The Republicans have not won a free and fair presidential election since 1988

[Jack Rabbit]

They're not going to win one this year.

The following actions will invalidate any Romney "victory":

• Voter ID laws aimed at suppressing the votes of minorities and students.
• Election day "poll watching" by "citizen journalists" intending to intimidate voters.
• The endless attempts by Ohio's crooked SOS to throw roadblocks up in front of voters, the mysterious "computer glitch" that dropped a number of newly registered voters from the rolls and the "experimental software" he ordered put in voting machines.
• The purge of the voter rolls initiated by Florida's crooked governor.
• Use of unaccountable voting machines manufactured by a company owned by candidate Romney's son.
• Use of voter registration firms which either registered only Republican voters or actually destroyed the registration forms of Democrats.
• Attempts by employers to intimidate employees into voting for Governor Romney, at the Governor's urging.
• Huge spending by right wing billionaires taking advantage of the Citizens United decision, which has been used to buy advertising that contains false information such as the "Jeep is moving to China" spots.

The United States is a democracy, not a mere republic. Democracy has always been a part of American culture. It is what Tocqueville observed and that to which Walt Whitman wrote praises in robust free verse. To organize attempts to suppress voting in manners like those described above is blatantly anti-American.

We will know the election has been stolen as soon as the networks declare Romney the winner. The moment that happens, we should reach for our pitchforks and light our torches. We allowed a stolen election in 2000 and the nation suffered for eight years under yoke of tyrants who botched the effort to capture Osama bin Laden in order to fight a completely unjustified war against Iraq and opened the treasury to corporate cronies. We cannot allow this to stand again.

[theoldman]

1. I disagree, the 1988 election was not fair.

Have your forgotten Lee Atwater and his lies about Dukakis?

[Jack Rabbit]

3. No, I haven't. I just don't think that was enough to turn the election.

Dukakis was unable to counter the Willie Horton ad effectively, although I think he could have done so. It might have taken something more than a simple thirty second spot, but it could have been done.

It would be another four years before the Clinton campaign's rapid reaction team was out with the facts as soon as the Bush campaign told any of their many big fibs. That's the start of how you fight Republicans. Dukakis needed something like that, but he and his campaign staffers failed to think of it.

George Bush would also have looked silly in a tank, but he was smart enough not to get in one.

[rbrnmw]

5. Mike Dukakis was a gentlemen

who truly believed the American Electorate was too intelligent to fall for such nonsense. My first general election campaign I worked on that I could also vote in. I was 18 and enthusiastic, and I too believed that the mudslinging wouldn't work. I was a wreck election night because I truly believed it was so unfair that a person could win that way. I'm not as naive anymore but that loss hit me hard. It wasn't until 2004 that I fell apart like that again. In 2000 I was pissed but it took longer to get the results and didn't hit me as hard.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Indeed, he was a gentleman

Nevertheless, he was a bit naive to that that he didn't need to present the real facts to the American people to certain that they didn't fall for that nonsense.

[Gman]

2. Just considering FL in 00 and OH in 04

pretty much says it all.

[jp11]

4. I don't think we've ever had anything I'd call free and fair elections

in our history from the birth of the electoral college to voter fraud when it actually occurred to denying people their rights to vote to not counting all votes to not even having machines that are properly audited and proven to be tamper proof as much as technology allows to not keeping proper records of votes from those machines or even paper ballots per the law to disenfranchising voters by purging the roster to imposing new forms of poll taxes etc.

[zbdent]

6. If they believed that they really were legitimate wins ...

they'd welcome the U.N. election inspectors, instead of ranting against them.