The Election Fraud Conspiracy

Slowly reports of voting irregularities are popping up: over counts, under counts, and suppression of vote counting - all of which need to be investigated to instill faith in our system. In reaction to these reports some see conspiracy and some see conspiracy nuts.

I remember reading about a psychological experiment where they asked volunteers to decipher the pattern in a series of flashing lights. Yet there was no pattern as the experiment was about how people react to randomness. Upon exit interviews, once told that there was no pattern, those with the most complicated theories refused to believe the testers and were adamant in defending their theoretical constructs. After all, how could they be wrong? The final treatise of the experiment pointed out that the more complicated, or convoluted, the explanations posited the stronger the emotional involvement in the testees belief. Emotional investment solidifies belief. This goes a long way in explaining the beliefs of conspiracy theorists, fundamentalist, and an X-File fans.

Max Sawicky makes this observation:

Ever notice these days, when it is suggested that those in power may be guilty of a crime, they try to nix it off as a "conspiracy theory"?

In actuality, a conspiracy theory is the intimation of some huge, world-historic crime committed by an impossibly well-coordinated, secretive, large, powerful group of people. By contrast, election fraud is a pedestrian exercise that has been quite frequent all over the world. It is not a high conspiracy, like the alleged cover-up of the Kennedy assassination. The idea that it couldn't happen in the U.S. is a fantasy. In fact, before the election the Right was constantly predicting election fraud by Democrats. Apparently conspiracy theories only cut one way.

Election fraud is real and it cuts both ways. What's at stake is can we trust our system or has democrcy died and we are left with a republic in name only? It has been bandied about that John Kerry conceeded the election in suspicious haste. I don't think that is quite the case, which is expressed cogently here:

John Kerry realized that to launch a public campaign calling the vote into question would be disastrous. In fact, he likely realized he would we walking right into a Bush-set booby trap.

In particular, during our election coverage we talked about the pending battle of Fallujah, about the timing of it being an election ploy, about how it was following in the constant Bush pattern of creating a media event to sway the election, as he did last time by making the run up to the Iraq invasion come to a head exactly on election week.
(snip)
Picture if John Kerry had chosen to call the election into question. Immediately, the Bush camp would talk about how 50,000 of our troops are just about to launch the biggest military operation since the invasion of Baghdad. And, just a couple of days after the election, it was launched.

You can imagine the arguments from the Bushies: “How could Senator Kerry undermine our security while our troops are in the midst of battle.” Fallujah was to be the pressure point that would, if not stop Kerry from uncovering all the dirt and getting a fair election count, would at least tarnish his name with much of the nation and, as importantly, create something for the right-wing dominated media to hammer away at him on, making it seem as if he is only caring about himself and not the nation.

It was quite a well-crafted plan. Completely amoral, but smart.

Unfortunately for them, John Kerry was smarter.

As Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, who has been about the only mainstream journalist to actually follow up on the many serious problems with regard to the integrity of the election, has pointed out, a concession speech, in effect, means nothing. It is not legally binding.
(snip)
But at the same time, he is still just as free to look into any voting irregularities as he would have been had he not conceded. Even better, he could do it without the press going insane and the nation being kept on tension-creating edge. All of the lawyers he could have sent to look into things still could be sent to look into things, and if the election is truly called into question, he could then, with ample justification so as to make it legitimate, come out publicly and retract his concession. It is the prosecutor, also one of Kerry’s previous jobs, who knows well enough to thoroughly prepare and investigate his case be leveling charges. You may have a real hunch that someone is responsible for a murder, but until you believe you can win that case in court, you do not make the allegation.

While the Bushite sare claiming a mandate and church bells are ringing, the vote is being validated and I'm sure it is being watched, if not actively manoeuvred, by both parties. The only thing to do is clamor for transparency to eliminate the specter of a stolen election.

Speculation of electoral theft is not enough, although for some it is an emotional necessity. Instead I prefer this insidious thought:

But until evidence emerges to the contrary, I have to assume that conservatives and evangelicals, in fact, carried the day, giving Bush what he savors as a mandate.

So now, in the woozy afterglow of an election-day-after hangover, we will discover just how functional is the Bush formula. The conservatives, who have been haranguing liberals for decades, have won emphatically. It's time for them to stop blaming and deliver.

I expect them to prove, not just promise, that giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy will benefit all citizens and not disembowel the budget. That privatizing schools, government functions and Social Security will result in more-efficient services and more-secure retirements. That suppressing gay relationships, putting the Ten Commandments in schools and rolling back the right of women to control their own bodies will create a more morally righteous nation.

Let's hold them to their word and their feet to the fire. It's up to them to prove us wrong. However, keep in mind this famous governor's admission, "where there's smoke, there's fire."