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With a backdrop of the sub-prime lending scandal, the exposed greed of Wall Street, the hugely expensive and pointless Iraq wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and finally the near financial meltdown of the USA economy, America goes to the elections on November 4th.

John McCain and Barack Obama

For the American voter not to boot out the Republicans and give the Democrats a chance could only mean that the country has been seized by a collective madness for which there can be no cure. Even the prospect of every US citizen having to fork out 2,200 dollars to bale out the banks and save the skin of the very industry which has ripped the country off for years, seems not to bother a frighteningly large number of Americans. Hundreds of thousands of poor people’s homes are on the verge of being repossessed, yet that inexplicably doesn’t appear to register as an unforgivable failure of the current Republican administration.

Gretchen Morgenson a financial commentator with the New York Times stated last month:

“The ugly thing about this is this is privatizing gains and socializing losses. So when things are going well, the managements make out, the shareholders make out, the counterparties are fine. All the private sector people do well. But when something goes wrong, when decisions are made that turn out to be bad decisions, the U.S. taxpayer has to take on the problem.” – see the video

So despite opinion polls currently giving Obama a significant 6-10% lead over McCain, I still think that there’s a real possibility that Obama will lose the election. Here’s why:

Fear is the over-riding emotion that appears to drive middle-America. Fear of attack by terrorists and fear of plots being hatched against America in countries which don’t like American intervention around the world. Fear of losing their lifestyle based on abundant cheap energy. McCain is ex-military. Over and over again vox-pops show citizens saying that they “feel safer” with McCain in charge, and “he knows how to protect us”. The fact that McCain has a very short temper and access to a huge nuclear arsenal, while at the same time appearing to know little about world affairs, beyond what his advisor’s tell him minutes before opening his mouth, or whisper in his ear after he’s made a gaff, doesn’t seem to bother these people. I guess, with only 20% of Americans owning a passport, he still knows more than them!

Sign from West Plains, Missouri

Racism may be more influential in the final vote than opinion polls currently indicate. It is feared that many white Democratic voters are saying to the pollsters that they will vote for Obama, but on the day will not do so. The frequent refrain from white working class voters is “I’m not sure if we know enough about Obama” – which appears to be code for “I don’t want no uppity nigger telling me what to do”. The Republicans have cultivated these doubts by making much of the fact that Obama’s middle name is “Hussein” – “That’s foreign ain’t it – He’s an Arab – He’s a Muslim – Like that Saddam guy we whopped Iraq?”

Update – 22nd October 2008 – On today’s edition of Democracy Now!, Mark Crispin Miller says that there is virtually no evidence for the mass last minute changing of voting behaviour described above. The Republicans however are happy for this theory to be perpetuated as it gives them a “narrative” to explain how an Obama loss (achieved through widespread registration fraud), has happened against the opinion poll predictions of an Obama win. See todays Democracy Now with an Interview with Prof. Miller 12 minutes into the programme – http://tinyurl.com/6qpkg

Vote Stealing is emerging as a possible major factor in the outcome on November. Mark Crispin Miller, a media studies scholar from New York University and author of “Loser Take All: (Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008)” explains how election fraud is happening to an unprecedented level – mostly to favour the Republicans. Vote suppression is used to shrink the size of the electorate before election day, and Election Fraud is used on election day mainly through the use of electronic voting machines and systems, whose operation is opaque to all but the technical experts. No public verification of the electronic vote can take place as it can with paper votes which are counted, or recounted, by human beings. Miller gives a full explanation on this video in an interview with Bill Moyers.

One hopeful sign is that since the 2004 election the American public have become more aware of the possibility of having the election stolen again and are prepared on election day to turn out at polling stations and record evidence of polling station fraud. Video the Vote is a national initiative to protect voting rights by monitoring the electoral process and then distribute video footage to the mainstream media and online to make sure the full story of Election Day gets told.

Greg Palast, an investigative reporter and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the lawyer son of the assassinated Attorney General have been investigating how, since before the 2004 election, people have been systematically removed from voting lists, reducing mainly the Democratic vote. They have launched a non-partisan website “Steal Back your Vote” to explain to people how people can protect themselves against these practices. They have even produced a 24 page manual in comic book format which explains how people should deal with attempts to steal their vote. It can be downloaded from his website for a minimum donation of 1 dollar.

Palast did a report for the BBC Newsnight programme which was re-broadcast on Democracy Now! It’s split into 3 on YouTube. The 3 parts of the video are below.

View / Hide Part 2 of video

View / Hide Part 3 of video

If Barack Obama’s fails to get elected, it will for me be the final nail in the coffin of American democracy. It will prove that the system which America is attempting, through war and intervention to spread throughout the globe is little better than the dictatorships oligarchies and fiefdoms it wishes to replace.

With McCain and Palin in the Whitehouse, America can only look forward to more of the same failed international and domestic policies which over 8 years of Bush have failed to improve the health and well being of so many of it’s citizens or enhance America’s standing in the World.

Update 30th October 2008: Further coverage of the flaws with the electronic voting system and vote rigging can be found on the websites of  Harvy Wasserman FreePress.org and Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

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