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Democratic Voices

September 15, 2003

Republicans As Election Thieves

The Republican Party under the leadership of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom Delay and their allies seem to have adopted a power at any price mentality. Rigging the rules of American politics has never been exercised as widely and blatantly in our history.

John Ashcroft promised to be the people’s lawyer during his appointment hearings. He stated that he would represent all the American people and not just his Right Wing Republican backers. Under Ashcroft, no investigations or prosecutions for denying voting rights in Florida during the 2000 Presidential elections were pursued. Around 90,000 legal voters were denied their right to vote by state government officeholder under the control of Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush. This action appears to have been aided by the state of Texas while George W. Bush was Governor. This is how the election was pulled close enough for a Republican majority on the Supreme Court to hand the Republicans the White House. This election theft set the stage for a series of power grabs still being exercised by the Republican Party.

In Texas, the Republicans ran an extremely poor slate of Congressional candidates in 2002. Democrats won many seats in basically Republican Congressional Districts. The losing Republican candidates held extreme political views and/or lacked enough experience to handle the jobs they were seeking. Texas voters decided that the Republican Congressional candidates were inferior (in Districts that Republican candidates for the US Senate, Governor and state houses carried during the same election.) Instead of running better candidates, Governor Perry and the Republicans went back on their publicly expressed promises in order to give Delay his way in packing the Republican Congressional majority.

In California, the Republicans ran an extreme Right Wing candidate for Governor in Bill Simon. Lacking respect for the voters, millionaire Republican candidates spent millions to start undoing a legal election within a few months. This power grab, like the one in Texas, is costing millions of taxpayer dollars.

Electronic voting machines that have insufficient auditing mechanisms have been adopted. The computer codes, which should be public, are being kept secret. Most of these voting machine companies have close ties to Right Wing Republican political activists or officeholders. We need to make honest elections the number one issue in the 2004 while we still have a democracy.

Column written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio which is nationally syndicated on the ieAmerica Radio Network). You can hear them via the Internet several days a week from 2-4pm Central at http://www.ieAmericaRadio.com. You are invited to visit the Democratic Talk Radio site at DemocraticTalkRadio.com. They can be reached by mail at: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Reach DTR by phone at 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287.

Sincerely,
Stephen Crockett
Al Lawrence
Co-hosts: “Current Affair” News Talk Program
WEKR 1240 am radio
(931) 433-3545


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