I just got off the phone with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) who reportedly wowed ’em a few hours ago during her speech (posted in full below) on the closing afternoon of the “Take Back America” conference being held in Washington D.C.
In her remarks, Schakowsky apologized for “not taking seriously enough the allegations that the 2004 election was stolen.” She now feels it was, and claims that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) will be launching an initiative. From today’s speech:
Raise a stink? Can do. So can you! Sign Velvet Revolution’s petition declaring “No Confidence” in the Busby/Bilbray race!
(Hat tip to my buddy Peter B. Collins, who is in DC to cover the conference, for his quick phone call alert after Schakowsky’s speech earlier this afternoon!)
Schakowsky’s prepared statement from today’s Take Back America conference speech follows in full…
Remarks of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky
My topic today is “Closing the Deal.” Closing the deal. I believe that on November 7, Democrats can be in the majority in the Congress – both Houses. And I believe that the activists and leaders who are here today can make it happen. I am optimistic – cautiously optimistic.
At long last, nearly everyone in our country sees what we’ve seen for a long time. Let’s just tick off a few of the problems of their own making that the Republicans face, beginning but not ending with the calamitous war in Iraq. During the time of this panel – one hour – your tax dollars will have contributed to the $11 million the U.S. spends in Iraq every hour – 24/7. And between Iraq and Afghanistan , the equivalent of one battalion of soldiers (600) is killed or injured each month. Move on to gas prices, heating costs, unaffordable health care, the Medicare Part D disaster. Katrina, Guantanamo Bay, Halliburton, Abu Ghraib; college tuition, the NSA spying on everyone (and proud of it), tax cuts just for the Paris Hiltons, drilling in ANWR, global warming, the 9/11 Commission failing grades, Dubai ports deal, stagnant or falling wages, everyone around the world hates us, Jack Abramoff, relentless attacks on women’s reproductive rights, labor unions, affirmative action, gays and lesbians, civil rights and civil liberties. You know, after a while it starts to add up. These guys have got to go.
It’s no wonder the President’s approval, even after getting al Zarqawi, continues to slip. I don’t know if Bush is the worst President in history. I’m not an expert on the Presidents. As far as I know, there may have been less intellectual Presidents. There may have been more incompetent Presidents or one or two with worse judgment or more reckless or less curious. I don’t know about Chester Arthur or Millard Fillmore. Herbert Hoover was certainly delusional about the economy and James Polk allegedly manufacturing the war with Mexico.
But it never mattered as much as it does now. The decisions of the President of the United States, you know, the Decider, have never been more consequential than they are today. While military misadventures of the past certainly claimed many innocent lives, it is only in recent times that the result could be worldwide death and destruction. There may have been Presidents more contemptuous of science, though I doubt it. But nothing else ultimately matters if our planet becomes incapable of sustaining human life. Even the most upscale gated communities can’t protect him and his friends. In the most profound ways, this President and his rubber stamp Congress are proving that elections really do matter.
You would think that the real question is how can we lose? The answer is we’ve already proven it can be done. Even when we win, we lose. Fool me once…or whatever the President tried to say. This is no time to play the fool. We need to close the deal. Our challenge, particularly the challenge of the progressives and activists here at this great conference, is not crafting the overarching thematics of the campaigns. Fortunately, the big theme is change, and the goal to put this failed President on every ballot, so far, seems to be working.
For us, it must all be about execution.
1) First, we must not allow the Republicans to steal the election-again.
2) We have to mobilize the voters who are already with us, and run picture perfect, aggressive, leave no voter behind GOTV, Get Out the Vote campaign.
3) We have to persuade the persuadables. (I’ll go more into each of these.)
4) We have to travel. I’ll tell you about the Committee of 100 in my district.
5) We need to keep our eyes on the prize – beating the Republicans.
1) Stealing: I apologize for not taking seriously enough the allegations that the 2004 election was stolen. After reading Bobby Kennedy’s article in Rolling Stone, “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?”, I am convinced that the only answer is yes. He documents how 357,000 Ohio voters, the vast majority Democrats, “were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted…more than enough to shift the results.” Watch for the DCCC to take some very public steps in the near future to ward off a repeat performance. In the meantime, there needs to be a citizens’ effort starting now to assess the machines, the ballots, the registration process within each and every election jurisdiction in each and every swing district and state, in the case of Senate races. Where the situation looks perilous, go to the media, raise a stink, demand changes. This is a great project for the many of you who have been diligently working to guarantee fair and accurate elections.
2) GOTV: “Intensity equals turnout.” That is one of the political truths that we must NOT rely on. The Republicans learned about grassroots organizing from us and learned it well. We must count on their willingness and capacity to drag out their voters. There is a reason that they are throwing red meat at their base – Constitutional Amendments on same-sex marriage and Flag burning, and demonizing immigrants. They are attempting to motivate and mobilize their base voters. They also successfully targeted individual Republican voters in Democratic precincts, not just relying on larger demographic data. Their operation was often more sophisticated than ours. But we know how to do mobilization. It’s grassroots, door-to-door campaigns that enable us to beat them on the ground. Air strikes – radio and TV, just get you so far; the personal contact drives home the point. As great as job as we did in 2004, we need to do it more and better.
3) PERSUASION: In 2004, the Republicans left no constituency untouched. Their goal was to shave off just enough points from Jewish voters or Hispanic voters. For the first time, they won the majority of Catholics. Why did we lose Catholics? They had a Catholic strategy, and we didn’t. I’m told that Karl Rove met with selected Bishops and lay leaders on a weekly basis. Millions of “Voter Guides for Serious Catholics” were distributed both inside churches and, if that wasn’t an option, outside the churches. It says, “This voter’s guide identifies 5 ‘non-negotiable’ issues and helps you narrow down the list of acceptable candidates, whether they are running for national, state, or local offices. Candidates who endorse or promote any of the 5 non-negotiables should be considered to have disqualified themselves from holding public office, and you should not vote for them.” “It is a serious sin to endorse or promote any of these actions: 1. Abortion 2. Euthanasia 3. Fetal Stem Cell Research 4.Human Cloning 5. Homosexual “Marriage.” Who produced and paid for the distribution of these Voter Guides? Religious leaders? Forget it. This campaign was run by political operatives, armed with political money to defeat John Kerry and other Democratic candidates.
Well, we know how to produce voter guides. We know how to pass out voter guides. I’m no expert on Catholic teachings, but I didn’t see anything here about poverty, or health care or the dignity of work. Shame on us when we don’t compete at all.
