With the U.S. presidential cycle gearing up, Elizabeth Vos takes stock of lessons from 2016.
By Elizabeth Vos
Special to Consortium News
Establishment Democrats and those who amplify them continue to project blame for the public’s doubt in the U.S. election process onto outside influence, despite the clear history of the party’s subversion of election integrity. The total inability of the Democratic Party establishment’s willingness to address even one of these critical failures does not give reason to hope that the nomination process in 2020 will be any less pre-ordained.
The Democratic Party’s bias against Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential nomination, followed by the DNC defense counsel doubling down on its right to rig the race during the fraud lawsuit brought against the DNC, as well as the irregularities in the races between former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Tim Canova, indicate a fatal breakdown of the U.S. democratic process spearheaded by the Democratic Party establishment. Influences transcending the DNC add to concerns regarding the integrity of the democratic process that have nothing to do with Russia, but which will also likely impact outcomes in 2020.
The content of the DNC and Podesta emails published by WikiLeaks demonstrated that the DNC acted in favor of Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the 2016 Democratic primary. The emails also revealed corporate media reporters acting as surrogates of the DNC and its pro-Clinton agenda, going so far as to promote Donald Trump during the GOP primary process as a preferred “pied-piper candidate.” One cannot assume that similar evidence will be presented to the public in 2020, making it more important than ever to take stock of the unique lessons handed down to us by the 2016 race.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2016 Democratic primary debate. (YouTube/Screen shot)
Social Media Meddling
Election meddling via social media did take place in 2016, though in a different guise and for a different cause from that which are best remembered. Twitter would eventually admit to actively suppressing hashtags referencing the DNC and Podesta emails in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Additional reports indicated that tech giant Google also showed measurable “pro-Hillary Clinton bias” in search results during 2016, resulting in the alleged swaying of between 2 and 10 millions voters in favor of Clinton.
On the Republican side, a recent episode of CNLive! featured discussion of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which undecided voters were micro-targeted with tailored advertising narrowed with the combined use of big data and artificial intelligence known collectively as “dark strategy.” CNLive! Executive Producer Cathy Vogan noted that SCL, Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, provides data, analytics and strategy to governments and military organizations “worldwide,” specializing in behavior modification. Though Cambridge Analytica shut down in 2018, related companies remain.
The Clinton camp was hardly absent from social media during the 2016 race. The barely-legal activities of Clintonite David Brock were previously reported by this author to have included $2 million in funding for the creation of an online “troll army” under the name Shareblue. The LA Times described the project as meant to “to appear to be coming organically from people and their social media networks in a groundswell of activism, when in fact it is highly paid and highly tactical.” In other words, the effort attempted to create a false sense of consensus in support for the Clinton campaign.
In terms of interference in the actual election process, the New York City Board of Elections was shown to have purged over one hundred thousand Democratic voters in Brooklyn from the rolls before the 2016 primary, a move that the Department of Justice found broke federal law. Despite this, no prosecution for the breach was ever attempted.
Though the purge was not explicitly found to have benefitted Clinton, the admission falls in line with allegations across the country that the Democratic primary was interfered with to the benefit of the former secretary of state. These claims were further bolstered by reports indicating that voting results from the 2016 Democratic primary showed evidence of fraud.
DNC Fraud Lawsuit
“Bernie or Bust” protesters at the Wells Fargo Center during Democrats’ roll call vote to nominate Hillary Clinton. (Becker1999, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
The proceedings of the DNC fraud lawsuit provide the most damning evidence of the failure of the U.S. election process, especially within the Democratic Party. DNC defense lawyers argued in open court for the party’s right to appoint candidates at its own discretion, while simultaneously denying any “fiduciary duty” to represent the voters who donated to the Democratic Party under the impression that the DNC would act impartially towards the candidates involved.
In 2017, the Observer reported that the DNC’s defense counsel argued against claims that the party defrauded Sanders’ supporters by favoring Clinton, reasoning that Sanders’ supporters knew the process was rigged. Again: instead of arguing that the primary was neutral and unbiased in accordance with its charter, the DNC’s lawyers argued that it was the party’s right to select candidates.
The Observer noted the sentiments of Jared Beck, the attorney representing the plaintiffs of the lawsuit:
…“People paid money in reliance on the understanding that the primary elections for the Democratic nominee —nominating process in 2016 were fair and impartial, and that’s not just a bedrock assumption that we would assume just by virtue of the fact that we live in a democracy, and we assume that our elections are run in a fair and impartial manner. But that’s what the Democratic National Committee’s own charter says. It says it in black and white.”
The DNC defense counsel’s argument throughout the course of the DNC fraud lawsuit doubled down repeatedly in defense of the party’s right to favor one candidate over another, at one point actually claiming that such favoritism was protected by the First Amendment. The DNC’s lawyers wrote:
“To recognize any of the causes of action that Plaintiffs allege would run directly contrary to long-standing Supreme Court precedent recognizing the central and critical First Amendment rights enjoyed by political parties, especially when it comes to selecting the party’s nominee for public office.” [Emphasis added]
The DNC’s shameless defense of its own rigging disemboweled the most fundamental organs of the U.S. body politic. This no indication that the DNC will not resort to the same tactics in the 2020 primary race,
Tim Canova’s Allegations
Tim Canova with supporters, April 2016. (CanovaForCongress, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
If Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s role as disgraced chairwoman of the DNC and her forced 2016 resignation wasn’t enough, serious interference was also alleged in the wake of two contests between Wasserman Schultz and professor Tim Canova in Florida’s 23rd congressional district. Canova and Wasserman Schultz first faced off in a 2016 Democratic primary race, followed by a 2018 general congressional election in which Canova ran as an independent.
Debacles followed both contests, including improper vote counts, illegal ballot destruction, improper transportation of ballots, and generally shameless displays of cronyism. After the controversial results of the initial primary race against Wasserman Schultz, Canova sought to have ballots checked for irregularities, as the Sun-Sentinel reported at the time:
“[Canova] sought to look at the paper ballots in March 2017 and took Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes to court three months later when her office hadn’t fulfilled his request. Snipes approved the destruction of the ballots in September, signing a certification that said no court cases involving the ballots were pending.”
Ultimately, Canova was granted a summary judgment against Snipes, finding that she had committed what amounted to multiple felonies. Nonetheless, Snipes was not prosecuted and remained elections supervisor through to the 2018 midterms.
Republicans appear no more motivated to protect voting integrity than the Democrats, with The Nation reporting that the GOP-controlled Senate blocked a bill this week that would have “mandated paper-ballot backups in case of election machine malfunctions.”
