"On Media and the Election"

Robert W. McChesney, FreePress.net

Perhaps the most important function our media serves is to provide voters with the information they need to make sound decisions in the voting booth. If people don't know what they're voting for, our democracy is in serious trouble.

Unfortunately, it appears that we're in serious trouble.

"Worse Than 2000: Tuesday's Electoral Disaster"

William Rivers Pitt

Everyone remembers Florida's 2000 election debacle, and all of the new terms it introduced to our political lexicon: Hanging chads, dimpled chads, pregnant chads, overvotes, undervotes, Sore Losermans, Jews for Buchanan and so forth. It took several weeks, battalions of lawyers and a questionable decision from the U.S. Supreme Court to show the nation and the world how messy democracy can be. By any standard, what happened in Florida during the 2000 Presidential election was a disaster.

What happened during the Presidential election of 2004, in Florida, in Ohio, and in a number of other states as well, was worse.

"The Limits of Electoral Politics"

Ken Knabb, Bureau of Public Secrets

Roughly speaking we can distinguish five degrees of "government":

(1) Unrestricted freedom

(2) Direct democracy

(3) Delegate democracy

(4) Representative democracy

(5) Overt minority dictatorship

The present society oscillates between (4) and (5), i.e. between overt
minority rule and covert minority rule camouflaged by a facade of token
democracy. A liberated society would eliminate (4) and (5) and would
progressively reduce the need for (2) and (3). . . .

"The Vote Fallacy:

Strategically Advancing Radical Politics in the 2004
Elections"

Ben Grosscup

While election seasons are widely seen as times when the polity
practices politics, this is an illusion; electoralism that accepts the
premises of representative democracy is conceptually distinct and
incompatible with practicing true politics. Politics involves public
debate on the issues of a self-manging political community that leads to
social policy. Voting is no political act in that it has nothing to do
with this.

Michael Steinberg writes:

"The Greeks Had a Word for It"

Michael Steinberg

I don't know if the Republicans stole the election and I don't ever expect to know. Even if we do find out, the truth is unlikely to make a difference. A bunch of war criminals that can win reelection with the blood of 100,000 innocents on its hands would hardly be damaged by a mere case of electoral fraud.

"Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked"

Thom Hartmann

When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat.

"Dead Party Walking"

Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch>

"Mister Kurtz, he dead." — Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Buried in the ossuary of roadkill from the November election you will find all that remains of the once brawny Green Party, now splattered into a micro-stain on the electoral scorecard with evidence of its passing barely detectable by even the most expert political forensic scientist.

The Green Party, notorious spoiler of Democratic aspirations in 2000, not only wasn't a factor in this election; its very existence was scarcely mentioned by the press ... or by anyone else.

"The Liberal Waterloo"
(Or, Finally Some Good News from Washington!)
Slavoj Zizek, In These Times

The first reaction of progressives to Bush’s second victory was that of despair, even fear: The last four years were not just a bad dream. The nightmarish coalition of big business and fundamentalist populism will roll on, as Bush pursues his agenda with new gusto, nominating conservative judges to the Supreme Court, invading the next country after Iraq, and pushing liberalism in the United States one step closer to extinction. However, this emotional reaction is precisely what we should resist—it only bears witness to the extent liberals have succeeded in imposing their worldview upon us. If we keep a cool head and calmly analyze the results, the 2004 election appears in a totally different light.

"Exit Polls Right, Tallies Wrong?"

Thom Hartmann, AlterNet

The hot story in the blogosphere is that the "erroneous" exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all — it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it's critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?

Post Election Message

Ralph Nader

First of all, thank you so very much to the thousands of volunteers, our
Corporate Crimebusters, State, Regional and Campus Coordinators, our valiant
staff here in Washington, DC, all of our generous donors and every one of
you who voted for Nader/Camejo 2004.

Well, it should now be clear to all: the Democratic Party cannot get the job
done against the worst Republicans in a long time. So much time and money
was spent by the Democrats, only to push a message that ultimately said,
"Don't vote for George W. Bush." It's a shame.

If losing to George W. Bush
isn't the breaking point for Democrats who have been fed up for years by the
leadership in their party, then I can't imagine the indignities that they
are further willing to endure.