4) We have to travel. If you live in a safe Democratic district like mine, you need to consider every candidate in every winnable district as our candidate – at least adopt one or more of those candidates as your own. Let me tell you about an effort I’m helping build in my district called the Committee of 100. It started in 2004 with a group of activists, many first time activists, who called themselves the Kerry Travelers. Since Illinois was solidly blue, we were able to send over 1200 people to various cities in Wisconsin to go door-to-door for John Kerry, helping to put him over the top. No moping for them after the November election. They created the Committee of 100, 100 people who each agreed to contribute between $100 and $250 to a Congressional candidate and go work in a swing district – mine being blessedly safe. We just met last Sunday. So far they have recruited 200 people and are aiming for 1,000 by election day. Representatives from the campaigns of 4 Democrats running for Congress in Illinois came and made pitches for their candidates. Canvass days were announced for each of them, and people signed up to travel to their districts. Much of the organizing for the Committee of 100 takes place on the internet, but this is no virtual community. You can do it too, and my young political director, Alex Armour, would be happy to help you get started.
5) Finally, we all need to resist, as hard as I know it is at times, griping about the Democrats, one, because it’s takes time away from the real work of defeating the Republicans, and two because it’s counterproductive, demoralizing the very people we need to be engaged and enthusiastic. I am not necessarily talking about staying away from primaries. I refer to the time spent complaining about this or that performance, how we’re not tough enough, we’re not articulate enough, we are too wishy-washy. I agree that those critiques are often true. But keep in mind this one thing. Right now we are winning! We are not doing everything wrong.
I refer you to an article in the May Washington monthly by Amy Sullivan, called “Not as Lame as You Think, Democrats learn the art of opposition.” Let me read just a few lines. “…the truth is that Newt Gingrich and the Contract loom so large – and today’s DC Democrats seem so small – largely because of the magic of hindsight. Back in 1994, Republicans were at least as divided as Democrats are now, if not more so…As for unity of message, the now-revered Contract with America didn’t make its debut until just 6 weeks before the election.” She goes on to say that “On virtually all of the major slips this White House has made in the past year, there have been unnoticed Democrats putting down the banana peels.” She gives as an example the Dubai port deal. “If you read the press coverage of the story, you would have thought the issue surfaced on its own. In fact, however, the story was a little grenade rolled into the White House bunker by Sen. Chuck Schumer…who had been tipped off by a source in the shipping industry.” After it became a story, the President went on TV and asked the American people if they really thought he would support any deal that would pose a threat to our country. And Americans answered with a collective, “Yeah.”
When someone starts griping to you, remind them we are winning and ask them to think of one good idea the Republicans have come up with. But if you just have to vent, pick a griping buddy and do it late at night or early in the morning when you are not working on winning.
Let me end with this. On Memorial Day, there was a Washington Post political cartoon by Tom Toles reprinted in the Chicago Sun-Times. It shows an old military veteran reading a newspaper with the banner headline that reads Security Bungle, and articles including Domestic Spying, Data Lost, Official Lying, America Loses Its Friends, and Inequality Growing. The Veteran is saying, “My country’s identity has been stolen.” I love this country. I know that what motivates you to be here at this conference, and to do what you do back home is a love of our country and its promise of justice and freedom, unfulfilled though it may be. This is a room full of patriots – true patriots, the real patriots. I DO feel as if our American identity has been stolen, but I believe that working with you we can, beginning in a mere 5 months, Take Back America.
I’m speechless. The Dems are openly talking about the stolen 2004 election.
Have I missed something?
Where is the commitment to bring back the troops?
To cut funding for war?
Until the war is stopped we cannot do any of the other things we so desperately need to do
DEAR ABACUS, ET AL.:
We all have our most important issue, and of course the Iraq/Afghan/Iran? war(s) are on most folks’ short list.
But this is just the sort of quibbling she is warning against. There is more to be gained by simply adding your favorite issue without sniping over which issue should be first. (By the way, mine is 9/11 as an inside job, but I realize that’s a really hard battle to get that one to the front. For the moment, I’ll make do with this: the Dems on their worst day are still better than the current Republican on their best day.
Let’s stick together, focus on the main theme of regime change, then figure out which policy changes get considered first.
Without throwing the current regime out of power, NONE of the policy debates matter.
Yay Jan! I noticed her when the challenge to the
Ohio electors was happening on Jan 6, 2005. She gave
an impressive speech about the Ohio irregularities.
Hi Disgustedandamused…
Not to argue with you; it’s just that I’m not sure about this. If Dems are to win they have to present convincing plan. I’m saying that if there’s no plan to shut down war there’re no assets to do anything else.
And values and morality are about what comes first. If Dems don’t stand against horrific losses of our own troops and slaughter of Iraqis what is important?
Isn’t that a bullet the Rs can’t dodge?
And if Dems won’t, what difference does it make if Rs win?
I would be glad to see how to escape this dilemma.
Well, BRAVA, Rep. Jan Schakowsky!!
It took a Kennedy to convince them, I guess…
Jan – The DCCC under Emanuel IS NOT CAPABLE of handling this massive issue on its own. The DNC needs to be front and center, as do the Senators, in close consultation with all the citizen experts out there like Brad, Bev Harris et al, the trail-blazing Debra Bowen in CA, and so many others. Funding and volunteer coordination are probably the biggest unmet needs (other than the need for access to the equipment and software counting our votes, and to the results of past elections that are being withheld from the public). Lawsuits are most likely going to be needed (before elections in many cases). A coordinated special task force of the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC and perhaps state governors seems like the way to approach it. This is not a short-term issue. Identifying the problems is crucial to identifying and enacting solutions that will succeed over the long term.
TARGET your attention (as I believe you are suggesting). There are only certain states with competitive races this fall. Narrow your focus down to those states and to any jurisdictions where public officials are welcoming attention at this time, for starters. New England is far less of a concern than most of the nation, because it is not county-run. Local cities and towns conduct their own elections, and are therefore much more accountable to the citizens than the county systems elsewhere in the country.
BEST of luck.
Of course, I skipped right over one of the biggest problems of all, I guess because I figure the creators of the problem – which is the “HAVA” law – are hardly the ones to ask to start fixing it, with its problems unresearched and still developing and ongoing.
However, obtaining at least a significant DELAY in implementing HAVA’s reckless and extremely expensive and ineffective mandates would certainly be a worthwhile effort in the House and Senate (Steny Hoyer and Chris Dodd should lead the way out of the HAVA swamp, as they led the way in…).