Study of Corporate Power
A 2014 study published by Princeton University found that corporate power had usurped the voting rights of the public: “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”
In reviewing this sordid history, we see that the Democratic Party establishment has done everything in its power to disrespect voters and outright overrule them in the democratic primary process, defending their right to do so in the DNC fraud lawsuit. We’ve noted that interests transcending the DNC also represent escalating threats to election integrity as demonstrated in 2016.
Despite this, establishment Democrats and those who echo their views in the legacy press continue to deflect from their own wrongdoing and real threats to the election process by suggesting that mere discussion of it represents a campaign by Russia to attempt to malign the perceptionof the legitimacy of the U.S. democratic process.
Hillary Clinton’s recent comments to the effect that Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is being “groomed” by Russia, and that the former Green Party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein is a “Russian asset”, were soon echoed by DNC-friendly pundits. These sentiments externalize what Gabbard called the “rot” in the Democratic party outward onto domestic critics and a nation across the planet.
Newsweek provided a particularly glaring example of this phenomenon in a recent op-ed penned by columnist Naveed Jamali, a former FBI double agent whose book capitalizes on Russiagate. In an op-ed titled: “Hillary Clinton Is Right. Tulsi Gabbard Is A Perfect Russian Asset – And Would Be A Perfect Republican Agent,” Jamali argued:
“Moscow will use its skillful propaganda machine to prop up Gabbard and use her as a tool to delegitimize the democratic process.” [Emphasis added]
Jamali surmises that Russia intends to “attack” our democracy by undermining the domestic perception of its legitimacy. This thesis is repeated later in the piece when Jamali opines: “They want to see a retreat of American influence. What better way to accomplish that than to attack our democracy by casting doubt on the legitimacy of our elections.” [Emphasis added]
The only thing worth protecting, according to Jamali and those who amplify his work (including former Clinton aide and establishment Democrat Neera Tanden), is the perception of the democratic process, not the actual functioning vitality of it. Such deflective tactics ensure that Russia will continue to be used as a convenient international pretext for silencing domestic dissent as we move into 2020.
Given all this, how can one expect the outcome of a 2020 Democratic Primary — or even the general election – to be any fairer or transparent than 2016?
Elizabeth Vos is a freelance reporter, co-host of CN Live! and regular contributor to Consortium News.
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Why talk about real issues that effect we the sheeple. IE: The largest wealth gap since the Gilded age. The crumbling infrastructure. The only western industrialized economy that does not offer universal health care. The ever growing poverty and homeless amongst the masses. The 22 veterans that commit suicide monthly. The Drug overdoses deaths from pharmaceutical narcotics. Instead the Russians are coming and anyone who does not agree with us is a Russian asset and Trump derangement syndrome.
If one were to reflect the last REAL Democratic POTUS was the peanut farmer from Georgia Jimmy Carter.
Post Scriptum: Hence if Trump is not impeached Trump will be in for 4 more years. What is Trumps crime ? Winning the election against Hitler in Drag.
Docius in Fundem : I am not a republican supporter or a Trump supporter. The one good thing about Trump is that he has taken the veil off and pax-americanas full spectrum hypocrisy has shown its real face with out hiding behind vacuous statements like freedom ,democracy and liberty. What we are seeing is the dying days of the Antlantacist and hopefully we the sheeple can survive it. PACE E BENE
It appears that the DNC is responsible in fomenting this new cold war with Russia.
The party has become a war party and made the world very unsafe.
Instead of taking responsibility for Russiagate, it simply has progressed on to impeachment, no apologies simply moving on to the next tactic.
And why you might ask?
And weren’t we a bit put off by our own intelligence agencies contributing to the overthrow of the Trump administration using the NYT and WAPO to spread innuendo and political chaos ?
Hey, it’s not just the DNC. They are getting lots of help from the RNC. Both belong to the corporatists and moneyed 1%.
With friends like our Democratic and Republican Committee people, we don’t need Russians to screw up our democracy. It’s because of them that we wind up with poor choices of candidates.
The DNC is still operating in the style of its Queen Warmonger. I wouldn’t be surprised if both she and they plan to pull some stunt in the convention to make her the candidate again about 8 or 9 months from now, after the two dozen deadbeats ostensibly running for the office deadlock due to universal apathy by the voters. DWS will once again come to the aid of HRC and the latest bloodfeast will commence. They are hoping that Trump is such a wounded animal from the impeachment proceedings by then that not even the Devil himself could lose to the Donald this time.
Over the past 30 years, American national politics have degenerated into something like the War of the Roses, with one royal family vying with another one, in this case to act as figureheads for the Deep State. Boiled down to its essence, it has been the Bushites versus the Clintonites. That’s what’s got everyone in both factions so lathered up: Trump has dallied with both sides over the years but is really neither fish nor fowl.
Great analysis, yes it is the DNC, but larger than that it is the corporate oligarch which monoplize the power in both so-called parties which gave us Trump and which still prefer him to Sanders.
Perception is everything. That is why the rigged “superdelegate” system was so effective. Clinton’s sham “lead” became self-fulfilling prophesy. Many people told me, “I like Bernie but I’m voting for Hillary because she’s more electable.” Pure perception.
To test this widely held view, in March 2016 I started tallying every poll (at Real Clear Politics) that pitted Sanders and Clinton not against each other, but against GOP contenders including a reality-show buffoon named Trump. I did this all the way through early June, tallying 150 polls with no cherrypicking.
Result? Sanders outperformed Clinton against GOP candidates in 135 of 150 polls. That’s 90 percent of the time. You can still see the results posted at my site BernieWorks.com.
What’s more, Sanders remained consistently strong. It was so remarkable, so I dubbed him Iron Man Sanders. Meanwhile, Clinton’s pattern of results across dozens upon dozens of polls showed disturbing signs of electoral weakness.
No one was paying attention. The corrupt system’s rigged structure played a crucial role. The criminally fraudulet DNC and complicit corporate media played their respective roles.
So, disastrously wrong public perception won.
My tallies clearly show that if Sanders had become the nominee, he would have wiped the floor with Trump. And we would be living in a different world.
If’s ands or buts. Your “experiment” using those polls lacks one thing, credible data. That you still base any type of opinion on such nonsense as those polls, that were wildly wrong about the 2016 election, would be hilarious if not so sad. It isn’t representative of critical thinking. You know those polls were grossly incorrect, yet you still cite them as “evidence” that maybe, somehow, Bernie would have beaten Trump. The election is over. Trump won. Let it go somehow. TDS is a thing.
