Originally posted at Liberal Street Fighter
Thanks to Brad Blog, I was able to see this fantastic editorial by Catherine Crier from June 21st. Sadly, no transcript, but Brad Blog does produce this highlight:
Is this not an attack on Democracy? If 357,000 Americans were killed by al Qaeda, we would call that an attack on democracy and freedom. The press would headline such an event and it would shape our policies for decades to come. In a democracy, when 357,000 votes are effectively killed at the voting booth, what do you call it?
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The national character of this scandal is unprecedented and threatens to turn us into little more than a banana republic, where candidates appear on the ballot in name only because the election has already been determined.If we are willing to send our troops around the world to secure freedom at the ballot box for others, shouldn’t we fight for that right here at home?
Partisanship has no place in this battle. For the sake of democracy…for the sake of America…it is time all citizens demand the sanctity of our election process.
With the November elections almost upon us, we haven’t a moment to lose.
I know I shouldn’t take much hope from it, but it’s encouraging to see SOMEONE on one of the cable shows actually speak to the issue so bluntly. We need more people to see the danger we’re in and TALK about it before the Banana Republicans finish off what little is left of our fragile Republic.
click on the photo above to read excepts from the debate over certifying the Ohio vote back in January 2005.
None of our problems as a nation can be addressed until THIS problem is addressed. Hearty thanks are due to Ms. Crier for adding her voice to the rising chorus calling for justice.
Maybe we can find a way to push the narrative by looking at Mexico? Maybe not. I hope so.
sadly, even when people here protest, the media ignores it, and the rest of the country is so big that hundreds of thousands of people pouring into the street can happen without causing barely a ripple. The Mexicans seem able to mobilize even more people, and make the rest of the country notice them.
I don’t know what it will take here.
When we had protests in the streets in California over “immigration reform”, they were covered by local and even some national.
Problem is, one day of demonstrations just doesn’t do it. The effect is too easily dissipated. You need a sustained attack, a general labor strike that lasts a week, something along those lines.
Unfortunately, a week of demonstrations is incredibly hard to manage. One reason is that those who would join in the demonstrations need to get up and go to work every day just to survive, and don’t have the luxury of participating in a prolonged demonstration.
Economic pressure is suppressing political activity. There are documented cases of many workers being told by employers they could not leave work to go vote, even if the workers were on a 12 hour or longer shift and worked during the whole time polls are open (7 am to 7 pm is the usual standard in California elections).
As a compromise tactic, I would suggest regular weekly demonstrations on a day when most working folk would be able to attend, a Saturday or Sunday. Or a rotating group of demonstrators, each taking a different day of the week so that the demonstrations would continue for a solid week or even two, but people demonstrating in “shifts”.
Catherine Crier??? Who knew???
she gave a great commencement speech at Western Connecticut State University:
It was hard to pull out chunks to highlight. Read the whole thing. I don’t know where she is politically in the current meanings of our political parties, but she’s plainly speaking seriously to the Liberal (as in Enlightenment based) tradition of law in this country.