Second, BACK-UP PLANS for this fall should be arranged by the Democrats, in the event that the electronic vote-counting trainwreck gains a real head of steam, as expected and predicted. Hand-counted paper ballot back-up systems and arrangements [available paper vendors/printers, ballot box providers, trainers, etc.] provided by, or coordinated by, the DNC et al would be a VERY worthwhile investment of funds, and likely a huge help to election jurisdictions all across the country (legalities may complicate this assistance, of course – but that’s why action now is so important to help sort out what can and can’t be done).
Shakowsky has two big problems:
First, as Abacus #2 points out, the Iraq War goes unmentioned. Why?? It is the NUMBER ONE ISSUE with American voters! Do the Dems actually think they’re going to retake the Congress without opposing the war?
Second, she seems to think that if we all just watch those machines carefully, the vote totals will reflect the will of the people. Earth to Shakowsky, the outcomes are being decided either IN THE SOFTWARE or by INTERNET CONNECTION. There is no other possible way that totals were shifted to Bush by 3-5% in nearly every state in the Union. (Not Oregon, in which Bush lost ground from 2000 to 2004–because we vote by mail here.) There is this MONSTER in the room, and because it is invisible everybody ignores it. Reminds me of the joke, how do you know when there’s an elephant under your bed? Answer: the ceiling is very close.
Well,.. that was a breath of fresh air.
Thank You,.. I needed that.
The DCCC better do a “Dean Scream”, concerning the voting machines, or I’m not going to give them any notice! The activists have done their work, now it’s your turn!
The Republikan attack machine (IRI) is licking its chops right about now
test
The Dems need to start openly blaming the media for covering up stories for the GOP.
The MSM has been kow-towed by the GOP for being “liberal” and so they now get the kind of reporting they want. The Dems need to start calling the media on this.
In particular, no more “he said-he said” reporting, a la CNN. CNN has abandoned investigative journalism for merely showing quotes from both sides. This has allowed the GOP equal credibility on every issue. (There aren’t two equal sides when it comes to learning why our glaciers are rapidly disappearing.)
The Dems need to be vocal about this. It works. It sure as hell worked for the conservatives these past 20 years…
For Abacus: I respectfully disagree with you. You place the Iraq war ahead of election fraud as a priority. In fact, if the 2004 election had not been stolen, we never would have invaded Iraq in the first place.
Election fraud precedes EVERY OTHER ISSUE. Thank you, Jan Schakowsky, for stepping up to the plate. You represent an important state, electorally and politically, and I can’t wait to hear how your fellow Illinois Democrats Barack (“Get real, there was fraud on both sides”) Obama and Richard Durbin respond.
It’s 2006. We’re less than five months away from another election. The time to take steps to avoid another repeat performance was in November of 2000. Not soon. A long freakin’ time ago!!!
What the hell do we have to do to wake you people up, Ms. Schakowsky?!!! Why don’t you take your own goddam elections seriously?!! We do. We have to. It’s a matter of life and death for us. Literally!
RLM #14
I wonder if Obama has an answer for what he seems to urge. That is, how can two parties steal one election?
No, only one party can steal an election. And guess what Obama, it will be the party that won the election dunce.
For All Dems With Head In Sand
The 2004 election, if stolen, could only have been stolen by the party that “won”. DUH!
Has anyone noticed that Schakowsky in her dicta indicates that the election was stolen, yet also elaborates on how the dems lost it?
Hey, reality check, it can not be both ways. Either the dems lost or it was stolen, not both meatheads.
That said, stop talking about the republican Contract With America, and start telling the truth about the republican dictatorship’s BREACH OF CONTRACT!!!
I’m tempted to say “too f$#@ing little, too f%$#ing late” but I guess we have to take these late bandwagon jumpers on board or we don’t have a chance.
But, the problem is that people like Schakowsky are either talking very bad advice from idiots on their staff or taking very bad advice from the DCCC or DLC. Either way, the advice they are getting is not going to change any time soon unless they fire the idiots that advised them (unlikely) or stop taking advice from the Dem consultants and DCCC/DLC (also unlikely, as money guarantees access and these pols are sluts (both the men AND women) for the money), so I don’t see how anything will change.
My Rep (Blumenauer) said today on radio that the people are getting sick of the Republican shenanigans and that Blackwell and Harris will both lose. He actually said “Blackwell is going to lose.” They clearly don’t understand how bad it is.
I would bet my retirement (essentially, I am) that Blackwell will win by 51% to 49% NO MATTER HOW FAR BEHIND HE IS IN THE POLLS OR EXIT POLLS.
Maybe on November 8, 2006, when it is too late, the Democrats will realize what has happened. That will be WAY too late.
Charlie L
Portland, OR
Well I am encouraged…the DCCC is gonna do something..the Dems are gonna do something…will they start with the peculiarities and broken election laws in California’s 50th district..?
After all the criminal activity of Congress and the Administration, the damn SCOTUS..now, when its to damn late to stop or change anything…the Dems are gonna save us all…I won’t hold my breath.
As for stopping the war or war funding first…if the Dems had the balls to go after a stolen election, and then we find out that the POTUS is not really the POTUS…the war would end immediatley and everyone involved in the run up, the lies, the theft, would either be executed or at least in prison for the rest of their life…what do I believe? I believe there are many a Democrat who are just waiting for their chance to hold the purse, and profit from this “war”…They are all hot about the 1.4 billion stolen in New Orleans..(stolen by the very people who paid for that money, in taxes, in the first place) but lets all just forget about the 9 billion lost in Iraq..or the 21 billion lost inside the Pentagon..the government thinks once they steal taxes from us..it no longer belongs to the people..it belongs to the government and they can do what they please with it..and we do not have the right to ask “where did it go?”
The problem is that Schakowsky & others here on BradBlog, want to give Democrats a free pass to get elected based on the fact that they are not the Republicans.
We are supposed to ignore that the Democrats have failed to stand up to the Republicans in any effective way & therefore, can only be considered a part of the problem, not a solution.
The Dems have not earned our votes. Therefore, the only behavior we can expect from them, if elected, is more of the same bad policies & corruption that we’ve gotten from the Republicans.
The Democratic party has not functioned as an opposing party. They have not done their job. They ARE truly half of this country’s problem.
The Democrats are asking us to vote for them & give them their turn at ripping us off like the Republicans have done for years.
I’m sorry to have to point it out & burst some people’s bubbles, but it’s true!
If the Democrats get majority, nothing will change except that the Democrats will get their hands on most of the spoils, instead of the Republicans.
If we are foolish enough to let the Democrats get elected without calling them to task, demanding that they admit what is wrong, commit to changing it & do something concrete first–WE, the American People, will again, be the losers.
Don’t be manipulated. ANYONE would love to get elected even though they’ve done a lousy job.
They think if they scare enough people, they can do it.