Sanders is being totally ignored, if not smeared, by the Press (as is Tulsi Gabbard). Our Establishment demands that all the money goes to the top (them), and Sanders would shake up the system even more than Trump (whose chief failure is not adding National Emergencies and Wars as Obama did). One can see the rigging in place; Warren his supposed mirror progressive is much more “flexible” and willing to “compromise”; she splits Sander’s base, capturing women and University Elites. Joe Biden, whose brain quit working years ago, is up to his neck in corruption with his cokehead son, despite all his talk of “values”. Biden enjoys a 10 to 15% lead in the polls although I haven’t talked to anyone who supports him (all landline polls to nursing homes?) CNN is grooming Buttigieg (a mediocre mayor), Kamala Harris is somewhat resurging (must be all the former slaves’ offspring that her family owned in Jamaica), and even Klobuchar is pushed over Bernie, whose agenda is closest to what America wants.
As to your last sentence: yes I think he would have won handily, but no we would not be living in a different world. Recall that virtually no-one who should have endorsed Sanders did so – not Warren, and certainly not that oft-touted icon of “progressivism” my own Senator Sherrod Brown; in fact none in the D party that I can think of. They all obeyed the dictate of their undemocratic ruling central cabal. You need friends and allies to propose and enact legislation, and Bernie would have had few. As for foreign policy, aka WAR in US-speak, there was a completely unacknowledged military coup in 2000, right here in the good ol’ US. The POTUS does not direct the ambitions of this empire.
Do I wish he would have won – absolutely, and that possibility yet exists. We’ve all watched the very unsubtle way in which the media is colluding with the D establishment. As soon as one candidate rises in the polls the media ignores them and focuses on one of the vote diluters inserted there to staunch the gathering rebellion. There was a piece by Jake Johnson on CD about the Sanders’ campaign rightfully complaining about blatant misrepresentation of Sanders popularity in the polls. When distortion or silence proves ineffective look for primary election fraud to ensue.
My younger brother was one that was under the spell of that establishment party perception in ’16 and I argued with him several times about it. I was flabbergasted and somewhat angry to hear him say recently that “Sanders could have won” then, but he can’t now.
?????
wtf is it with some people?
It seems one didn’t even need to compile that sort of data to have seen it coming. Just in talking with people, in my town, my immediate sphere, online, friends of friends, etc that something became very obvious: people LOVED Sanders, whereas people just were resigned with Clinton.
If I talked with people about Sanders, they got excited, passionately talking about the issues and his ideas for solving them. If I talked with people about Clinton, it was kind of a defeatist sigh. “Well, she’s very electable.” What? According to who?
I remember a moment after she “won” the primaries, and people who had previously been bubbling about going to a Bernie caucus, were all hanging out. Clinton began to be discussed. “I think she’s going to be a kick-ass president” someone said. And people just sort of silently nodded. Right then I knew she would lose.
It ASTOUNDS me that the DNC has so easily swept that absolute farce of 2016 from society’s memory. I thought the Russia excuse was laughable even before I started to learn more about it. When I then heard my friends parroting the story, I realized how effective it was to capitalize on xenophobia.
And here we are again, people assuming Trump is going to lose, again, because they can’t imagine him ever winning an election, again, while the DNC is actively sabotaging their best candidates, again, and propping up establishment politicians expecting people to just accept it, again. I wonder what will happen?
Noam Chomsky called Bernie Sanders a “decent honest New Deal democrat”
And your analysis is born out by the increasing anecdotal evidence I keep learning about that for example lifelong conservative Republicans believe Bernie is decent and honest and they trust Sanders to be truthful and they’re sick of the Republican and Democratic establishments including Trump as I’ve heard.
It’s the bamboozled Dems who are diehard Clinton supporters who fall for the lies and distortions from the DNC who will help Trump get reelected in 2020 because they will never recognize that it was Hillary and the DNC not the Russians who gave us Trump.
Bernie would have won because he promised an honest administration which has eluded us for too long.
The corrupt political parties have worn out their welcome. Trump capitalized on that. Clever con artist that he is.
Thanks for your interesting comment and the analysis you did because it rings true in spite of the attacks it draws. :)
Good points in the article the main point being the democratic party was far more guilty of interfering with the democratic primaries by undermining Sanders. The media was complicit and should be considered an accessory to election rigging.
We the people didn’t hold the democratic party heads accountable and therefore we are seeing a repeat happening again. I refuse to be forced to vote force someone I deplore just because they aren’t republican. I will always vote for the best candidate. The duopoly is fiercely maintained by the oligarchs for just that reason. They correctly predict that consumer zombies will stay loyal to their team and I think they lost control of the process in 2016 by thinking if they ran Krusty the Clown Trump against Hillary, she certainly win. They didn’t have a good handle on the animosity so many people had for Hillary, including millions of progressives who were are bitter about the wicked, illegal, immoral, unethical, un-American machinations by the democratic henchmen as laid out expertly in the article.
It must be nearly impossible to be an honest politician when many charges made against you are based on lies couched as the truth (with out evidence) which in turn has to be defended in a way that conveys knowledge and truthfulness. Extremely difficult against an opponent versed in or deflecting from factual and/or provable information. Great article. I have not read too mcu on Consortium but will read it consistently from now on
Actually, far more harm to democratic institutions has been done not by the DNC or Russians and foreign interests but by our own GOP.
Thank you for that totally unbiased and nonpartisan viewpoint.
How foolish to use Russia in their plots against republicans.And still nothing gets done!
Impeachment is all about manufacturing a crime and using an investigation to damage your political opponent. The goal is to give your friends in the establishment media excuses for an endless series of negative headlines slamming your opponent. The “Russia collusion” charges were extremely useful in generating propaganda even though they fizzled out when it came time to present some actual evidence. Today, the Democrats are running the investigations. But the Republicans are open to the same tactics (Remember the Benghazi hearings?). Congress doesn’t have time to address the real problems of the country – they are playing political games.
I will vote third party in 2020 because any vote for a Democrat or a Republican is sending the message that you will go along with the degenerate system in Washington.
vote, but make your ballot paper invalid (in Europe we do this): this way they can see you support the democratic process, but not the political system. cheers!
Until Obama’s first election in 2008 I was Dem leaning. That’s when I started to complain to my Democratic supporting friends that I find it more meaningful and satisfying to debate and discuss political issues with Republicans as opposed to Democrats. My rationale was that while I do not agree with the Republicans’ worldview I see a rationale. In contrast, Democrats argue illogically and irrationally.
