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June 01, 2006
Making The Case For Fraud
For the record, we are generally suspicious of most conspiracy theories. While many found it incomprehensible that George W. Bush could be reelected in 2004, we did not. Though John Kerry dramatically increased Democratic turnout over the 2000 election, he was not a particularly well-liked candidate, and was damaged (in part, due to his own failure to promptly respond) by very effective attacks from the Republican smear machine.
In addition, Karl Rove's stunning success at using divisive social issues (gay marriage, abortion) to turn out millions of new religious conservative voters has been well documented. In short, Kerry got a whole lot of new voters to the polls -- Bush got more.
Nonetheless, we have been somewhat puzzled (and troubled) by myriad reports of voter disenfranchisement, in various forms, during the 2004 election, particularly in "battleground" states like Ohio. Undoubtedly, serious reservations about the validity of the 2000 presidential election result color our perspective.
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes a detailed and pretty compelling case that team Bush went two for two in stealing presidential elections.
His argument centers principally around two big issues: the enormous discrepancies between exit poll results (which are historically very accurate) and actual votes, with nearly all the benefit redounding to President Bush; and widespread systematic efforts to suppress and deny Democratic voting. Ohio, of course, is Kennedy's ground zero for fraud. The principal villain is Ohio GOP Secretary of State (and now gubernatorial candidate) Ken Blackwell.
The piece is long, and can be a bit tedious, but overall well worth reading. The findings are troubling, to say the least, though we still cannot be sure they add up to a stolen election. Given, however, this administration's now widely recognized pattern of deception and dishonesty, we hardly find the idea a stretch.
No doubt, refutations will emerge in the coming days, and we eagerly await them. For the sake of American democracy we hope Mr. Kennedy is wrong about what happened in 2004. But we have hoped for many things over the last several years that did not come to pass.
Read the article and judge for yourself.
Posted by houtopia at June 1, 2006 11:00 PM