The ONLY answer to our country’s problems is to end the massive corruption & reform our government so that corporations can’t run it anymore.
I say—The ONLY answer to our country’s problems is to end the massive corruption & reform our government.
Can you hear?
Just electing the Dems is not going to do it.
Right now they really really really want to get elected. It’s the perfect time to manipulate THEM for a change. We need to push reform & force Dems to EARN our votes by dealing with the ‘elephant in the living room’. We have to bring up the problems & DEMAND they promote a real plan for reform.
We’d be fools to give our votes to ANYONE that doesn’t EARN it!
Demand performance & get it.
Charlene #20
Two questions.
1) So things were no different in the Clinton years? (No government surplus? Nothing better? No vetoes?)
2) What party do you suggest and how will they get elected and take the majority in congress so congress stops being a rubber stamp?
#21 Dredd
1. It’s true Clinton wasen’t AS BAD as Bush. (Not that he was good) BUT, we are not in “the Clinton years” now.
We must deal with the Democratic party as it has shown itself to be in the last few years. It has barely made a peep about all the scandalous, horrible things Bush has done. There’s no way to absolve them of that mortal sin now nor in our nation’s history books in the future.
And now, they are so dumb/afraid they came out & said they will not impeach if they get majority!
After Nixon resigned rather than be voted out of office following his impeachment, the DEMOCRATS ALL GOT IN WITH A LANDSLIDE.
So what the hell is their excuse not to impeach now?
Except that they are in cahoots with Rep.
(Besides they may never get elected again no matter what they do because of the e-vote scandal.)
It may be 51% Rep & 49% Dem on every election forever.) Another reason they MUST bring reform!
I wish it were true that if we just voted Dems in, it would all be better.
And I AM for voting Dems in–but NOT until we use their desire to get elected to force them to do what they should have been doing all along–reforming government! We’ve got em between a rock & a hard place now. After they get elected, there will be no motivatiion at all to reform.
We WILL vote Dems in & it WILL all be better, AFTER we force them to admit all the god awful corruption & war profiteering going on etc etc & force them to address it with REAL reforms, sweeping reforms, election reforms. End the war. Impeachment is imperative. No SOB in either party should get away with trashing the Constitution & dumping on the People! Bush & Cheney need to FEEL the Will of the People right up their fat asses, just like we have been feeling the result of all the laws they passed benefiting only their fat cat cronies.
Why are you against making Dems produce if they want to get majority? What is wrong with that?
2. I don’t suggest another party.
Just your question seems to admit even YOU don’t believe Dems will make any reforms or right any wrongs–so we’ll need another party.
Just because Dems did not have majority, does not mean they could not have done a heck of a lot more than they did! Don’t tell me they couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have majority! They could have talked about it all the time. They could have backed each other up in total when Conyers or Feingold introduced legislation. They could have made sure all the ugliness was out there for the People to see & hear about all the time. They didn’t.
(Which begs the question, How can they claim they could not do anything because no majority, then announce in the next breath they won’t impeach IF THEY DO GET MAJORITY?) Geesh.
They should run on a promise of impeaching the 2 criminals who are driving up gas prices on us, after Bush promised the war would not drive up gas prices etc etc, ending the war–all the bad stuff. Get the people whipped up & mad & ride the wave to victory. Instead, the meek little mouse party announced, “We won’t impeach”. I have to say, that was really dumb.
They’ve sent out Democrats arguing for just voting them in because they are not Republicans.(!) Give me a break. THAT right there shows they do not intend to make any reforms.
If there were another party that had enough strength to get elected–I would gladly support them–IF they laid out a reform strategy that made sense.
We need anyone as President who will bring reform.
Otherwise, it’s business as usual.
Looks like the establishment Dems have found a way to save face as they join the angry and growing chorus of disbelief in the GOP Brownshirt election theft tactics in CA-50. Note that the congresswoman mouthpiece cites the Kennedy article in Rolling Stone, an admission by the DCCC that they can no longer duck the nationwide voting fraud scandals and hope people will forget. They’re caught because a mass-media publication has trained a spotlight on the issue and they have to say something credible just to stay relevant. Given that machine Dems have had 6 years to take action about the 2000 Florida fiasco, and ample time to expose the 2002 and 2004 debacles for what they were–outright vote theft and fraud–I don’t give them points for commenting outspokenly about Ohio 2004 so late in the game. Now that we’ve heard/read what they have to say, let’s watch what they actually do….
Better late than never. This story is encouraging.
It seems the congressional Dems only notice a problem when it’s their election on the line.
And, since when does a Congresswoman notice there’s a problem when a Kennedy writes about it, but doesn’t notice for 5 years when BradBlog and Congressman Conyers wrote a book about the Ohio problems.
It’s about f’ing time the Dem party did something instead of ignoring the issue and leaving it to the sparse public who read BradBlog and the like and who aren’t terribly well organized or funded.
Yes, as you might guess, I’m a bit upset. But, still, better late than never. Go get ’em and all that…
Thanks to all; a good thread.
For Disgustedandamused # 3: “Without throwing the current regime out of power, NONE of the policy debates matter”
That’s ok as far as it goes. But it seems to me that the Dems must take the high ground; the war is immoral, illegal, … Otherwise I feel they don’t win and we don’t get to rank policy changes
Unirealist #8 seems to be with me…war “…is the NUMBER ONE ISSUE with American voters! Do the Dems actually think they’re going to retake the Congress without opposing the war?”
Robert Lockwood Mills # 14 points out that if we had clean elections in 2000 and 2004 we’d not be in this horror. Too true; and it isn’t clear that 2006 and 2008 will be on the level either. And, btw, I’ve spent a big chunk of my time since 2000 backing up Dill, Bev Harris and the other voting integrity people; don’t have to convince me this is high on any list. But, again, won’t Dems ducking the war make them seem gutless?
For Abacus: I think the Democrats are gutless for ducking BOTH the war in Iraq (a few notable exceptions here) AND election fraud (Boxer and Conyers are the exceptions among prominent Democrats).
But election fraud precedes Iraq and everything else. If you know you can steal an election (first you have to be reasonably close, so it doesn’t look absurd), then you can plan things like Iraq far in advance. You can pack courts, eliminate civil liberties, spy on people, conduct secret energy conferences that favor certain companies…you can do anything you want. If you’re afraid of being voted out, you might fear the legal consequences of what you do.
It is not like the republican dictatorship is anti-war and really concerned about the voting machines.
Since the republican dictatorship has the power, control and majority vote on each and every committee in congress, the white house, all the cabinet positions, heads of agencies, why should blame and castigation fall upon democrats?
Why not blame those in power (who stole the election), the republican dictatorship, for exercising that power in a manner inconsistent with American values?