I was smart enough to recognize what a fraud Obama is, and Ended up not Voting Obama. Instead I voted for the Greens.
Needless to say that that cost me a lot, including friendships Only now do I realize how perceptive I was. The irrationality and cognitive dissonance of the Dims (among the way I thought it appropriate to change the name of the Party) are in full bloom now. Only the sheeple are unable to recognize their mental disorder.
In contrast, Democrats argue illogically and irrationally.
Yes, yes they do.
[And Look How Well They Did….You are Brilliant
You thereby might be responsible fot TRUMP the CON MAN !!! Take A bow !!!!
I’ve been told by people that I owe them an apology for voting Green instead of for Clinton. Needless to say, I don’t talk to those people anymore. The brainwashing is thorough.
As our country is ever more exposed to be the democratic hypocrisy that it is, we are finding that oligarchic empires never last. History certainly has proven that time and again. What leaves me in dismay, however, is how seemingly educated, intelligent societies continually fall asleep while any basic securities that the majority of those populations rely on are stolen away. It is like sailors whose ship has gone down, we cling to any flotation available to hold us up for one last breath of air as the sharks circle. What is the answer, you might be asking? Is there an answer? That we certainly cannot be sure of. But one thing is for certain; and that is, taking the same steps to solve this problem and expecting anything different from the usual results does not speak wisely of an intelligent people. As the article states, or maybe it was a comment, elections have not, and will not, change one thing in our entire existence as a nation. Taking to the streets just might be our only answer if we are to retain any pride in ourselves. And, without pride, what are we?
Those sharks you speak of consist of among others, the multinational companies who bribe congresspeople to pass bad trade bills and rewrite tax code which allowed those companies to offshore good paying jobs and otherwise exfiltrate our wealth. The election of Trump may well change some things in Washington DC. After the investigations by Durham, Barr, and Horowitz are completed, you will see the depths that govt officials and various media pundits, descended in their illegal, unconstitutional effort to overturn the 2016 election results. Hopefully, congress will retract their claws long enough to pass a bill giving congress vastly more oversight of our IC including the NSA and CIA, along with the FBI.
Skip, I agree with your message. It is ridiculous to believe that it will be any different from 2016. I believe “taking to the streets” is what we need to do. I am saddened because we all know that taking the same steps and expecting anything different is futile.
May I ask, is it possible for Bernie and/or Tulsi to pull away from the DNC and become Independent? I feel that would be the only way they might win. I would follow them to the end. I hope that the people will take to the streets to show solidarity for these two candidates.
Western Empire centered in the US is being challenged and its illegitimacy exposed by increased wars of aggression abroad and creeping authoritarianism domestically. Those profiting off the system for decades will resort to the usual tactics of lies, smears and violence to prevent having to surrender their power.
Elections have no doubt been rigged for a long time, but it’s being done in the open now. Those who continue to believe they live in a functioning democracy being attacked by Russia are probably beyond hope for the short term. The cognitive dissonance is more than they can deal with. Trump’s mistaken elevation to the presidency seems to have turned once functioning brains into easily controlled masses of obedient children. It’s been surreal to watch the transformation.
Perhaps after another election fiasco for the ruling establishment, people will being to question who is really responsible for the way things are. Then again, maybe not.
Pardon me, but how many people were cited to have committed felonies but were never prosecuted for their criminality? Might I presume that’s merely the tip of an iceberg and that the truth of the matter is the entire electoral process within the USA is utterly corrupt and thus illegitimate?! And of course there’s a bipartisan effort to ensure no legislation regulating political parties ever gets to a vote so we the people have no means to alter their behavior!
I’ve looked long, hard and deep into the USA’s fundamental problems and have mused about various bandages for the 1787 Constitution that might put the nation back into the hands of those in whose name it was organized–The People–but most people just don’t seem to give a damn or argue that the situation isn’t all that bad and just greater citizen activism is all that’s required. What was it JFK said–“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” If the electoral process is completely illegitimate as it certainly appears to be, then the only real recourse citizens retain is revolution. Have the corporate pukes at the DNC & RNC thought through the outcome of their behavior; or perhaps revolution is what they want to see occur so they can crush it and establish the dictatorship their actions deem they prefer.
Yes Ill join the revolution but please, just one more game of Candy Crush first. Can’t you see I’m busy.
It’s useful to put that quote from JFK into context. That remark was part of a prepared address to Central and South American business leaders at the opening of a development co-operation association. It wasn’t a rallying cry to a populist base but rather a warning to the wealthy and powerful about history. The other part of that context is to realize that as JFK was making that remark the US was actively involved in several “counter-revolutionary” operations in Central and South America.
It is very telling also that Eisenhower only spoke out about something that apparently genuinely concerned him as he was leaving office and any ability to confront what he was warning about. How are we to interpret this, since he was such a faithful servant of all that has now become so entrenched and evil?
Progressives will NEVER have a seat at the Democrat Party table.
The Democrats and the DNC are hopelessly corrupt and the only way to strip them of their power is for ALL true Progressive Americans to walk away and refuse to vote for ANY Democrat, Trump or no Trump.
Just as Sanders got screwed by them and he and his supporters KNEW it and he STILL supported and campaigned for Hillary Clinton who is a known liar and corrupt criminal!
I will vote for Tulsi in the California primary only because she had the guts to call out Clinton for what she is.
But I can promise all of you, if necessary the Superdelegates will step in to stop Sanders and when the corruption happens again next year I will start campaigning for Trump.
Believe me. Not playing their games with them is the ONLY way to stop them.
And I hope Canova will run against DWS again as an Independent. She is evil!!
Thank you, Charlene, for your simple clarity on a viable, trustworthy candidate to work for. That person is Tulsi Gabbard. Bernie lost it for me when he “supported and campaigned for Hillary Clinton” after what the Clinton/DNC did to him in the last election (sorry Bernie; but, you showed your true staying power with that one). Though again I will say it; it will take most of us in the streets to make the changes we need. Climate change is our real enemy with regards to our survival. US created endless wars blind us from this reality along with the silent killer, unrelenting population growth on a finite planet. If you care about any future for those coming after us, those three issues are all that really matter.
It seems to me though, that not voting at all would be preferable in the circumstances you describe, to voting for such a one as trump. I’ll never give my vote to any wickedly repulsive human being, no matter their party affiliation. Most Green Party candidates have been ethical, reasonable, kind, highly intelligent, and have good plans for the commons. But of course, to each his or her own, Charlene. Cheers, regardless.
ML,
Would you vote for a candidate who has won the following awards:
Humanitarian Award by the National Jewish Health Organization
President’s Medal by the Freedom Foundation (Washington) for his support of youth programs
Muhammad Ali Entrepreneur Award
Unicorn Children’s Foundation Shining Star Award
Presidential Hero Award by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation
2018 Wounded Warrior Project Award
2019 Bipartisan Justice Award from a bipartisan organization of black leaders for criminal justice reform
A candidate who has created the best employment record for Blacks and Hispanics in the history of this country.
A candidate who has created the most robust economic expansion in the history of this country
A candidate who has created the highest wage increases in 30 years
A candidate hated by multinationals corporations but loved by main street businesses
A candidate who defeated ISIS and has pulled out most of the US troops in Syria
A candidate who eliminated the leader of ISIS and his right hand terrorist.
How about a candidate who withstood the Russian collusion hoax and was still arguably more effective in 3 years then Obama was in 8
A candidate who is finally doing something about opiate addiction
A candidate who doesn’t ignore our nation’s immigration laws
A candidate who uses economic pressure to influence foreign policy more effectively than any other president
A candidate who has stood up to a vast trade imbalance with China and is pushing them to recognize intellectual and copyright law as basic tenets of a new, more favorable trade agreement.
A candidate who strengthened our military after losing an incredible amount of ground to the Chinese due to their theft of classified military secrets on Obama’s watch.
Yeah, I’d vote for him too.
ML one more thing, would you vote for a candidate who hasn’t initiated any regime change type of war and is doing his best to extricate us from the ones he inherited?
Even saint obama sent mountains of arms to Syria via Libya, which ended up in ISIS hands and killed US troops. Despicable!
This is to Mike K : Obama was no saint to me and I agree, despicable. The subtext of your question to me though, is suspicious because it seems you are really saying that Trump is trying to “extricate us” from warring. Don’t bet your life on that one, Mike. And don’t hold your breath. Everything the man does and will ever do, is to benefit himself and his business dealings globally. To believe otherwise is purely naive and tribal. I don’t do tribal. There’s far too much of that infecting the polity.
Well said! What bothered me in 2016 was how quickly the DNC, after cheating Bernie in broad daylight, set about hoodwinking his supporters into staying in the Party. « Change from the inside » was the framing. Anyone who declared loudly that it was time for a new party was ridiculed and bullied. Bernie himself didn’t help, toeing the line with Clinton and the post-election Russiagate lies.
“casting doubt on the legitimacy of our elections”. I am not an American but cannot believe that anyone could even pretend that there is any aspect of democracy in the US electoral process. As well as gerrymandering, the overwhelming effect of donors” ie bribes, and the appointment of partisan judges to SCOTUS and most of the other courts in the land make the selection and election of candidates a completely undemocratic procedure.Interference by Russia could never be significant, especially if, as Pres. Putin pointed out, the difference between the policies o the two Parties is minimal.
I am a Green… I don’t care anymore… :-(
I agree with your assessment of the DNC. They deflect from their own reprehensible conduct to blame Russia for interfering in our elections. No evidence is needed. It just a mind numbing stream of Russia! Russia! Russia! US elections are among the most corrupt in the world (Carter Foundation). It appears that our criminal justice system, to include our courts, can not or will not offer any remedy to this crisis.
The only way we US citizens can circumvent this undemocratic treachery is to hold a parallel vote on paper ballots that can be publicly counted if the election results are contested. Just read that Amazon or was it google has the cloud contract for tabulating votes in 40% of our elections.
HRC/the DNC not screaming night and day for I hackable paper ballots/publicly counted puts the lie to their Russia hoax.
Thanks for the great article! Love your show.
We’ve spent years reading and talking about the illegitimacy of elections, interspersed with people railing against those who don’t vote. Each election is “the most important of our lifetimes,” and “every vote counts,” and if Democrats lose, we’re back to shouting that (fill in the blank) stole the election.
We’ve gone over “politics 101” a thousand times. Most votes come down to economic issues, and these are the very issues by which the Clinton right wing divided and conquered the Dem voting base., middle class vs. poor. The Obama years confirmed that this split is permanent. It isn’t the result of arcane ideological differences, much less “Facebook trolls,” but of the suffering caused by the policies of the Democrat Party. Predictably, we once again see much work going into to setting the stage to blame an expected election defeat on anything/everything other than this.
One cannot?
The Democratic Party will probably annoint Warren or Biden, one of the establishment candidates. After all, they could point to Trump as justification for “managing” their primary voters!
And then anyone with a brain and a heart will vote third party.
Anyone with a brain and a heart will vote Bernie.
Why the heck do you think the DNC IS working so hard to stab him in the back again.
Excellent article.
It seems that dishonesty is not just acceptable to the two political parties and to the media but it is now considered “accepted practice.”
This, of course, has nothing to do with real democracy. Real democracy requires honesty to function properly.
One can only conclude that we no longer have a democracy in this country.
Very well said. While the DNC corruption is the proper focus for reformers, the Repubs celebrate corruption as an ideal. In Florida where “Canova was granted a summary judgment against Snipes [but] Snipes was not prosecuted and remained elections supervisor” I have an ongoing investigation of racketeering involving the theft of over 100 million in conservation funds by wealthy scammers in government, all of whom do far are Repubs. They regularly sell public offices to donors (get yours now): $2K for committee memberships and $32K for chairmanships, including your state university board of trustees, no qualifications at all required. They include judges state and federal, governors, prominent senators, you name it. Money=virtue=qualification is the core of their belief system, and white-collar theft is their profession and only skill.
I am astounded that Canova got a summary judgment against Snipes, but not that Snipes had no prosecution or penalty and remained in the very office in which the public trust was utterly betrayed.
Your comment calls out corruption by Republicans, but the one concrete example you give is of Brenda Snipes, a Democrat, stealing a Democratic primary for Wasserman Schultz over Canova? As Federal and Florida judge Zloch noted, primaries are a mere formality. The DNC can pick any candidates they want, votes are meaningless. The GOP has always been the party of business, mean and corrupt. But since the Clintons, the DNC has passed them in Wall Street support, corruption and war mongering; and of course they have abandoned their constituents, the Poor, the Working Class, and Progressives, knowing they will not vote for Republicans and “have nowhere else to go”.
Yes, Michael, they are both corrupt. It is quite consistent to note that “the DNC corruption is the proper focus for reformers,” while “the Repubs celebrate corruption as an ideal.” Both parties are owned by oligarchy, so both are comfortable with genocides for Israel, but the Repubs sometimes show the “virtue” of not wanting to pay for the genocide.
Good article
Thank you for reinforcing my cynicism in the two party system in America. Both parties are at fault here of denigrating the public’s confidence in the electoral process. How better than to blame the Russian boogie man in trying to rig our already rigged system. That’s the purview of the plutocrat and oligarch cabal and their elite enablers in government. Stay in your lane.
This article makes many excellent points.
The US hasn’t had an authentic election in a very long time. Even if the process was at one time more transparent, the CIA and OGA/other entities have taken out presidents who they didn’t like. Then we come to 2000 where the election for president was clearly stolen by Bush and again in 2004, there was a likely election theft by Bush. (These thefts may have been by agreement of both legacy parties, as opposed to actual election theft. I say this because the Democratic party did not fight tooth and nail to make votes count or challenge voter roll purges that were happening in plain sight.)
What has changed now are the tools available to engage in mass election theft/voter disenfranchisement. Microsoft will be determining the coming election as they are the ones rolling out the voting machines. This is why we desperately need paper ballots. I lived in Ohio and I knew people who saw their vote changed in front of their eyes. As we will not get paper we need to figure out some way around unverifiable machine votes. That may be by filming one’s vote or community efforts to have people come out of the polls and mark a citizen provided private paper ballot. Basically, a citizen run paper parallel voting apparatus that could provide some basis to challenge unverified machine votes.
This article points out some other things which have changed in the current society. The ability to ignore what most people really want is endemic. This is coupled with the ability to manipulate people to “want” someone they actually wouldn’t “want” as a candidate where it not for massive propaganda and information restriction. Further, the government is lawless. The powerful will not be held to account for rigging or stealing elections. That has been made perfectly clear. The lack of legal accountability has necessitated making certain that citizens will not ask for evil and illegal actions committed by “their” parties’ candidate/office holder to be questioned or called out. The government/corporate amalgam needs a closed system, no legal questions, no citizen questions. This allows complete impunity for all wrongdoing.
Thus we find ourselves in an incredibly dangerous place. People cling to a party/candidate with a zeal once reserved for cult leaders. As the cults run most of the discourse and have most of the information (as cults generally do) I think we must look at ways that people have successfully left cults and apply these stories to our own lives. We must break out of the cult.
Thanks for a good essay
Keep writing
LOL! I just changed from unaffiliated to Democrat so I can caucus/vote* for the least worst Democrat knowing that I’ll end up voting Green-no-in-between anyway when the multi-party rigged election happens. I never feel dumber than when I waste my time filling out ballots or showing up for caucuses.
* Colorado changed procedures and I haven’t given enough of a shit to figure out what I have to do, yet.
The Economist, of course, has called the US a flawed democracy and they were probably being kind. On top of the chicanery Ms. Vos identifies here, we have the Republicans doing their dead level best to suppress the vote of anyone that even looks like they’d vote for someone else besides a Republican.
This is the Republicans pure and simple. They are the ones that are focused on winning at all costs. And both parties are now Republicans. There is, of course, the Republican party which has become extremely right wing in the wake of St. Ronnie, driving any moderate Republican out of the party and those people have infested the Democratic party as DINOs. Three Names herself is a former Goldwater Girl. The highly anticipated rematch between Donnie Murdo and Three Names will be a real disaster. (Hint: Donnie Murdo might get impeached but he’ll never be convicted in the Senate)
Was there ever a better argument put forth that would prove that the Chinese Communist Party is a far better form of government than is the corrupt democratic process in the USA. At least the CCP gives the Chinese people a competant government, with the over all well being of the population first and foremost. Just look at where this democratic????? system of government has gotten us. The entire system looks like the movie ” The Gangs of New York” with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the rival gang leaders.
Well one thing is certain, we won`t be seeing this op ed in the New York Times or Newsweek or any other major American news outlet any time soon.
Yes the rot that is the DNC!
Thank you for this great summary, that brings us to now.
These parties must be eliminated. They cannot be reformed.
When I read this I have to wonder if the Russia agenda is anything less than a raging success. The Democrat party is doing the work for them by splitting the country by their single minded focus on Impeaching Trump. I do not know if that was the intent but it certainly is the result.
According to REAL CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou a Russian “asset” is someone paid by the Kremlin. The only people paid by Putin were the Clintons who received $500,000 for a talk to Putin’s bank in Moscow while Hillary was Secretary of State.
The only recent documented interference in Elections was by New Knowledge pretending to be Russians to swing the Alabama US Senate race from Moore to Jones: a ‘technological advance that we’ll see much more of from NSA/State department spin-offs in 2020).
And by Ukraine’s fake Black Ledger which knocked Paul Manafort from Chairman of the Trump Campaign, thus helping Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Campaign. Manafort is a sleazy corrupt politico just like the Bidens, Ciaramalla, the Podestas and Greg Craig, the latter two working closely with Manafort in the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine.
A prediction from 2016 that turned out to be correct:
“Hillary Clinton just planted a bomb under American Democracy . . .
“By far the most irresponsible and dangerous Hillary Clinton has done is however to accuse a foreign power – Russia – of meddling in the election in order to prevent her winning, and to impose Donald Trump on the American people.
“This is dangerous and irresponsible at so many levels that it is difficult to know where to start.
“Firstly, it is not true. . . .”
(Hillary Clinton just planted a bomb under American Democracy — The Duran — Oct 31, 2016)
Great article. The use of Russia as the red herring to confuse the public and to serve the Democratic Party apparatchiks. Not a surprise as ordinary folks like me can see it yet it works. Witnessing the venom in Mueller’s voice when he spoke about the evil Russians interfering in our elections says a lot about the Washington mindset.
Then the point that people don’t matter, money does is not a new idea but a telling one about the way we select our leaders. Throw in the media that benefits most from the money flow and you get what Ms. Vos eloquently describes in the article, a very corrupt and damaging system.
Excellent commentary! It is apparent to anyone who bothers to think that the DNC did more to destroy our democratic process than anything Russia could ever be capable of. They constantly cry about the electoral college, yet they have “superdelegates” set up in the primary process to ensure that “corporate sponsored warmonger from column B” becomes the only Democratic Party option in the General Election. To call it blatant hypocrisy is an understatement.
Democracy has always been a farce in the USA, and Russia has nothing to do with it.
