General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I truly believe that 20 years from now....... [View all]DFW
(54,341 posts)When a major political party is no longer content to accept a loss at the ballot box, they go for winning with unethical/illegal means. If that still isn't enough for them to retain power exclusively, then they opt for brute force.
We find ourselves at a crossroads. Republican ideas and policies are inefficient, cruel, outdated, and dangerous to our health (both physical and economic). They "win" elections because they have Fox "News" and the Sinclair Group, they manipulate the electoral process to their exclusive advantage. They discourage or prohibit voters from registering if they represent groups they perceive to be hostile to their party. They solicit unlimited untraceable funds for their advertising in an attempt to swamp the media with their message. Thy have expert propagandists (Frank Luntz, e.g.) at their beck and call to convince their voters that day is night. As a last resort, they have vote-counting machines that only they make, and whose hard drives are not open to forensic inspection after a vote to make sure their reported results are not false. In some states (notably Wisconsin), the Republican governor even has a county (Waukesha) official who miraculously "finds" sacks of uncounted Republican votes when they turn out to be necessary.
We haven't been accused of this king of tactic since the days of Richard Daley's Chicago in the 1960s. I'm sure a few incidents have been overlooked. But with the Republicans, it's systematic. It's their M.O., their S.O.P. And it lets them win where they have, in fact, lost. This cannot last, of course. But it's not going to be easy to convince a party with a winning formula to give it up voluntarily, especially when the majority of its members are convinced that a manipulated Democracy is just the same as a real one.