Looking at the Wrong Things

Posted on December 1, 2004 in Accountability Campaign 2004

I’m getting tired of self-defeating Democrats who think that George W. Bush won the election. Even as evidence collected by organizations such as Common Cause and People for the American Way mounts that the election was rigged, they continue to blame John Kerry for losing. This election is being lost by Democrats who are not clamboring for recounts and investigations into the systematic corruption of the electoral process by Republican officials. Their apathy when it comes to ensuring the impeccableness of the vote is the single factor that I find decisive in handing over power to Bush at this point.

On December 7, 2004, Common Cause will present its preliminary findings. Last night, Keith Olberman put Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell on the spot regarding his very partisan double-role as overseer of elections and co-chair of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign (if it can be truly called that given that Bush lost in 2000). Blackwell hemmed and hawed, trying to insist that the Greens and the Libertarians “lacked standing” in asking for the recount.

If this be upheld by the courts (which would set a precedent in making a concession speech binding), then we the people have been robbed. If there is any suggestion of impropriety, then a recount should be held without all the fuss and feathers that Blackwell is shooting off. But what has he to hide? Olberman thought it odd that Blackwell resisted invitations to explain what was happening until the Reverend Jesse Jackson came to town. Blackwell said that Jackson was just jumping to march at the head of a parade that had already started, which is interesting because no one has worked harder than Blackwell to prevent it from going on. Will there be a recount? If so, Blackwell must not be a part of it.

On these matters we must focus NOW.

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Part of the problem might be that the Democratic leadership knows that things are not entirely clean on its side. Perhaps the Greens and the Libertarians are taking deliberate aim at the two party system here. The head of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee is also the head of the county’s Board of Elections. This, too, is a conflict of interest that should not be. It sounds like things are in major need of reform in Ohio. If the Democrats are timid because the Greens/Libertarian challenge might bring the whole incestuous relationship within Ohio politics to an end, then maybe it IS time for some other party to be the standard bearer for the middle and the left.

In the meantime, the rest of us should keep our eyes on the prize. If a recount shows that Kerry won in Ohio, he should be president — even if he doesn’t want to be.