If everyone started boycotting corporate news shows, it would go a long way toward ending their negative influence over our lives. There is no excuse for watching CNN, MSNBC or any of the other corporate news outlets, unless of course you want to hear the lies that the billionaires want you to hear.
A hopelessly corrupt and confused political system for a hopelessly corrupt and confused nation.
The confused and corrupt are now threatened by being more and more desperate while confused and corrupt. The resulting confusion generated in these individuals can be witnessed right here, the anger is very obvious at Trump hate rallies and the democratic campaign rallies.
Let us focus on something and lets make sure we get this right.
As I read these comments I see obvious bias by writers toward one party or the other. Why at this point in time the reality that BOTH parties are willing participants in the “Dumbing Down of America” (Hunter S. Thompson, date and place later if anyone must have it.} while they cash in taking advantage of the mayhem they created.
The democrats voted for both the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. No one forces them to but themselves for there was never any debate of these matters. Bushie 43, the Village Idiot from Crawford Texas, gave an ultimatum and and the hapless Dems fell for it.
Not me I was against it from day one. Does anyone remember Vietnam?
You are being gamed if you truly do not believe that the problem here is both political parties. The “Political Apparatus ” has failed us.
The reason is because congress has not been held accountable since the death of Kennedy. The congress signed off on a lie then and things have only gotten worse. Much worse.
Now the buzzards are coming home to roost. Unless I missed something I see no way the anger and hate that Trump has generated will dissipate harmlessly to dust into the annals of history.
In the mean time “my side being right ” or “your side being right” has little actually to do with solving our problems. The security state, working with the deep state have generated much more serious issues that need to be addressed if we are to survives as a nation.
John I addressed this to you because I’m thinking you might receive idea this a little more willingly than many here.
My advice to everyone is that they determine absolutely who it is that is the real problem here, be careful about exactly who it is we think we are angry with and then and only then act to retrieve our nation.
IN parting I suggest if everyone has not heard of this they may want to check it out, the smart money says be very aware of unsolicited advice from the DOD. FYI
Google this “Joint statement From DOJ, DOD, DHS, FBI, NSA, and CISA on ensuring Security of 2020 Elections> United states Department of Defense>” or the Deep State Blog.
Sixty years now of mass delusion. The southern strategy has worked well during the decades.. BUT. This president has exposed it all. Money Honey, and the Southerners are starting to feel.. STUPID.
I must say, of all of it’s confessions, the “we left enough soldiers to protect the oil” (In Iraq/Iran) was casually blurted out as plain speech.
It’s the beginning of the end..good riddance gop.
Thank you very much for putting all this together in one article. It’s great to have as a resource to help people see what’s going on with the DNC.
Even IF, Bernie or his female familiar(s) gain access to the Oval Office, not one of the candidates have what it takes to promulgate all their campaign promises. Such a personage has yet to emerge from the beltway or anywhere else and this condition has existed and will persist as long as we have lobbiests and dark money running the electioneering process. The personage I spoke of would need the intellectual capacity and fmaily name not seen since JFK and this csort of leadeership quality would only fill the glass half way. That new president would also need the congressional reach and domination LBJ had over just about everyone in Congress. No one dared hang up on LBJ or for that matter, would refuse to return his call. He (LBJ) was one of a kind and he cannot be found today because lobbyists and corporate money and interests have sucked the life out of any real politik.
As I previously commented at CONSORTIUMNEWS, Recognized officialdom(s) seem to again, have two sets of rules one for themselves and those for the citizenry at large. There are scores of such websites, clearly indicting leaders who claim to have moral, ethical and legal authority over the rest of us. This officialdom, once well within the purview of government responsibility, now extends into the corporate boardrooms of both manufacturing and services sectors- in particular financial institutions, military, internet web security and development. Again, CEO board members who now have within their control, bought and paid for legislators and law enforcement agency heads, this corruption is on a global scale.
The last option the proles of this world have is to stop voting in elections and systems known to be hopelessly corrupt, defective, are clearly non representative such as the two party legislative system here in the USA. This dogmatic architecture and approach to the electioneering process is too powerful. This insurmountable structure necessitates that we simply walk away from it. Better to rebel with our collective purchasing power, fashion new forms of BDS that resist or redirect the present cooperation and consent now in existence between producers and consumers. This organized action or reaction, began with Naders Raiders and gradually spawned into community actions like the anti-GMO and organic foods movements. Organizing can be tweaked by creating new obstacles against what was once a seamless market to market arrangement such as the diamonds trade. It was eventually confronted by the no blood for diamonds movement or California statutes that address animal rights by prohibiting furriers from selling their products in that State. Ditto, refuse to give audience, assistance or funding to any candidate accepting dark money, corporate bundled donations gleaned from their employees and the like. It’s grassroots candidates or nothing folks, let the powers that be do and elect whomever they want. Since the real Game is all about money, and the power it brings, so be it, there too is where the individual citizens power lies. Once again, we must strike out with our wallets.
Fortunately, the DNC doesn’t want any of my money or support for their candidates. And the RNC is, if anything worse.
Are you crazy (I know you’re not)? They lust for your vote and will do ANYTHING they can to get it except offer you anything you need.
As a life-long registered Democrat I have felt totally betrayed by the DNC for the fraudulent and illegal acts that Ms. Vos so lucidly and comprehensively outlines in her piece. It is beyond my understanding why so many rank and file party members continue to embrace the lies and seditious acts that the organisation they entrust with defending their constitutional rights has never stopped perpetrating, even after being repeatedly caught red-handed. Undoubtedly the collusion of a fully partisan mass media has a great deal to do with this sad reality. However, one must insist that Trump Derangement Syndrome and extreme Russophobia, widely propagated by that corrupt media, are not valid reasons to adopt the same sleazy standards and morals reflexively attributed by Democrats to Republicans for generations. Maybe it used to be only half the country, when Democrats purportedly stood for strictly objective empirical truth, impartiality and fair play, but now, in light of proven shameless Democratic fraud, deception, false narratives and phony alibis, most of the country insists upon brazenly embarrassing itself beyond all belief. People don’t seem to care whether they are governed by a rigorously open constitutional process or a demagogic dictator who seizes or sneaks into power through fraud, as long as that dictator is from “their” tribe. Shameful.
Boss Hogg would be proud.
Ditto! It’s like a pass interference call in football. My team never deserves a flag and the other side always does.
Yes, primitive tribalism remains at the core of politics, due to the extreme political ignorance spawned by our corrupt mass media.