The only solution is a mini-revolution where the people, and whatever representatives haven’t joined the fascists yet, demand, DEMAND, that we use paper ballots that are hand counted in front of any citizen who wants to watch. The numbers are then posted publicly at the polling place and any group or individual can go around to as many polling places as they want to COUNT THE VOTE TOTALS THEMSELVES.
Any thing else is some form or other of election theft.
Period.
VERY WORKABLE PLAN FOR IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF “PAPER BALLOTS, HAND COUNTED” FOR FEDERAL ELECTIONS THIS FALL. IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE PEOPLE, ALL IT TAKES IS NON-FASCISTS GETTING ACTIVE.
Prepared by Ellen Theisen; http://www.votersunite.org Page 1 of 1
Proposed Federal Legislation Text
(1) All votes for Federal offices “” President, Vice President, U.S. Senators, and U.S. Representatives “”
shall be cast on paper ballots for the November 2004 general election.
(2) All such votes cast on November 2, 2004 shall be hand counted in public view from the original
ballots at the polling places where the votes were cast, and the manual count shall constitute the
official count of the votes.
(3) Hand-counted, polling place totals for all Federal offices shall be prominently posted at the polling
places before the ballots are transported to the central facility.
(4) In any jurisdiction where votes for Federal office are cast on punch card or optical scan ballots and
also counted by machine, the machine totals for Federal offices shall also be prominently posted at
the location where the votes are machine-counted.
(5) All absentee votes and early voting votes for Federal offices shall be cast on paper and hand counted
in public view from the original ballots at a predetermined, publicly-announced place and time, and
the totals shall be prominently posted at the central election office immediately on completion of the
counting.
(6) Precinct results shall be tallied manually or using off-the-shelf products, such as calculators or
standard spreadsheets.
Implementing Hand Counted Paper Ballots for 2004 Federal Races
The EAC is warning election officials to prepare for recounts, and both parties are preparing to challenge
election outcomes. These burdens born by the states after the election could be significantly reduced by
spending the minimal time and money before and during the election to implement this proposal.
What votes would be counted by hand?
Only the votes for President, Vice President, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Representative would be
counted by hand. This would entail counting three races in each precinct of states where a
Senator is running for re-election, two races in each precinct of other states.
How would the federal paper ballots be provided in punch card and optical scan counties?
Standard ballots used for machine counting would also be used for hand counting.
How would they be provided in lever and DRE (paperless electronic voting machine) counties?
The two or three federal races would simply not be included on lever machines. The federal races
would be removed from the electronic ballot definitions of DRE machines. Changes to electronic
ballots can be done with little effort on short notice at the county level. In the recent 2004 Georgia
primary, an error printed on absentee ballots was corrected on the electronic ballot shortly before
early voting began.
The two or three federal races would be printed on paper ballots. In DRE counties, it is likely that
the ballots will already be designed and residing in the computer. Since the ballots would not be
scanned, the text would not have to be carefully aligned and could be printed on any paper
allowed by state law. In many states, ballots could be printed on 8-1/2 x 11 white paper at any
local printer for less than 10 cents per ballot.
Voters would be assigned to a lever or DRE machine and would also be given a paper ballot for
federal races. The ballot might be clipped to a clipboard which has a pencil attached, so the voter
could easily mark the ballot in the privacy of the standard voting booth.
Prepared by Ellen Theisen; http://www.votersunite.org Page 2 of 2
Note: Combining electronic and paper ballots in the same election has been done successfully in
the past. In Pompano Beach, Florida in March 2004, one issue was on a paper ballot, the rest of
the races were on the electronic voting machines. According to a Travis County, Texas election
judge, May Schmidt, paper and electronic ballots have also been combined in several elections
she conducted. In all cases, neither voters nor poll workers found it confusing.
How would the paper ballots be hand counted?
At the polling places, poll workers would tally the two or three federal votes by hand. Templates
could easily be made that would help the readers focus on the races to be counted, hiding the
others from view. Estimates obtained from experienced counters for the time required to count
two to three votes on 500 ballots vary from two hours to four hours.
In states that allow it, such as Idaho and Texas, the tallying process would start before the polls
close and be completed by the sequestered counters shortly after the polls close. In other states,
the votes would be tallied by hand during the two to four hours after the polls close.
Precinct results would be prominently posted at the polling sites. A second copy would be taken
to the central tabulating facility. Publicizing the results before the ballots were transported to the
central office would reduce paper ballot fraud significantly. Precinct results would be used to
tabulate the results outside any election management system provided by vendors, in order to
provide full transparency and guard against errors and vulnerabilities in those systems.
Standards detailing what constitutes a valid paper-ballot vote are available from the Secretary of
State’s office in states that use hand-counted paper ballots in some counties. Handbooks
explaining the hand-tallying process are also available. States without such standards and
procedures in place could easily obtain appropriate guidelines from sister states.
How much time would be required to prepare for this change?
Ballot printing. Federal paper ballots could be printed by the DRE and lever counties in less than
two weeks. Some printers require only a week lead time, less for an important rush job.
Ballot certification. In DRE and lever counties, county officials would need to design the ballots
and, in some states, get them certified. Since the ballots would be simple, this could be
accomplished very quickly. DRE counties could use the computerized templates they have
already prepared for the election, including rotation and language differences, to complete the
ballot designs with little notice.
Poll worker training. Election officials we have consulted declare that training poll workers to
hand count ballots is very easy and quick. The training could easily be included as part of the
standard training, or it could be accomplished in a brief additional training session before the
election.
Additional poll workers. In some counties, additional poll workers might be required. Much of
the difficulty of recruiting poll workers is caused by the use of high-tech equipment. Since it
requires no technical knowledge to count paper ballots, recruitment would be much simpler.
Increasing numbers of citizens are expressing interest in participating in the election process, and
they could be easily recruited to count paper ballots.
Voter education. Virtually no voter education would be required. Every citizen who has taken a
test in school knows how to mark their choice on a piece of paper. The only education needed
could be done in minutes at the precinct by the poll workers when they hand the voter the paper
ballot.
Overall estimate. These changes could be implemented in two weeks, possibly less. Since early
voting begins on DREs in mid-October in three states, if the law were in place by October 1 (as
late as October 7 if necessary), this is feasible.
Prepared by Ellen Theisen; http://www.votersunite.org Page 2 of 2
Note: Combining electronic and paper ballots in the same election has been done successfully in
the past. In Pompano Beach, Florida in March 2004, one issue was on a paper ballot, the rest of
the races were on the electronic voting machines. According to a Travis County, Texas election
judge, May Schmidt, paper and electronic ballots have also been combined in several elections
she conducted. In all cases, neither voters nor poll workers found it confusing.
