General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why are people not marching in the streets? [View all]Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)And there is a huge difference between serious intent and actual accomplishment, as 2012 results show us. Read DU from the weeks before the election, many were certain they were going to steal it no matter what, they'd say 'Romney looks like he knows the fix is in' and other stunningly irrational things to try to get others to think that there was no way for us to win, when in fact there was no way for Mitt to win. We spoke of PA for weeks as if we needed it, when in fact only Mitt needed it.
They are scum, but not talented scum. This is why people should focus on election reform in their own States. A bit of effort and the scum is defeated. A State that allows a scam to be run on them in broad daylight really needs to wake up and deal. Those long lines we see on TV are shameful, and Democrats should be ashamed in those States if they are not doing all they can to reform that process and to oppose new scams as they come up. If the Republicans are proposing crappy election law, Democrats should propose good election law. The VA Republicans already seem like they don't have the stomach for this sort of cheating.
The fact that cheats cheat does not mean they will prevail. Their plans this time did not work out.
Back in 2008, CA, my homestate, moved their Primary date forward because they were sick of being a large State that voted last and was thus not as influential. That was my first cycle here in Oregon. California friends and family could hardly bear the fact that in the one year in which our primary was protracted and interesting, they pushed their way to the front to 'gain influence' when that influence in this case came on the back end. I had people sending me emails demanding that I make up my mind-'CA is sick of this shit' one of them said and I said well, you wanted to go first, so you did and now you can sit there and wait until we pick the candidate. They still say 'if we had not voted so early, Obama would have taken CA' and that is probably true. The point is that even fairly innocent changes made to attempt 'more influence' can backfire, for no two elections are the same. CA wanted to go earlier, then that was not as good a choice as they were sure it was. They weren't rigging they were just wanting to be 'more important because we are so big'. It did not work because 08 was not like previous elections and because no one can predict the future.
It is possible that Republican scams and plans will do as well for them next time as they did last time. They worked hard to rig, to suppress and it did not work. Because we were organized, people got pissed a them for rigging, and we won the election. They rigged, and we still won.