The Workday Liberal

Remember when the moral majority crowd got their figurative pitchforks and torches out to impeach president Clinton because he was 'serviced' by an intern and then lied about it.

How would the nation react if it were to be shown that the leaders and grass roots activists of this very same group who are so concerned about honesty and integrity were instrumental in stealing elections? Which would YOU consider more morally represhensable? Adultery, and then lying to cover that up? (An act which surely is morally repugnant, but has been and will be with us for the rest of mankind as we know it. This practice seems to be rooted in simple human nature actually) Or fundamentally eroding the basis of this nations democratic institutions and altering the express will of the people as expressed through elections? To be honest, what I find a bit scary is that there are probably about 30% of the American people who would reflexively answer that the adultery issue would be more liable when considered against the stealing of our democracy on the scales of moral relativism.


Truthout.org has the transcript of an interview with Mark Crispin Miller, the author of Fooled Again: How The Right Stole The 2004 Election, And Why They'll Steal The Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them). What sets this interview apart from the rest of the exposes on these stolen elections is his focus on the role of the religious right in helping to commit these crimes against democracy:

MCM:This has to do with the peculiarly paranoid quality of the crusading mindset. I believe this theft was to a great extent carried out thanks to a kind of crusader mentality. I've got plenty of evidence in the book that the religious right played an enormously large role in the theft of the election last year.

TM: [interviewer Terrence McNally] I think first of Diebold, I think of the Ken Blackwells or the Kathryn Harrises. How does the religious right itself play a role beyond mobilizing its own troops?

MCM: That mobilization is significant when you consider that a lot of those troops have actually become embedded inside the election system.

TM: Local polling officials, that sort of thing?

MCM: One Democratic election judge tried to observe the vote count in Pima County, Arizona. A roomful of polling personnel who all belonged to the same evangelical church in the area started to call him a liberal demon, a liberal scum.

Whoa there... liberal scum? Where is the spirit of fellowship and harmony. If " by their fruits shall you know them" is to be taken as a measure of these folks, are they only giving good fruit to conservatives but bitter fruit and thorns to those who do not agree with them politically? How shallow is that? Do these folks truly believe that the only way to eternal salvation is through a belief in Christ and conservatism and that the political opposition are "liberal demons"? Judge not and yada yada yada, BUT do not express different political views lest you be judged a heathen!

TM: When you talk about a crusader mentality, you basically mean that if you do not support my candidate you are an infidel - and the ends justify the means?

MCM: Precisely. See, all these crimes that I attest to in the book were committed with impunity by people who regard their political adversaries as demons. And that's not an exaggeration. You know, this government is to a great extent dominated by people who have that metaphysical view of the current political situation.

It is a very serious mistake I believe to think that all of this is happening only because of the excessive greed of certain corporate powers. That greed is decisive It played an enormous role. There is no question about it. But it could not have succeeded without the vigorous grassroots assistance of a lot of people who are religious true believers. And I think that they include the likes of Tom DeLay and others.

The question to my way of thinking is this: If it is proven that these elections were stolen with the help of the religious right, what does that say of the morality of these folks? Not even considering how distasteful I find their support of an adminsistration that is attempting to subvert the constitution, allow for the torture of prisoners, fighting a needless war, lies to the public as a matter of policy, and the list goes on and on. For the sake of argument nevermind all that! Just on the issue of killing our democracy by subverting the vote... if this is proven what does this say of this segment of our society and their moral values?

I believe there is overwhelming evidence that our electoral system is seriously off the tracks, and that it has been hijacked to further the goals of the radical fringe of the Republican party. From the promise of then Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell to deliver Ohio to Bush in the 2004 election to the non partisan congressional GAO report that found system wide failures in voting machine security, and easily half a dozen commissions and organizations documentation in between, we are presented with the specter of democracy as we were raised to understand it becoming a historical footnote.

And this happens with the knowing acquiescence of the party that purports to stand for morality, truth and Christian values, because they benefit from this willful killing of our democracy. Shame!