How would the paper ballots be hand counted?
At the polling places, poll workers would tally the two or three federal votes by hand. Templates
could easily be made that would help the readers focus on the races to be counted, hiding the
others from view. Estimates obtained from experienced counters for the time required to count
two to three votes on 500 ballots vary from two hours to four hours.
In states that allow it, such as Idaho and Texas, the tallying process would start before the polls
close and be completed by the sequestered counters shortly after the polls close. In other states,
the votes would be tallied by hand during the two to four hours after the polls close.
Precinct results would be prominently posted at the polling sites. A second copy would be taken
to the central tabulating facility. Publicizing the results before the ballots were transported to the
central office would reduce paper ballot fraud significantly. Precinct results would be used to
tabulate the results outside any election management system provided by vendors, in order to
provide full transparency and guard against errors and vulnerabilities in those systems.
Standards detailing what constitutes a valid paper-ballot vote are available from the Secretary of
State’s office in states that use hand-counted paper ballots in some counties. Handbooks
explaining the hand-tallying process are also available. States without such standards and
procedures in place could easily obtain appropriate guidelines from sister states.
How much time would be required to prepare for this change?
Ballot printing. Federal paper ballots could be printed by the DRE and lever counties in less than
two weeks. Some printers require only a week lead time, less for an important rush job.
Ballot certification. In DRE and lever counties, county officials would need to design the ballots
and, in some states, get them certified. Since the ballots would be simple, this could be
accomplished very quickly. DRE counties could use the computerized templates they have
already prepared for the election, including rotation and language differences, to complete the
ballot designs with little notice.
Poll worker training. Election officials we have consulted declare that training poll workers to
hand count ballots is very easy and quick. The training could easily be included as part of the
standard training, or it could be accomplished in a brief additional training session before the
election.
Additional poll workers. In some counties, additional poll workers might be required. Much of
the difficulty of recruiting poll workers is caused by the use of high-tech equipment. Since it
requires no technical knowledge to count paper ballots, recruitment would be much simpler.
Increasing numbers of citizens are expressing interest in participating in the election process, and
they could be easily recruited to count paper ballots.
Voter education. Virtually no voter education would be required. Every citizen who has taken a
test in school knows how to mark their choice on a piece of paper. The only education needed
could be done in minutes at the precinct by the poll workers when they hand the voter the paper
ballot.
Overall estimate. These changes could be implemented in two weeks, possibly less. Since early
voting begins on DREs in mid-October in three states, if the law were in place by October 1 (as
late as October 7 if necessary), this is feasible.
Take the quote marks off of ‘Apologizes’. The statement should read as a fact since she indeed said she was apologizing. When quotes are used but the quotation not explicitly made the quote mark reads like you’re paraphrasing and that’s not the case here.
NOTE: U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky is a founding member of the Congressional Out of Iraq Caucus. She is not unaware of the “war” (i.e. the “occupation”) She chose her battle, in this case: election fraud. She deserves full credit for joining John Conyers, Robert Wexler and a handful of other Congresspeople in further breaking the silence.
Maybe this is elementary for most of you, but I just realized why the Dems don’t complain about stolen elections.
It’s because the big corporations give them $ too.
They don’t want to incur the wrath of big $–cause they may never get more, or they could be killed politically or possibly, for real.
That could be why they came out & lamely said they will not impeach even if they get a majority–because big $ doesn’t want their homeboys in jail & pressured Dems into it–even though giving that announcement was like falling on their own sword.
Another reason the People must DEMAND REFORM!
If it comes from the ground up, Dems can say to big $, “Well, we have to satisfy the people because they’re up in arms through no fault of our own”.
We need citizens to get ‘up in arms’ & push!
It’s twisted, but it makes sense.
O’Reilly the right wing, truth challenged, neoCon comes out in support for Lieberman (D-CT).
That is clearly evidence for something.
I am not sure if it is just in the primary, or that he supports a democrat over a republican in November.
That is about as bad as preznit blush being for a candidate …
I am for Lieberman’s opponent in the primary.
The President stole the election and become
war criminal. 9/11 attack was also an inside job.
This is the world we live in. We need to asses
the situation before we can fix it.
Just an example of another worthless idiot democrat. News flash for you. We do not need 2 republican parties which is what we have now.
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE IDIOT… Its definetly an election year thats for sure. I’m not too sure about voting in the Dems either. If we do, we’ll have another 40 million illegals here in 10 years. I’m voting independent or green for now on no matter what. Our biggest worry in America right now is immigration.. ALL of it must be stopped to keep our population low. Its not a coincidence that our standard of living is dropping with an increase in population..
I wish we could interview Jan Schakowsky. Her apology is welcome, obviously, but it begs the question, “Why wouldn’t a member of Congress have taken allegations of fraud seriously, especially considering what had happened four years earlier?”
Did she assume 57,000 people called an 800-number in the first 48 hours after the polls closed in 2004 to make false claims of fraud? Did she think, as my congressman Chris Shays thought, that all the furor was merely “political?” Did she assume that because the mainstream media and the DNC ignored the problem, it didn’t exist? Did she think it was O.K. for someone to administer an election process while simultaneously working as a campaign chairman for one of the candidates, or for all the election machinery to be furnished by companies with direct ties to one party?
All of these problems were known to Jan Schakowsky and to every member of Congress on Election Day, 2004. Glad she’s on board the freedom train at last, but one final question…”What’s keeping your colleagues on Capitol Hill from making the same apology you made?”
While I’m not the least bit shocked that the Bush election stealers took their illegal election stealing to Ohio in 2004, I’m very concerned that somehow the projection based on a statistical analysis for 2004 is carrying more weight than what happened in Florida in 2000. No such projection based on a statistical analysis is needed to prove that Bush stole Al Gore’s victory in Florida in 2000. The actual ballots along with the paper trail that existed in Florida in 2000 prove that the 2000 election was stolen beyond all resonable doubt. What did the democrats do while Al Gore was fighting to have the uncounted Florida votes counted as Florida law clearly required in 2000? NOTHING! They hid in their cushy, ivory, Washington towers. John Kerry was AWOL in 2000 and then he folded faster than a piece of paper on a windy day in 2004. While what happened in Ohio in 2004 is serious, it doesn’t overshadow what happened in Florida in 2000. Florida in 2000 is when democracy in America died. The democrats betrayal of Al Gore in 2000 will go down as the greatest betrayal in the history of our country. We must never forget what happened in Florida in 2000.
