Rolling Stone Magazine, in a very brave piece for such a large, mainstream magazine (you would expect a newspaper to do this first), published an investigative report by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleging the 2004 election was stolen. The report includes the references, sources, and data for you to analyze to come to your own conclusions.
In my opinion, it's about time that someone join Harpers, who in August 2005 published "None Dare Call It Stolen".
In order for there to be real change, it must break thru to the mainstream's consciousness. To do so it requires mainstream media attention - the blogosphere's reach only goes so far as Salon's Peter Daou documented in his piece "THE TRIANGLE: Limits of Blog Power".
The danger with reporting on our broken election infrastructure is that it further alienates the large numbers of us who already don't vote. In a democracy voting is part of the bargain we make, as Howard Hall says, and as he notes, too few do.
Chris Bowers in a post at MyDD worries that stories such as this enable folks to wash their hands of the whole thing, to say "don't blame me, my vote doesn't count" or worst, to push for ineffective reform like PRIVATIZING the entire system (beware folks, beware). He has a point in exhorting us to take control of our local voting infrastructure, in the way that many grassroots Democrats are working to take control of their party's infrastructure, which resembles, from what I've read, what many grassroots Republicans did to take control of their party during the 60s and 70s.
I maybe different then many out here - I still have friends and family that are not 'wired' - their use of the web is not to read politically oriented blogs, but send personal email, play video games and share news about their lives. I believe (and hopefully they don't mind me saying this) my friends and family come damn close to representing 'average' Americans.
I am a believer that whenever people are better informed, people can make better decisions. That includes deciding to vote.
And I know from their viewpoint, the system is rigged. Rigged for insiders that work harder to get elected then representing the people. The fact that the mainstream media doesn't focus on this encourages their hopelessness. For them to shake their heads at me and think I'm part of some foolhardy effort.
Cast some light and things can change.
take it back
we, ordinary citizens, are going to have to take back the system. we have to get involved. put in time. not get paid. be motivated. run for low local offices. we gotta chip away locally and act as a group when we have bigger opportunities here and there.
chris bowers over in west philly writes about his experiences.