The Threat Of Another Stolen Election

By James Donahue

After that incompetent nincompoop George W. Bush left Washington and the U.S. economy in shambles following his stolen eight-year term in the White House, who would have believed that another G.O.P. candidate with a really frightening agenda would be challenging President Barack Obama’s campaign for a second term?

If the big corporate-owned media outlets and their daily poll numbers are to be believed, challenger Willard "Mitt" Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan, the man who wrote a budget plan designed to strip middle and lower class Americans of just about all government assistance programs, are running neck-and-neck against the incumbent President Obama.

Who would believe that American voters would willingly vote to give up all of the benefits the government has faithfully provided for them, including Mr. Obama’s hard-fought new but fledgling health care plan? If they do it, it means that they have been cleverly intoxicated by the barrage of big corporate-financed advertisements to believe the great Republican lie that things will get better under the Romney-Ryan regime.

If they win that office on November 6 it means that big corporate interests have gained complete control of the United States. It means that a wealthy few characters operating from behind the curtain are pulling the strings of government and that American workers are doomed to lives of serfdom, working long hours for low wages (if they even have jobs) and without health, vacation and retirement benefits.

Unemployment and welfare benefits, Medicaid, Medicare and "Obama-care" all stand threatened by the Romney-Ryan plan. The promised tax cuts will be implemented, even for the very rich, and instead of putting federal dollars into education, health programs, green energy technology and repair of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, it will be sucked up by the massive industrial military complex. To assure this, the nation will probably be involved in another war, possibly with Iran.

While Mr. Obama has made many disappointing decisions since taking office, he has maintained and even managed to expand many of the government assistance programs for the poor and unemployed, worked hard to get that health care plan for all Americans in place, battled a Republican dominated Congress to launch some infrastructure repair and provide badly needed jobs and taken steps to support the advancement of alternative energy programs. He appointed two moderate women to positions on the Supreme Court. He invested and consequently saved the U.S. automobile industry from collapse. He shut down the Iraq War, has been working to get US forces out of the 12-year-long conflict in Afghanistan and has been working hard to avoid military confrontations with Iran and Syria. There are more Americans working now since Mr. Obama took office.

He did all of this, yet Mr. Obama appears to be taking a lot of heat for not getting the damage caused by the Bush years fixed fast enough. The Republicans, who successfully prevented the kind of progress Mr. Obama might have made, are feeding on this growing public anger. We didn’t think the people would fall for the ruse, but apparently they lack good memories or they just aren’t informed enough to understand what has been going on in Washington.

The right-wing dominated Supreme Court’s controversial ruling that corporations may pour money into campaigns is responsible for that deluge of mud-slinging television, radio, Internet and mailed advertisements driving us all insane. The ads are slamming the Obama Administration, Democratic candidates for State offices, and a variety of local issues designed to protect union rights to bargain, force the labeling of GM foods at the grocery stores, force electric companies to convert to green energies and other issues not favored by big business interests.

Another concern is the link between Romney and Bain Capital and its subsidiary H.I.G. group which recently took over Hart Intercivic. Hart Intercivic is a major electronic voting machine company. One of the important key voting states, Ohio, largely uses voting machines provided by Hart Intercivic. Who gets to count those votes in Ohio?

Is the nation being set up for another election theft like the coup pulled off by George W. Bush when he and his brother, Jed Bush, governor of Florida, got away with it in 2000? That election was so botched that the conservative Supreme Court jumped into the picture and gave Bush the job even though Democrat Al Gore clearly captured the popular vote.

Will the uninformed and illiterate American voters buy all of the insane rhetoric coming into their homes this fall? Will they march blindly to the polls and vote to put corporate ropes around their necks? Or will they prove to be smarter than the GOP manipulators and plotters expect them to be?