Don’t vote for any party, they are all controlled by the banksters in London England, Rothschilds, Windsors, Rockerfellers in America and others. If no one votes then the illusion of democracy will be exposed for all to see. And what will we see? DICTATORSHIP AND BRUTE FORCE IN OUR FACE. How have people dealt with dictators in the past? Well that’s what’s left for us to do, the longer we wait the harder it will be. To them we are all Iraqis and Palestinians.
1) Dems/Repubs are two heads on one monster. FIRE ALL INCUMBENTS OF EITHER PARTY!!! Keep the gov’t structure, but FIRE ALL OF ITS PARTICIPANTS. That is a Revolution we can live with.
2) Investigate, try, convict and EXECUTE the traitors who stole the election, don’t just go “oh, gee guess it was stolen, shuckie shucks” YOU JUST PROVE YOUR COMPLICITY!!!
3) WRITE IN **ALL** VOTES, even if your choice is actually on the ballot. Force a handcount with your mighty pen!
HEh #36
You bring up an interesting hypothesis: there are two republican parties (because they do not all agree).
So let me say that by that criteria there are two democratic parties too.
But that begs the question, if you do not agree with each and every position a political party has, can you still be a member of that party?
I think the parties will say “yes”, however, if we remember recent history the democratic party has allowed far more diversity than the republican party has allowed.
The MSM is always preaching about the “division” in the democratic party, and the democratic party has said that is “diversity” not “division”.
In principle I like the tolerance of diversity and I think the democratic party practices it more than the republican party does.
Mark #37
Your position is the latest republican talking point because that is the way they want it.
Congressional corruption and rubber stamp mentality is not something they want to talk about.
The subject matter of this thread, and what RLM #14 says about it, indicates better understanding of the issue. But he has not indicated why he thinks the dems are more at fault for stolen elections than the ones who stole the election are.
Think about it.
Can anybody really be dumb enough to believe that if the Democratic faction of the Corporation Party retakes Congress, that the big picture will really change? Oh, sure, they MIGHT consider getting revenge for Bubba by impeaching Dubya, even though those two members of the “opposition” party, Pelosi and Reid, the House and Senate minority leaders, have pooh-poohed the idea. The Democrats have to promote their agenda, they say. Well, if anybody out there knows what in hell their agenda is, let me know, would you?
The only reason that the GOP took control of Congress was because after forty years of blatant corruption out of the Democrats, people had had enough. So now, they’re set to possibly retake Congress? Well, let’s throw a f***ing party! I’m absolutely certain that their first move will be to repeal the PATRIOT Act. After all, you can tell that there’s really a big difference between these “two” parties. You can tell because right after the GOP took control in 1994, they repealed all of the legislation passed by Democrat majorities that they spent all that time denouncing.
What’s that? They didn’t? Not one single, solitary bit of it? Really? Well, maybe they didn’t, but the Democrats will certainly repeal the PATRIOT Act. What’s that? No, they won’t? Every one of them except one voted for it without even having read it? They’ve continued to vote to fund the ongoing war crimes in the Middle East? They, with one exception, illegally and unconstitutionally voted to delegate “authority” to a fundamentalist loon to unilaterally wage war against anybody who refuses to allow their country to be turned into a subsidiary of Pepsi? They won’t even impeach Bush? Why, you say? Because he could easily turn around and say, “Hey, maybe I’m an idiot and a warmonger, but I couldn’t have done any of it without the continual assistance of those buddies of mine, the Democrats, as they completely shat on their oaths of office and refused to exercise their responsibility of oversight. Neener, neener, neener.”
All of you people out there who are waving your pom-poms for the Democrats. What’s it like to be such f***ing stupid dumbasses, anyway??
I *HATE* most Republicans, but c’mon, that doesn’t automatically make Democrats heroes. Ever since the Bush team pulled their presidential coup, the Democrats in Congress have shown what spineless weasels they really are. BARELY *ANY* Democrats have been standing up to the Bush regime. They let him trample our Constitution, then vote to give themselves another pay-raise. Democracy?!
All these politicans care about is getting elected–if they think that a Republican mask will do the trick, they’ll use that mask; if they think a Democrat mask looks more believable, they’ll use that one. All their talk is just talk–hot air, BS, lies.
Screw the Democrats. Time to start a nation-wide push for strong alternatives to this Left/Right puppet show. Big Business pulls the strings of both, and dumbed-down America swallows.
My question #3, why wouldn’t 9-11 as an inside job be number one. After all, 3000 americans died, no one held accountable? It should be #1. Because the people who did it, are traitors, and there are obviously a lot of them. Why not number # 1. what about the shares brought days before 9-11, what about the insurance policies, what about building 7, what about the steel to china. Think of the amount of people who must have been involved etc,etc,etc..How can the country survive with all of these murderous traitor going unpunished.
We need to know the name and address of every individual who has anything to do with voting machines. We need to know where these traitor stay. All of them top to bottom. They are traitors.
Either we stop these machines, are we’re finished pure and simple. Sounds futuristic, doesn’t it?
Dredd, I never said or implied that Democrats are more at fault than Republicans for stolen elections. That’s simply not true.
I have said that Democrats are responsible for leading the fight against stolen elections, in the same sense that law enforcement is responsible for fighting organized crime. Democrats have failed miserably in this regard.
If law-abiding people are being terrorized by crime, and nothing is done about it, then the people who do nothing about it are the right ones to blame. Criminals are criminals…it’s as futile to blame them for crime as it is to blame a dog for barking. If we don’t like barking dogs, we go after their owners. And if we don’t like stolen elections, we must go after the people in the best position to handle the problem.
As the minority party in a two-party system (the underlying problem), Democrats are in the best position. And frankly, Dredd, they’ve been worthless…along with the corporate-controlled media.
Expecting America’s problems to be solved by a Democrat or Republican is like expecting to fix the evils of Nazi Germany by joining the SS.
Governor Wallace must be commended for noting that, “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference” between Republicans and Democrats. They both abuse power and only complain when they don’t wield the power reigns. They both say nothing about an illegal war, they both sit o ntheir hands as Amazon bans books like “America Deceived” by E.A. Blayre III, they both watch as protestors are caged. No difference.
Vote a thrid party and support indy media.
Last link (before the Dems and Repubs decide to pull it off Google Books):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookst...=0-595-38523-0
For Michael Linder: The problem is the two-party system itself. The party out of power knows it has no third party to contend with, so it can go along to get along until the party in power becomes so corrupt that people want to get rid of it. Meanwhile, it enjoys the same money inflows as before (note that Democrats are now receiving more corporate $$$ than Republicans).
