I confess...I'm still dazed and saddened that Americans' sacred right to vote and have that vote matter, the very core of democracy, was portrayed yesterday by some Republicans as simply partisan politics. No one was attempting to change the results of the November 2 election. They just wanted to be heard, to say their piece, to tell voters that someone hears their frustration about our apparently crumbling democracy. To say that integrity still matters.
I worked as an election official on Nov 2 at my local precinct, initially qualifying voters as they entered the polling area. I, and everyone working our neighborhood precinct, worked diligently (and long into the night) to ensure that every person who walked in voted. Everyone. Integrity and dignity mattered. And there were plenty of exceptions to clarify and qualify amid the chaos of record-breaking voter turnout. I assure you that I would complain endlessly if just one voter was denied the privilege of voting, no matter their party affiliation.
If Republicans had been smart and wanted to start the legislative year out on a harmonious bipartisan note, they should have used classic counseling techniques.....listened, acknowledged the other sides' frustrations, set an action plan to ostensibly study and remedy the problems, and moved on. Such a strategy would've been immensely helpul to advancing the President's tough, ambitious 2005 agenda.
Common decency and collegial respect should have dictated the same. Respect for our great country demanded it.
From Political Strategy comes more comment on yesterday's historic objection of the Ohio electoral vote count.
"...we haven't even begun to see the extent to which this administration will go when it comes to asserting their agenda. And why should we? They committed atrocities beyond compare in their first term and the American electorate gave them a free pass.
I don't blame the Republicans one bit for relentlessly pursuing their agenda. When you beat someone down to get what you want and they say..."hey, that's ok"...then you give them another beat down and take even more. In a sense, the beaten are being punished for being so damn pitiful. That is the 'strict father' way....
It is a pitiful state of affairs when the greatest institution of democracy -- our right to vote -- barely escapes oblivion because the opposition party just barely scrapes out a single, tearful senator to hold the reigns of protest. If the rolls were reversed, Republicans would have had legions upon legions of conservatives and neocons joining the forces of protest. " ---Tom Ball, in a post at Political Strategy entitled "Are There Any Limits to the Propaganda of Goebbels W. Bush?"
As I said in my post yesterday, Democrats take note. Senator Barbara Boxer just modeled the example of the in-your-face courageous leadership style that will be required to smackdown the shameless bully-tactics and corruptness of the Bush administration.
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