The Reborn Civil Rights
Movement is 'In the House'
BreakForNews.com,
7th Jan, 2005 22:00ET
by Fintan
Dunne, Editor EXCLUSIVE
A
New Political Movement is Finding
Identity, Remaking Political Activism
For two months, America had teetered on the brink of a silent slide into a morass of corporate fascism beyond redemption. Now a broad-based and resurgent civil rights movement has just won a major victory. But don't try tell them that, yet.
These people set their political sights high. They wanted rid of George W. Bush. They wanted to see the back of racist voter suppression. They wanted shut of voting machine gerrymandering. They wanted to take back voting from corporate profiteers who could care less about the bedrock of all civil rights: one man or woman, one free and fairly counted vote.
Yesterday, they drew
a line in the political sand. Yesterday, they entered a political
chamber now turned lions den of small-minded Republicanism, and
called the darkness blind. And it was blind.
Yesterday,
a motley crew of political activists, journalists, lawyers, career
politicians and "conspiracy theorists" took their fight
to the U.S. Houses of Congress and considerably advanced almost
all of their objectives bar one: They did not unseat the pretender
to the presidency of the United States of America -in one fell
swoop.
For them, that's a defeat. And it is good that they see it that way. The desperately flawed politics of America is drawing out the best in its principled people. Further high achievements won't come without their continued aim at lofty goals.
For them, the stacked deck of Republican cards meant that defeat was a certainty. They knew that. They just wanted to win anyway. That's impressive. No wonder they feel a little disconsolate.
But for America,
and by extension for free people around the world, yesterday's
events were a resounding victory.
SLEEPWALKING
INTO FASCISM
Since the early hours of November 3rd, 2004 the United States had been in danger of sleepwalking into irredeemable Fascism. The minority who backed Bush were asleep anyway, lost in dreams of empire, crusade and thinly-veiled military revenge.
The ABB(Anybody But
Bush) majority who had backed Kerry were in some
kind of group catatonia. They just couldn't square the clear popular
sentiment with the election outcome. The corporate media had counted
the votes; had declared the corporate candidate the winner; had
invented a media-mythical, fundamentalist horde of new Bush voters;
and had invited the intelligentsia to flee to Canada. Or go to
hell. Or anywhere.
It all seemed unreal. Like a political 9/11.
And so, the zeitgeist shuddered. The social psyche hit a wall of disassociation. The sleepwalking somnolence set in.
But not on the Internet.
The Net is a different country. Its inhabitants are used to thinking for themselves. The Net is quite unlike the television-based America where a soma of social emotions are marketed as relentlessly as soap powder. The Net it not a two-dimensional hierarchy of conditioned behavior and thought. It's a 3D network of intelligent interaction and organization.
The Net knew.
NETWORK KNOWLEDGE
The Net was onto
it within hours. And within days, a surging tide of
investigation, collaboration and analysis was confirming the early
suspicions: another election had been stolen.
Not just by tried and trusted means, as 2000. This time growing opposition to the Bush/Oil/Banking/Corporate/Military agenda was too numerous to be to stymied by voter suppression alone. This time, an array of electronic and procedural gambits would be deployed in addition.
And they left their mark. Everywhere. No matter which way the incoming flood of information was diced, it came up the same answer every time. The election had clearly been stolen.
The evidence indicates
that the Republicans and their corporate backers had
not slid accidentally into election fraud. They had been covertly
engineering such fraud as a deliberate political strategy. They
had cornered the market in voting machines. They had "streamlined"
the TV networks' exit poll reporting system -rendering it easier
to manipulate..
Hard on the heels of the 2000 debacle of Katherine Harris, they
had the connivance of another political hack in the key Ohio battleground:
a campaign manager who was posing as an independent Secretary
of State.
As a precaution, they had stacked the Ohio Supreme Court by hand-feeding
the campaigns of pet judges with illegal PAC funds for TV advertising
blitzes.
All of which
would augment the usual voter intimidation and suppression. Toss
in an unhealthy mix of logistical and procedural obstacles for
unwelcome voters and finally....
Add the ability to electronically alter a substantial portion of the vote in mid-count, should things be going badly despite these precautions.
And you have a recipe for deliberate, ruthless and carefully calculated election fraud.
Oh yeah. The Net
knew all right.
POLITICAL INTERNET BABY
Which was when a surprising thing happened. Something that has not happened before. A broad Internet-based civil rights political movement was born, out of mutual outrage. On the ether.