If there were a legitimate third party to answer to, the minority party would have to defend itself against accusations that it hasn’t been tough enough on the majority. Right now these accusations, vis a vis election fraud, come from bloggers, not “loyal Democrats,” and fall on deaf ears (with an occasional exception like Jan Schakowsky).
Democrats should simply have walked out of the House chamber rather than vote on that silly non-binding resolution in favor of staying the course in Iraq. Voting in favor of it was unconscionable, and voting against it (while honorable) will be used as a cudgel against the candidate in November. If there were a third party to hold both parties accountable, I doubt the stupid thing would ever have been brought out.
Political parties are a bit like labor unions, which have long since fallen out of favor. They claim to represent the interests of their members, but what they really represent is $$$$ and power; it took the American public a long time to turn against organized labor, but it finally did when it realized labor leaders were mostly interested in their own agendas and took the Democratic party for granted. A healthy third party might have called for labor reforms that would have allowed unions to prosper, but the public had only a choice between the New Deal/pro-labor Democratic approach and the anti-labor Reagan approach.
#51 RLM
(I’m past the spat, this is just normal conversation.)
The Republicans have been trying to beat unions by repealing Davis-Bacon for a long time, because they don’t want the rich business owners to have to pay decent wages.
The American public didn’t turn against organized labor, the American public IS organized labor.
It’s true there’s a lot of corruption at the top AND at the middle & the bottom of anywhere you look today.
For instance, we can’t find 3 honest officials to referee a kid’s basketball tournament out here in rural America anymore.
What hope can there be for a Union to find them?
Anyway, some unions are better than others. My husband has been a member of the I.U.O.E.U. (International Union of Operating Engineers) for over 30 years & it hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been a very good thing overall. They do stand by their members & they do get good wages for them & benefits too.
We can’t complain.
I wasn’t arguing the merits of labor unions, Charlene. I don’t doubt that a big part of the Republican agenda since 1980 has been to undermine them, both to reward their friends in corporate management who have to deal with unions, and to reduce their power as a special interest group.
But $$$$ poisons the well, just as it has done with political parties. That’s the equation I was going for. Unions started out as volunteer/help organizations that looked out for worker’s interests. Once they grew and created a treasury, they became corrupt, and the next thing you knew workers’ retirement funds were diverted to organized crime projects. Their financial contributions compromised politicians (usually Democrats), who then sought them out for endorsements at the next election, at which point they demanded new quid pro quos in return. All the money didn’t help workers that much (they could still be fired), but it fattened the coffers of the leaders and gave them ever-increasing power (Walter Reuther might have been an exception).
Political parties are the same; they claim to represent their ideological disciples, but they really don’t. They accumulate money from business and the public, but only businesses benefit in return because they can afford lobbyists. The public gets screwed, and why it continues to pay in is hard to fathom. Traditional Republicans who want fiscal discipline aren’t represented by the current administration, and Democrats who want honest elections and an end to the war in Iraq get solicitations from Hillary Clinton, who takes their money and does what with it?
Does anyone ever audit the books of the RNC and DNC? If anyone did, I’ll bet they’d look like the Teamsters Union’s under Jimmy Hoffa. Just as unionized workers had two choices (join the union or quit the job), voters have two parties to choose from…both awful.
#53 RLM
No, you’re not arguing the merits of labor unions, Robert.
But you ARE arguing that “the American public” has turned “against organized labor”.
The point I made is that it has not, despite corruption.
People still are in unions & still want to have a union–they have not turned against unions.
As I said, the American public IS organized labor.
Don’t writers, actors, service employees & nearly everyone have a union, or are trying to get one? Walmart employees, for one, come to mind. I’ve read where they have tried repeatedly to get a union but Walmart has always pulled tricks to stop it. That’s the biggest group of employees (Americans) in the US at Walmart, or so the papers say, & THEY want a union.
You said “labor unions..have long since fallen out of favor” & you said “it took the American public a long time to turn against organized labor but it finally did…”
MY point was–I disagree.
What makes you think differently?
Well, simply that labor unions are no longer very influential politically. They could become impactful again someday, but they aren’t at present. I was viewing unions through a historical/political prism.
If you say unions are still popular at the local level, I believe you. If workers still want to join them, fine. But they have lost their bloc influence. Politicians don’t have to answer to labor leaders any more, either at the national level, e.g., Teamsters, United Auto Workers, Mine Workers, or at the municipal level, e.g., transit workers, teachers, city employees.
It’s my opinion only that a parallel exists between declining (institutional) support for labor unions and declining support for political parties. I equate the choice a worker in a non-right-to-work state has (join the union or find another job) with the choice a politician has in getting elected (join the Democrats or the Republicans).
Both choices restrict freedom, and in both cases entrenched interests resist a third choice, as follows:
Third choice for workers=Choose best job based on suitablility and salary. Joining a union should be optional, not mandatory…but unions resist this. Their excuse is a need for solidarity, but is it a coincidence that optional membership limits the power of labor leaders and ties their hands financially?
Third choice for politicians=A viable third party, as in Canada and England. There’s no reason under the sun why any American should be forced to choose between Democrats and Republicans, especially given their mutual tolerance of stolen elections, trillion-dollar deficits, and the criminal mess in Iraq. But when was the last time you heard anyone other than a blogger call for an end to the two-party system?
It’s true that politicians–even the Democrats–are not as responsive to unions as they once were & therefore, unions are not as powerful as they once were. Now that massive corruption is widespread in both parties, politicians are beholden to bigger fish than just union bosses & the big fish don’t want strong unions. News shows, like Chris Matthews, don’t even ask union bosses to come on much anymore like they used to.
But I don’t believe it’s true that “the American public turned against organized labor”, mainly because the general perception is that unions are all they’ve got–even when they know their own union is corrupt.
Actually, unless you have a highly specialized skill that’s hard to find–you probably do get a better deal with a union than going it alone.
If some unions have declining membership, it’s probably either because people found out that that particular union can’t help them enough to make it worth their while (because unions have less clout), or because there are just less jobs overall than there once were, thanks to NAFTA.
I heard Congress just voted down raising the minimum wage again. It hasen’t been raised in a decade or so, while Congress votes wage increases for themselves every chance they get! As long as Congress gets away with that, unions will be needed.
If there are declining numbers for both political parties & for unions, I believe the reasons are probably disparate, but I’d have to research it.
If I went to the trouble to do that, I’d research declining church membership also to make it more interesting & see if it’s connected.
The reason I’d add church membership:
In #53 you suspect political party membership & union membership have both declined because people have realized it’s only about power & money for the organization, not help for members.
It’s the same with church membership.
I wonder if enough people have realized it yet for them to experience a decline in numbers.