Politics is the echo chamber of our latent obsessions. It is the sum total of our collective cultural worldview, and every single grain of rice that we consume. It speaks from heart of the nation, while standing garishly poised in the mirror of our society. This is the body of our democratic free will, boldly facing down the physic crucible fronting scene and script of all that the nation collectively has been, and all that it has allowed itself the capacity to become. It is the narrative of the nation’s soul crystallized in campaign combat. No candidate or candidacy has ever done more to reveal the true nature of American life and culture than Barack Obama. However, the real task of bringing transparency to the government has only now just begun.
The scene took place in Washington D.C. It was the winter, of the year 2000. While the Vice President was busy somewhere, probably adorning the digs of his brand new un-disclosed location, the new president sat comfortably in his limousine as it was endlessly pummeled with eggs (Moore, 2003). All that he could do was to flash a wide Bubba version of a Cheshire grin. This was the inauguration of Bush the Younger, and it was the end of civic innocence in America. Who does not recall the ubiquitous sense of frustration, of hanging chads and bureaucratic ineptness, the ominous feeling that the Republicans may have actually stolen an election, and then the reality slowly setting in that hundreds of thousand of voters of color were disenfranchised at the blink of an eye? They were purged from the voting rolls we were told, due to the theory that they just might happen to become felons in the future. It was as if the Tom Cruse movie Minority Report were recast for us, only to be acted out in real time. It was all just so truly amazing. Who would’ve thunk it?
Nevertheless, if the first Bush election was amazing, the second one was surely a charm. Estimates are that in 2004 upwards of more than three million mostly black and brown voters were simply disenfranchised though a combination of either being tossed off of the voter rolls in county after county, from New Mexico to Cleveland Ohio, or they were disenfranchised and their votes were simply not counted (Palast, 2004). During that year, many votes it was said had been “spoiled”; not because they were left out in the midday sun, but because for some reason they were simply thrown away. Voting suppression was rampant in 2004, due to a plethora of Republican machinations; like caging for instance (Ibid ). This is the devious scheme where registered voters in targeted areas are sent mail marked “DO NOT FORWARD” and then the retuned mail is used to challenge voter’s right to vote (Kennedy, 2008). Despite the cleverly crafted pre-election accusations cast against the so called “liberal-democratic-leaning Obama-supporting group” ACORN, who were said to be involved in some sort of grand conspiracy to fix the 2008 vote, let us not forget that it was Karl Rove et al. who were the real experts at voter suppression during the last four national elections. Not to mention the fact that Bush won the 2004 election based solely upon the 119,000 votes plucked from notorious Diebold voting machines and certified by Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Party State Chairman who also happened to be the Secretary of State in Ohio (Palast, 2004). Diebold C.EO, Walton O’ Dell was not even shy about making his intentions clear, “I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral vote to the president…” he said (Harris, 2004). These facts are a part of the public record and cannot be disputed. Oddly enough, in his state there were 153, 237 ballots that were simply tossed aside; or “spoiled” that is to say. In Iowa, an additional 36,811 votes were spoiled, and in New Mexico it was reported that over 600,000 ballots were not even counted (Palast, 2004). Over the last eight years, Rove and company have actually made an art out of voter suppression.
The Help America Vote Act passed by the Republican Congress in 2002, as a result of the resounding clamor for free and fair elections after the 2000 debacle, actually produced the opposite effect. As strange as it may seem, some of the most diabolical provisions of the HAVA, which allow for the purging of tens of thousands of voters from the voting roll, were actually written by convicted felons former Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) and the infamous Jack Abramoff; both of whom are currently serving time in federal prison (Kennedy, 2008). It is the Republicans who have skillfully used this piece of legislation to create a maze of confusion that would ultimately disproportionately disenfranchise millions of mostly black and brown voters. Not since the all white primaries of the Jim Crow era has so much effort been spent trying to keep U.S. citizens from voting. If Barack Obama was serious about bringing transparency to the government in Washington D.C., there can be no better place for him to start than with this fundamental American right. How amazed they must have been in capitals throughout the world, in nations that were once condemned by the U.S. for their unfair elections, just to see the images of millions of voters from California to Connecticut waiting in line for hours, frustrated but nevertheless determined to vote this year; simply because they wanted change. Should we not be embarrassed when we learn that elections in East Timor and Nicaragua are actually run more judiciously than our own? Obama can make it an immediate priority to appoint a commission that will finally put an end to the shenanigans at the ballot box once and for all. He can assure us that we will receive a receipt the next time that we vote, and he can bring transparency to the voting process. Now that would be change that we can believe in.
References
Harris, Bev (2004) Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century. Tailon Publishing. p.81
Kennedy, Robert Jr., Greg Palast. (2008) Drinking the ACORN Kool Aid: How cries of voter fraud cover up GOP elections theft. Retrieved from:
Moore, Michael. (2004) Fahrenheit 911. Lions Gate Films
Palast, Greg (2006) Armed Madhouse: Whose Afraid of Osama Wolf? Cranks and Kooks: Kerry Won in ‘04Harris, Bev (2004) Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century. Tailon Publishing. p 189,193
