"the GOP has “won” time after time through vote suppression and election fraud"

[HomerRamone]

The New York Review of Books
June 10, 2011

To the Editors:
 
George Soros ("My Philanthropy," New York Review of Books, 5/23/11) paints a discouraging picture of an America in thrall to the Orwellian "Newspeak" now peddled to seeming perfection by the GOP. Citing Karl Rove's reported claim that he "didn't have to study reality; he could create it," Soros attributes the GOP's "competitive advantage in electoral politics" to the "adoption of Orwellian techniques the Republican propaganda machine." He goes on to caution that "though democracy has much deeper roots in America than in Germany, it is not immune to deliberate deception," and that the idea that America will cease to be a democracy and an open society is "a very likely prospect." This seems about as far as any alarmed observer is willing to go in adumbrating the causes for the strange, perplexing, and seemingly inexorable veer to the right America has taken over the past decade, Obama's election notwithstanding.

But why should "creating reality" draw the line at Newspeak and propaganda? Why not, with privatized and partisan control of the voting apparatus itself, create the reality of electoral victory in the darkness of cyberspace?
 
The advent and proliferation of computerized voting has created, over the past decade, opportunities for outcome-determinative electoral manipulation on a mass scale. The vulnerabilities have been documented by top-line researchers from Princeton to Johns Hopkins to the Congressional GAO. The far right-wing pedigree of the major voting equipment vendors and servicers is no secret. And the "red shift" (vote counts to the right of exit polls, tracking polls, and hand-counts) has been consistent and pervasive in competitive elections since 2002--including the Democratic victories of 2006 and 2008, where 11th-hour political developments turned close elections into manipulation-masking blowouts.
 
Americans, and particularly the American media, seem content to ignore all this and blithely place full and unquestioning faith in secret vote counting and the fait accompli of computerized tabulation. The towering never-happen-here wall of denial ("America is the beacon of democracy!") sustains this weird credulity in the face of cheating scandals in virtually every sport and throughout the financial world. But American elections are the highest stakes "game" of all and, if Soros is to be taken seriously, America is already a long way from the beacon of democracy we have all taken for granted. We have observed highly unethical tactics (e.g., sending out thousands of flyers to African-American homes stating that the election is Wednesday) employed in plain view and with increasing frequency to create the “reality” of electoral victory. Is there really a bright ethical line between sending out "Vote Wednesday" flyers and just flipping votes inside an optical scanner?
 
Perhaps the American public is less susceptible to right-wing Newspeak than Soros laments. Perhaps millions more than we are led to believe see through the lies and propaganda and cast their votes accordingly. And perhaps those votes, counted in secret (how is what we do any different from handing our votes to a little man who retreats behind a curtain and emerges to tell us who won?), are not counted as cast.  Unless we return to observable, public vote counting--which necessarily means by humans--how will we ever know?  Do we truly deserve a democracy if we are not willing as a citizenry to reassume the very modest burden of counting our own votes? And are we comfortable with the possibility that our democracy, in thrall to Election Night convenience and the reality creation of ends-justify-the-means true-believers, will fall to such a cheap trick?
 
Jonathan Simon
Executive Director
Election Defense Alliance

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2011/06/mcm-why-does-the-gop-keep-winning-because-of-their-superior-propaganda-george-soros-seems-to-think-so-hes-not-the-only-one/

[RKP5637]

1. I share the concern of Soros. "America is already a long way from

the beacon of democracy we have all taken for granted." IMO far too many Americans are naive and take what we've had for granted. IMO 2012 will be a fight for the survival (what's left) of a democracy. And yes, I do not trust voting anymore.

[snot]

2. K&R'd!

Thank you for posting this, HomerRamone!

[Lugnut]

3. K&R n/t

[Fly by night]

4. The sad thing is that anyone who studies this issue know Rethugs are stealing elections wholesale.

The problem is getting the Obama administration and the Democratic Party to study the issue.

Here in Tennessee, our elections are simply not to be believed anymore. When Memphis (one of the blackest and bluest cities in this country) (s)elects an entirely white, Republican slate of county officials last August, no one -- no one -- believes the result.

When Republican leaders last fall predicted a two to three seat pick-up in our legislature and they pick up 14 (including (s)electing overt racists, pug-ugly jackals and areola-revealing Hooters girls), no one believes it.

When Lincoln Davis, my US Congressman and a serious and seriously handsome DINO, loses to a neophyte neurotic wife abuser and certifiably the ugliest person ever elected to Congress, no one believes it.

When Republicans successfully prevent a law banning unverifiable voting machines from being enacted -- a law that would have made our elections cheaper, faster AND verifiable -- anyone who has followed the issue knows perfectly well why.

And yet the USDOJ continues to do nothing, content to allow our democracy to die while they revel in reefer madness.

Without a safe, secure and trusted election system, this country is fucked, pre-coital kiss or not.

Hello, White House!! Hello, USDOJ!! Is anyone listening? Is anyone even awake?

[HomerRamone]

5. "Is anyone listening? Is anyone even awake?"

not even in this place...this thread is going nowhere

[Matariki]

9. Unfortunately on DU, if there's nothing to fight about in a topic it usually sinks.

[HomerRamone]

10. Do most people here believe this,

or is it a "conspiracy theory" for many?

[Fly by night]

11. The DU Election reform forum was once a valuable and busy place.

The fact that it is very quiet these days is a good indication that most of us who are concerned about election integrity have basically given up the ghost. Sad, but true.

[alsame]

6. And it's going to get worse, because the GOP knows that the

changing demographics of this country are not in their favor. They will do everything they can to make it harder and harder to vote and when that doesn't work, they will perfect election theft.

[Atman]

7. Here's the real problem: the people that SHOULD be reading this...

...will stop as soon as they read "George Soros." As with the word "liberal," the GOP has been brilliant at reframing everything, including the meaning of words. Seriously, if any DUer read and article starting with "Karl Rove paints a discouraging picture of an America...", would you really give a rat's ass about the rest of the text? This is part of the genius of the GOP false-reality. They begin by creating demons out of everyday values and even words. They work on that first, then, once they've set the hook, we're reeled in. Dems, unfortunately (I think) don't do this. Because we're Democrats, we keep thinking we have to be honest and fair. The problem is, our opponents don't share our view about honesty and fairness. They have a single-minded goal...WINNING AT ALL COST. So lying, cheating, stealing, it's all good.

The ends justify the means. Hmmm...where have I heard that before?

.

[Matariki]

8. K&R

[Blue Owl]

12. It's so goddamned obvious

It's like a precedent has been set where it's OK for the GOP to lie, cheat, and steal without consequence.

:wtf: