| the mindless crowds of haters up close, of which the recent outbursts at Palin-McCain rallies seem a mild resemblance.
We also saw amazing public servants, the members of the Palm Beach County tabulation board, stay awake and at their posts for 2 solid days and nights giving everything they had to get every ballot examined and counted by Katherine Harris' arbitrary deadline.
Rachel and I knew, as did everybody else at ground zero who was hoping to see democracy win out, that our country suffered a coup d'etat when Katherine Harris, purportedly on behalf of the State of Florida but actually on behalf of George W. Bush, declared Bush the winner of Florida even as the Palm Beach County board was still counting ballots and thus was unable to report recount results. (In an unsung act of defiance, they stayed on the job and kept counting until completing their count the next morning.)
My reaction to the whole thing was this: that having succeeded in stealing the election to the presidency through lying and bullying, once in office there would be nothing the Bush-Cheney gang would feel they couldn't do. They would feel no qualms and no restraints about anything. They would feel that they could lie and bully their way through to getting anything they wanted. They had usurped the presidency illegitimately and thus would stop at nothing to achieve their goals of power, power, and more power for the sake of power.
(Unfortunately and sadly, upon arriving back home in Texas I found all too many fellow Democrats saying, "get over it and move on". Many were afraid to confront the reality of the coup d'etat and afraid of what it meant.)
In any event, we all know what happened to our country thereafter. The election we are facing now is the last, best opportunity to clean out the nest of thugs who stole America from its people. It may be the last chance. It is the election of our lifetimes. We have to win it. |
