Reply #24: Think of Patrick Henry also, four time governor of Virginia.

[autorank]

He was regarded as a radical prior to the revolution. Skilled in the art of politics, he passed bills objecting to British rule of the colonies, bills that could have resulted in his hanging. He didn't care. He said, "Give me liberty or give me death." What a concept...heard anyone say that lately.

Moderate governments are the source of political liberty because they're more concerned with pragmatic issues like how to benefit the nation and it's people. They want to know what works. Ideological governments know the truth and are convinced that only their truth works. Liberty is at a minimum since it deviates from the truth, a higher value to ideologues. Should elections meet that end, fine. If not...well... Moderate governments are interested in elections that work to determine public choice and maintain a public consensus. Ideological governments are focused in retaining power.

We're governed by ideologues. They control all three branches of government.

There is no moderate opposition to speak of, just moderate defense of our fundamental social welfare programs and whole scale abandonment of issues relating to our most fundamental rights in the political process, the ability to vote, be assured that our vote is counted and inspect the process ourselves or through proxies.

Lets be frank. The United States has experience numerous instances of election fraud since colonial times. We have scandals at the national, state, and local level. Those scandals are more extensive than we're taught but they are not hard to find with a little research.

What we're fighting for now is a strong guarantee of election integrity nationwide, a guarantee that has enforcement, inspection, and review along a commitment to access to the franchise by "the governed."

Asking for our rights is like asking for air to breathe. We should and we are demanding our rights. I really don't care if officials are upset or challenged by these demands. If they'd done even an adequate job and shown a commitment to improve when improvement is obviously needed, we would not be where we are now. They have not, our representatives have not. Now it's our turn to demand, insist, kick in the door to make sure every American has the right to vote and have that vote counted in a fully open and verifiable fashion. Otherwise, we're ruled by petty tyrants who won't even bother to demonstrate their legitimacy.

We DEMAND liberty and we DEMAND the right to assure that our voices are heard. That's it. The only reason we're loud and DEMANDING is the demonstrable failure of our elected officials and those they appoint to honor the requirements laid out in the Constitution and embodied in the Declaration of Independence.