“It is beyond my understanding why so many rank and file party members continue to embrace the lies and seditious acts that the organisation they entrust with defending their constitutional rights has never stopped perpetrating, even after being repeatedly caught red-handed. ”
The rank and file party members have nowhere else to go and the DNC leadership knows it.
Our electoral system doesn’t work because no one can have any confidence that their vote is counted as cast in a state wide or national venue. Aside from gerrymandering, the purging of voter rolls, and other tricks and techniques of election rigging, there is the manipulation of numbers in computerized vote counts that undermines the validity of US election results. It’s not the Russians or any other outside influence. It’s not possible as a practical matter to do a recount of a presidential election. Why would any rational person have confidence in the outcome?
Fixing the electoral system would be easy in theory but too many players depend on a rigged system. Fact is, no one wants a true count of the majority vote because it would run counter to special interests that have grown accustomed to buying elections. The DNC becomes just another special interest. An electoral system that counted every vote as cast and could be recounted would destroy the oligarchy.
“Our democracy” is a fantasy. Funny how no politician calls for reform of the electoral process. Not even Bernie.
Yes, and the reforms are quite easy, although some require amendments to the Constitution:
1. Limiting campaign contributions to the average day’s pay annually (or similar means) with accounting and penalties.
2. Monitor public officials and all relatives and associate for life, with heavy penalties for payoffs etc.
3. Similar measures to isolate mass media (say over 10% of market in subject area or region) from economic power.
4. Strict monitoring of voting machine design/production/usage, or requirement of manual balloting.
But as you note, “too many players depend on a rigged system.”
Agree, and while such reforms have been needed for decades, they would not change the consequences of Democrats successfully splitting apart their own voting base. By now, middle class liberals simply appear to be unaware of, or unconcerned about, this split, making it a lost cause.
Right. Not even Bernie. And no one talks about Julian Assange either. None of them, including Bernie, wanted what WikiLeaks revealed to be revealed. Bernie’s refusal to fight the obvious rigging last time and his subsequent directive to vote for Hillary were very enlightening. His weak defense of Tulsi Gabbard was also enlightening. Every day I am aware of what Hannah Arendt described as ‘the iron bands’ of totalitarianism tightening and don’t foresee relief in the future.
It puts me in mind of the election of Liberal Justin Trudeau, who campaigned on a platform of reforming the unfair, he said, Canadian voting system of first past the post to a form of proportional representation. (This was after years of a Conservative government.) What a surprise that when he won the election with a majority government, he had a middle-of-the-night epiphany that the voting system is quite fine as is.
The same reason we haven’t gotten tax reform in the US even when people had a modicum of power: Everyone was sure that s/he was a rich person hiding in a poor person’s body and, by golly, when that rich person emerged s/he wanted to keep all the loot. A pipe dream then, a virtual impossibility now.
“Fixing the electoral system would be easy in theory but too many players depend on a rigged system. ” Indeed. First, I have worked many an election and the ONLY people who can steal an election are the people inside the electoral infrastructure. That is, no Russian hacker sitting in Moscow who can change the results of an election. In America it is Americans cheating other Americans. (Just look to the the centuries long disenfrancshment of African America voters or recently in Georgia–not a Russian in sight.)
In 2000 I thought the democratic party leadership would lead the way to electoral reform as there were just a ton of compliants about computer based voting machines. Nada. Instead the democrats blamed Nader. There is only one conclusion. Neither the democrats nor republicans want to give up their electoral advantages to change and alter and the direction of the outcomes of an election.
I first voted in the US in 1972. Nothing important has ever improved because of voting. We get more wars on third world people, more homelessness, no matter which team wins. No wonder more than half never vote!
that’s just silly. Encouraging people not to vote has been highly successful in this country. thanks for your help in making it a successful tactic. CN plays a part in that same old sorry: both sides are equally evil.
This is to Sweet William: Denying party leaders legitimacy, which they both richly deserve to be denied them, is but one way to deal with the utter sham that comprises our electoral system. I don’t judge people for not voting out of sheer outrage and protestation. I have always voted and since I could not abide either candidate in 2016, I voted Green, but don’t judge people for making the decision not to participate in protest. It’s one thing to be completely incurious and apathetic, it’s quite another to be raging mad and calling the system out for what it is- a completely corrupted unethical mess like our fascistic, lying, murdering, bellicose empire, the USA. I am not proud to be an American. But my right to vote includes my right NOT to, Sweet William.
People do not believe their votes are counted as cast because they aren’t. There is no way to recount a national election. Nothing changes for most people by and large while great benefits accrue to the elites. The war racket continues. exploitation of the environment and labor continues. People do not trust their government to work for them, so why vote? This is the result of a rigged system that is not transparent. It is easy to fix the system. Paper ballots will not solve the problem. We need to develop a block chain system for voting. Just as a bitcoin is secure, so can a voter’s ID be secure. You could easily check to see if your vote was counted as cast. The election itself could be recounted quickly and easily. The majority of people are not right wing libertarian or left wing radicals. If the voice of the genuine majority were delivered in an election, the oligarchy would collapse.
Next I would like to hear your take on WHY the Republicans went along with the russiagate conspiracy theory. And what Joe thinks as well.
The MIC funds both parties to a large extent. Trump’s musings about detente with Russia made him the enemy of the establishment on both sides of the aisle.
Because either 1) they’re on the national security gravy train, or 2) they can be easily pressured by all the forces of 1).
Republicans fully support the “Russia-gate” insanity because they see how it has driven away more Dem voters, making Democrats too dangerous to vote for.
I think Antiwar7 has it just about right and so does Skip Scott. I’d add that Trump’s musings on detente with Russia went no further in his tiny, grasping mind than “what will I get out of this personally” if I encourage rapprochement with Russia? Except that the word “rapprochement” isn’t in his vocabulary- but you get the idea.
Despite the blatant manipulation of the 2016 election by the Dems (to Hillary’s chagrin, LOL) and the coordinated post-election disenfranchisement of the elected president (no matter how awful he is) by the collapsed accusations of RussiaGate and likewise the totally fabricated UkraineGate (just think about this for a millisecond – they’re using an anonymous CIA “source” to blame Trump for something Biden actually did, and which has been a basic tool of US foreign policy since WWII), this is only part of domestic election meddling by both parties that includes gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, media manipulation, unlimited anonymous money in politics, electronic vote hacking, supreme court interference, etc., etc., etc.
The entire system is corrupt from the top to the bottom.