How McCain Could Win

Below is an excerpt from Greg Palast. Most of us have probably already come across is nightmarish stolen election scenario. The details are shocking. I find the experience of reading them jarring: I believe they are true (that he is a reliable reporter who checks his facts) yet I can't believe 'the ugly secret.' And I wonder, is this my fetishistic denial, a kind of residual faith in democracy? Or is something else involved, something that has more to do with the position of the story/report? Does the report function as a kind of political pornography, an extreme kind of leftist paranoia that replaces/displaces not just political optimism and possibility but steps toward responsible dismantling of conservative hegemony? Differently put, is the problem with Palast that he fantasizes a nearly omnipotent power behind the scenes? That he may even be too certain in the face of the always messy sausage-factory of US elections?

Link: t r u t h o u t | How McCain Could Win.

Swing state Colorado. Before this election, two Republican secretaries of state purged 19.4 percent of the entire voter roll. One in five voters. Pfft!

    Swing state New Mexico. One in nine voters in this year's Democratic caucus found their names missing from the state-provided voter registries. And not just any voters. County by county, the number of voters disappeared was in direct proportion to the nonwhite population. Gore won the state by 366 votes; Kerry lost it by only 5,900. Despite reassurances that all has been fixed for Tuesday, Democrats lost from the list in February told me they're still "disappeared" from the lists this week.

    Swing state Indiana. In this year's primary, ten nuns were turned away from the polls because of the state's new voter ID law. They had drivers' licenses, but being in their 80s and 90s, they'd let their licenses expire. Cute. But what isn't cute is this: 566,000 registered voters in that state don't have the ID required to vote. Most are racial minorities, the very elderly and first-time voters; that is, Obama voters. Twenty-three other states have new, vote-snatching ID requirements.

    Swing state Florida. Despite a lawsuit battle waged by the Brennan Center for Justice, the state's Republican apparatchiks are attempting to block the votes of 85,000 new registrants, forcing them to pass through a new "verification" process. Funny thing: verification applies only to those who signed up in voter drives (mostly black), but not to voters registering at motor vehicle offices (mostly white).

Comments

[donkeyphant]

I heard that voters might be turned away from the polls for wearing shirts that have endorsements. It's made me rethink my "Me 4 President" shirt. Hopefully I can still wear my backup "NeoCube for President of the Universe" one.

[anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103002396.html

These are the facts about why the Bradley Effect isn't going to work. Palast is exactly as you say, leftist paranoia and hysteria and nightmare scenario that's not going to happen. But this kind of paranoia is based on a residual love of the current administration, no matter how much you and others may claim to hate it. Things will really change by Wednesday, it's just most are afraid to say that by now, and they still have to meet in order to discuss the banks' ass-dragging on lending.

[Kathleen]

I am from Illinois, I urge you to watch this tape before you go vote tomorrow! You may not like the tone, but there are some VERY VALID POINTS MADE HERE...SO REALLY LISTEN! God Bless America!
http://www.veoh.com/videos/16305269G6fTetJ5

[AcademicLurker]

You know, the further Obama pulls ahead, the more fervently progressives seem to look for scenarios and conspiracy theories in which he loses.

Is it simply that the last 8 years have traumatized them to the point that they can't bear to really imagine winning? Or are they afraid of winning for some other reason?

[anonymous]

Exactly, lurker, because the race was supposed to tighten toward the end, and it didn't, except one slight tightening a week ago, and another slight one before that. Not that I'm not surprised at this, I have to say I'm very surprised.

[Jodi]

Shameless plug for book that appears in 2009--I talk alot about left attachment to the idea that the country is red and conservative, how we have enjoyed this fantasy. So very much agree with the comments. The real trauma will be having to deal with an administration that is not our worst nightmare, but not our best hope.

[anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04network.html

I was fascinated that it's very likely they'll be able to project the winner much earlier than usually expected, before polls even close in the East.

[Will]

AcademicLurker,

I don't think progressives/liberals/leftists/reasonable people are unable to imagine winning, or (especially) afraid of it(“winning,” for many of us, meaning Republican defeat). Rather, the unflagging determination displayed by the Republican party to win at any cost (be it legal, moral, democratic) during these past two presidential elections has left its opponents weary of underestimating them at any point prior to a decisive victory. Republican disenfranchisement of (minority) Democratic voters, as documented by Palast and others, but little reported/protested outside of "far left" circles until very recently, has also contributed to a feeling among progressives that the odds are always stacked against us.

I for one genuinely expect the economy and the political climate to improve if Obama wins. At the same time, I don't align myself with his platform, and won't mind being fiercely critical of him should he become president.

[Richard]

How is fearing election day shenanigans--a stolen election--the same as having this "fantasy" of a conservative America?

[Jodi]

Palast's view is more than a fear of shenigans. It's a detailed account of specific efforts and policies.

[AcademicLurker]

I totally understand the "avoid complacency and overconfidence, don't relax until it's over, be ready for sleazy republican tactics" message.

It's just that what I've seen in the progressive blogosphere during the last 2 weeks is something different. People really seem to be getting some kind of deep enjoyment out of terrifying themselves: more so the better things look for Obama.

[anonymous]

lurker--that's true, and it says a lot about the terrified. The hideous boredom of some businesslike approach to problems is not going to be nearly the evil-charged thrill of Karl Rove shit day after day. Apocalyptic scientists may have to start writing books on astrology and crystals therapy now, since it is too exhausting to keep up with the stock market and make it work as really good sci-fi novels unless McCain were to win. That would be the key to many careers of Blade Runner and Road Warrior stripe. Oh yes, there are many who really get off on this, even though it's true that the lies of the Bushies reached a saturation point relatively early--2004--and that's the real year in which things looked irreversible in a totalitarian way. And even if a lot of leftists don't think the 'democrats did anything' when they won in 2006 (the leftists didn't either in that case), it was some relief that Republican Diebold 'n' vote-fixing was not nearly as in place as a lot of us thought after the Kerry Flesh Failures.