you are right. I can recall listening to her after Nov 3. My bad.

[Not a Sheep]

21. No true actually. Randi was on these issues from the start. /eom

[TheUnspeakable]

25. Randi BUILT the bandwagon-

She was on vote fraud on Nov 3!!! (actually since 2000)

[bunny planet]

30. Actually on November 2nd, she was trying to get on the air on her own

radio station to tell them something rotten was going on in Ohio. She couldn't get on the air that night, a technical difficulty!

[MoonRiver]

16. Randi is correct.

Congressional Democrats were forced kicking and screaming into making statements supporting electoral integrity during the objection time period. They whispered sweet nothings to Tubbs and Boxer. But when push came to shove they sold us down the river one more time. No more blind allegiance to the Democratic Party for me. If they run somebody who (today) voted NAY, abstained, or was absent, for president in 2008 I will not vote for him/her.

[whosinpower]

18. She is right

Sorry to say. Senator Boxer stood and the democrats once again bent with the wind. Have they forgotten how many people voted for Kerry? 57 million is no small number - and it is beyond pathetic that only one senator would stand to be their voice.

It is abundantly clear that the democrats do not fight for who put them into office. And if they cannot or will not do that - then why vote for them at all?????? Really - I mean why vote for someone to be an empty hat???

I will not tell anyone who to vote for - but I would seriously consider alternatives to the democrats...as much as I love their founding principles and I agree with most of their statements - if they will not stand and fight - then they aren't worth my effort to vote for.

I applaud Senator Boxer. But the others...the ones who make pretty statements and then fall into GOP line without so much as a whimper......you lost my confidence.

[katinmn]

22. Boxer bent in the wind? That's totally false!

[earth mom]

29. They all lost my confidence too

Don't ANY of them have ANY courage to fight for what's right?

[enough already]

19. Didn't she get the memo?

This is a great "victory". She should be turning cartwheels over the fact that Bush gets 4 more years and not ONE Dem Senator had Boxer's back when the rubber met the road and it was time to actually VOTE.

[govegan]

23. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Amerikan "democracy" sucks a rat's ass.

It always has.

What happened Nov. 1963?

What happened in 1968?

What happened with aiding the fascist war machines as they steamrolled the European liberals in Spain and elsewhere?

NO MORE EFFIN LIES FROM RANDI OR ANYONE ELSE!!!!!!!!!

We can only wish and hope and WORK for the death of the Amerikan neo-fascist plutocracy.

Hey, liberals and radicals and lovers of democracy,

Rise and shake your chains to the dust like dew
You are many and they are few.

[MellowOne]

26. The media is now covering it instead of ignoring the election problems

It's just a start, people are stirred up, the bubble is about to burst.

[roenyc]

31. Randi has been through this in 2000 - she was hoping for more.

appears the Pundits are talking out of the asses right now too. so i am sure this will get lots of press of the retarded kind. but its OK. between trashing Kerry. and trashing the Dem's in the house hey its a damn banner day!

our people need to stand together. united they stand divided they fall.

[jaime_176]

39. Are they?

I hope so. I got rid of the TV after the election cause I just couldn't stand to watch anymore. I only wanted the news. Just the facts, but they weren't offering...except Cspan, and I didn't want to spend $53/month just for that when I can get it online. What are they saying? Anything positive for democracy??

[quiet.american]

28. The Pugs are already doing whatever they want

The deathknell of democracy would have been if the answer had been "no" when Cheney asked, "And do you have a Senator who has signed with you."

Randi, who I do not take to be a naive person, nevertheless seems to be holding forth with the naive notion that the Dems would all rise as a body to denounce the Pugs.

Can you really see Lieberman being part of that fold? Zell Miller? Others of their ilk?

Also, if the Democrats had done that, the Pugs would have seized on the challenge as a purely partisan move (which they did anyway), but with photographs to match.

This way, the issue of rigged U.S. elections is on the table in front of the whole world, along with the rabid and unmistakeable Pug aversion to fair elections.

[roenyc]

34. what Randi was hoping for was

enough of a vote to cause the Ohio vote to be illegitimate and allow bush to be put into office by the house there by taking away his mandate and his capital. and hopefully his smirk. and making him illegitimate. edit (i am not sure i phrased that properly. do the best you can to get the gist of it. my head is pounding.)

thus giving the dems greater leverage in the next 4 years.

[quiet.american]

47. I gotcha :)

Well, it would have been nice, but with both Houses controlled by the Pugs, that was always going to be a "fuhgedaboutit."

[Der Blaue Engel]

32. Democracy died a while ago

We're trying to revive it. This morning I heard it cough and fight for air. Let's keep applying the paddles.

[Pawel K]

35. If anyone thought this would change the election

... they were living in la la land. I don't think anyone here was really expecting for the electorate from Ohio to be thrown out, were they?

However, this is a great start. If anything it will ensure problems don't stop us from getting elected in 08 (if there will be an 08).

[Walt Starr]

36. She's making herself irrelevent.

Sad.

[Old Mouse]

42. Randi may be a lot of things

but irrelevent isn't one of them.

[Lex]

38. She's always pissing and moaning

. . . that's her job.

I just tire of it easily.

[bush_is_wacko]

40. From what I can tell the information will now be in the record

and they can now investigate REAL change in our election process. I hope they will continue to fight behind the scenes to investigate *Co., but the goal was met in my mind.

[Old Mouse]

41. It was a poor performance by the Democrats

and we gave many opportunities for the mainstream media to logically dismiss the entire issue, and few reasons to cover it.

On the other side, Maxine Waters was magnificent, powerful, wonderful. And a few of the republican callers into CSPAN, if legitimate, seemed newly concerned about voting irregularities.

[genieroze]

43. Hey, it's a start. eom

[Lil]

46. Thanks, Randi!

Randi is a realist. She can see from the ground up.