In Democracy in America is pure fantasy. Reviving the republic starts off with reforming how we elect public officials. Short of that, darker days are ahead.

In America and elsewhere, electoral fraud isn’t new nor should anyone be surprised it occurs. But as technology improves, so are better ways found to pre-arrange outcomes. It’s easier than ever today so more time, effort, money and other resources are earmarked for it. The result:

*elections and their run-up are mere kabuki theater; the major media and PR industry play the lead role; everything is pre-scripted;

*secrecy and back room deals substitute for a free, fair and open process;

*candidates are pre-selected;

*big money owns them;

*key outcomes are predetermined;

*both major parties share fault;

*partisan politics serve the privileged;

*they get the best democracy money can buy;

*elections give them cover;

*independents are shut out;

*the media ignore them;

*issues are unaddressed; horse race journalism and trivia substitute;

voter disenfranchisement is rife; many are peremptorily stricken from the rolls; others are intimidated not to vote or are detered by various illegal practices;

*a little known one is called “vote caging;” it’s to suppress minority voters by delisting them if they fail to answer “do not forward” registered mail sent to homes they’re not living at – because they’re at school, in the military, or away for other reasons;

*4.5 million or more Americans can’t vote because of past criminal records, or they’re currently part of the largest prison population in the world at 2.3 million; mostly black and Latino; and increasing by around 1000 a week;

*half of eligible voters opt out because their interests go unaddressed;

*elections are privatized; touchscreen electronic machines do our voting; 80% of all 2004 votes were cast and counted on corporate-owned, programmed, and operated ones with no receipts for verification and no vetting of their “trade secret” software; computer professionals knows these machines are notoriously easy to manipulate – to erase votes, make ones for one candidate show up for another, go dead and be inoperable, or control an entire computer network through one machine and be able to change, add or erase votes easily

*Stephen Spoonamore is a self-described “life-long Republican” and one of the world’s leading cyber crime experts; from a just released October 2006 interview, he explains how the “structures” of Diebold’s machines are inherently flawed and what he considers “IT junk;” regarding the 2000 and 2004 elections, he says:

“There is a very strong argument (that they were) electronically stolen, the hanging chads were just a distraction….I think (Diebold machines) are brilliantly designed….to steal elections;” so

*losers are declared winners, and not just for president; as a result, the electoral process assures people lose out, or put another way – operatively, democracy in America is pure fantasy.
Calling it corrupted and needing repair barely explains things. We have a two-party duopoly. Democrats are interchangeable with Republicans. Differences between them are minor. Not a dime’s worth to matter. Both sides support corporate interests, imperial designs, aggressive wars, and the divine right of capital to exploit workers, gain new markets, control the world’s resources, and rule it without challenge. Unconsidered – beneficial social change and real electoral democracy with every US citizen 18 or older eligible to vote as the Twenty Sixth Amendment allows.

Constitutionally Flawed by Design

Ferdinand Lundberg separated myth from reality in his critically important book titled “Cracks in the Constitution.” It masterfully deconstructs what he called “no masterpiece of political architecture,” no “Rock of Ages,” and “the great totempole of American society” that, in fact, is deeply flawed. Duplicitous “wheeler-dealer” politicians and their cronies (what today we call “a Wall Street crowd”) created it for their own self-interest with no consideration whatever for the greater good. “We the people” were nowhere in sight even in the Bill of Rights that was enacted through compromise and solely to benefit wealthy property owners who wanted its protections.

From the beginning, privilege counted most in America, and it’s codified in our most sacred document. It was designed (in Michael Parenti’s words to) “resist the pressure of popular tides (and protect) a rising bourgeoisie’s (freedom to) invest, speculate, trade, and accumulate wealth” the same way things work today. It was so the country could be run the way politician, jurist and first Chief Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said it should be – for and by “The people who own” it for their self-interest. And to appear nominally democratic “for the defense of the rich against the poor,” according to Adam Smith.

Consider voting rights alone that are reviewed below in detail. The Constitution granted our most fundamental right – what Tom Paine called “the primary right by which all other rights are protected” – to privileged adult white male property owners only – around 15% of the population at the time. Native Americans were being exterminated. Blacks were commodities. Women were just childbearing and homemaking appendages of their husbands, and common ordinary folks were to have no say about how the country should be run.

Over time, constitutional and legislative changes as well as High Court rulings opened the process to everyone 18 or older and allowed states the right to enfranchise younger voters at their discretion. Yet today the system is deeply flawed. Large numbers of eligible voters opt out or are excluded, and a host of ways shut out poor minorities most likely to vote the “wrong” way if they’re enfranchised – so they’re not.

Even though the Constitution, Amendments, other laws and High Court rulings prohibit voting discrimination, violations, in fact, are common and abusive. In addition, no law ensures the universal right to vote under one uniform standard the way it is in most countries. States instead can set their own procedures and norms as long as they set don’t conflict with federal laws, but this created a patchwork of 50 different systems no democracy should tolerate.

Proportional Representation v. Winner-Take-All

Most democracies have proportionally representative (PR) government unlike America’s winner-take-all system…

Full Story: http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/091508Lendman.shtml