Non-Scandal Part 3

Voter Fraud.. An issue near and dear to right wingers and Republicans since forever. I mean gosh, it's so EASY to go right back to the end of the line and vote again, this time with a dead guy's name. It's so easy to forge a voter card and drive around to all the precincts in town and vote everywhere. Dang, these prosecutors ought to just get all over this!

Voter Fraud... A myth perpetuated by legend, internet horror stories, and gossip columns for years, has now become accepted as conventional wisdom and even as truth. As Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt report in Thursday's Washington Post,

"But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. .. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished.... Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy."

Allegations of voter fraud by Republicans is an old saw, dating back as far as there are elections. To fix this imaginary issue, they advocate means of "voter protection." Remember poll taxes, intelligence tests, no women allowed to vote? All in the name of "voter protection." Now we're on to Voter ID cards and proof-of-citizenship requirements. If you don't have your papers in order, it can cost up to $200 to get everything taken care of. The old poll tax only used to be $1.50! This strategy of course limits the participation of the elderly, minorities, ostensibly a Democratic Party voter base.

The whole idea of making it difficult for folks to vote came to a head in Ohio in 2004, where manipulations of voting machines creating long lines and abuses of electronic devices swung the election numbers absurdly to the Republican candidates. In short, allegations of voter fraud and the failure to pursue them, cause the Gonzales 8 to be hung out to dry. A bogus issue behind a non-scandal?

The callous disregard and disrespect for government for the people and by the people is the scandal. Again and again it must be said that this administration is neither "right" or "left" but in fact is radical and revolutionary. A point well taken by Glen Greenwald in Salon Magazine.

"That's because the political movement that dominates our country is radical and authoritarian -- "security leads to freedom." Our political spectrum is now binary: one is either a loyal follower of that movement or one is opposed to it.

The terms "left" and "right" do not mean what they meant even ten years ago, though they still have meaning. At least for now, until this movement is banished to the dustbin, those terms have come to designate whether one is loyal to, or whether one opposes, this government-power-worshipping, profoundly un-American right-wing cultism that has been the dominant political faction in America for many years."

It's a cult. It's a huge power grab and it is not and never will be anything resembling the "American Way."