The well-remarked Dean campaign Internet phenomenon looks now like the precursor to a new era. Electronic politics has arrived. A new politics and a new way of doing politics. Faster, smarter, more responsive, less dependent on leaders. Multitasking and self-organizing.
In less than two months the movement with no name was -quite literally- setting the agenda in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
It is said that the electoral college challenge of Jan 6th, 2005 was a historic event unseen since 1877. That's less than the full truth.
The like of these events have never been seen before. The election fraud civil rights movement did not come merely to challenge some votes.
They came to challenge
the entire system of voting itself.
That's not
writing history. That's making it.
De-facto fascism
had beckoned in those months after the November election. If the
stealing of the 2004 election had passed unchallenged, any
remaining vestiges of democratic politics would have been destroyed.
Thankfully
the principled among us rose to the occasion and averted such
a calamity.
That's why the Republicans were busy deriding the "bloggers" and
"conspiracy theorists" on the Internet. They know the threat.
As the disappointments of that day ebb, those involved are coming
to appreciate that achievement and recognize their historic role.
CRYING FREEDOM
That crystallization of identity will accelerate if they but turn to history again. If they look in the historical mirror of South Africa, and the campaigners there who -supported around the world-- brought an end that country's racist apartheid regime.
The parallels are
striking.
As in South
Africa, the charge is being led by a coalition of white
and black political groupings, centered on establishing the right
to a fair stake and voting rights free of racist exclusion.
Once again these
reformers face bullying opponents with the same
deeply bigoted, narrow-minded, shallow pose of superiority which
looks down on ethnic groups whose culture they fear and despise.
As before, the elitists
control all the organs of the state and
enforce their rule by undermining due process, by enacting emergency
laws and with the brute force of their military prowess.
Just as in South Africa they dictate what the media say and they ostracize and intimidate those who speak out.
Once again, an alliance of activists, lawyers, journalists and liberal-minded politicians are battling a government which is deeply unpopular around the world.
Deja vu, or what?
No wonder they
are crying freedom.
NOW FOR SECOND BASE
The current American regime will likely go the way of South Africa's antidemocratic elitists. History is not on their side. But first the new political movement will need to look to its achievements and focus on immediate objectives, if vital momentum is not to be lost.
In politics as in
war, if you are not going forward... you are going backward. The
electoral challenge countercoup has been noted. By
successfully mobilizing the electoral challenge, you just made
first base. Sitting back on your laurels invites becoming a target.
Momentum is all. Carry on.
Around America and around the world, many who heard of your stand are taking notice. The catcalls of the Republicans arouse their interest rather than deter it.
Election fraud? Tell us more.
So where's your smoking gun?
Frankly, the polling booth cannot be seen because of the haze from all of our smoking guns. There is an overwhelming amount of available smokin' evidence!
The vast bulk of those who review the plethora of evidence, come away shaking their heads in sad acknowledgment: when America votes it leaves a vapor trail. It's proof by a thousand smoking guns.
The inability of
corporate-funded Republican judges to be equally impressed with
the evidence is no guide to the response of the average intelligent
person. Neither is the silence of the corporate media. Nor is
the scoffing of those directly benefiting from these federal election
crimes.
EXPOSING THE PRETENDER
While public interest
is high, it's time to reach out. To swell the ranks with those
now waiting for the straight dope. A recent poll shows the scale
of potential support.
A reported 19 percent of Americans think fraud played a role in
the "election" of the pretender. That's a sizable base.
There are thirteen days to go until the pretender is inaugurated. During that time his claim to the presidency will be coming under a renewed spotlight -with interest culminating on that day.
It's our launch window.
The electoral challenge
has bestowed legitimacy on the growing movement to expose election
fraud and reinstate voting civil rights. Building
on that, by the
time Jan 20th arrives, we can render the pretender's claim the
transparent fraud many already suspect it to be.
Not in the courts of law, in the higher Court of Public Opinion.
The new politics is less about membership cards and political meetings. It's amore about tightly networked individual political activism, held together by the mutuality of shared concerns and purpose.
Look around you. Your fellow election fraud activists may not be in the same political party or even any political party.
But just ask their views on the Iraq war, on the Patriot Act, on the torture and abuse of prisoners, on the official story of 9/11, etc.. You'll find more shared values than different opinions.
You are among friends. In a flexible movement with historic and history-making echoes of your predecessors.
And your time is now.
Fintan Dunne,
Jan 7, 2004 10pmET
See
also:
Judiciary
Cmte. Report Clearly Questioning Bush Reelection
by Fintan Dunne
Cleveland
