PB Post: Conspiracy delusions hold Democrats back

While Democrats in Palm Beach County concentrated on getting rid of Theresa LePore, Republicans in Florida gained three seats in the Legislature and took a U.S. Senate seat. As Democrats looked back, Republicans looked ahead.

It's been a long slide for the party that had dominated state politics. When the 2005 Legislature opens, Republicans will hold 84 seats in the 120-member House and 26 in the 40-member Senate. All statewide offices — governor, attorney general, chief financial officer, agriculture commissioner — are held by Republicans. The next GOP target will be U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, whose term is up in 2006 and who won his seat with just 52 percent of the vote. U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris is just one of several well-known Republicans the party could run in that race or for governor.

So it will do Democrats no good to keep railing about election fraud, as some are doing. Around the state and the country, most voters are happy that there wasn't a repeat of 2000. That hasn't stopped the latest conspiracy theories about the 2004 presidential election. One is that Republicans tampered with machines in Panhandle counties because the registration is heavily Democratic but President Bush won most of the votes. Rather than a conspiracy, the real reason is that conservative Democrats who, for historical reasons, can't bring themselves to change their registration have been voting Republican more and more since Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1980.

For too long, the state Democratic Party relied on such icons as Reubin Askew, Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham and failed to build the party. By losing control of the Legislature, Democrats allowed the Republicans to draw new congressional and legislative districts after the 2000 census. As state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, noted, those "artfully drawn" maps allow the Republicans to control 18 of 25 congressional seats in a battleground state and nearly 70 percent of legislative seats. The Democrats' best move would be to push a constitutional amendment calling for a non-partisan commission to draw the maps. Good government, in that case, would be good politics.

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2004/11/13/a12a_democratsedit_1113.html

Hopefully a few here well read it and take the advice

They (and you) can't really believe this strange propaganda is going to silence us, or calm our rage. There is too much evidence and too much at stake.

It could be worse. We could be reaching the conclusion that the integrity of our election system is vulnerable to incompetence and negligence. I mean really, if you were the GOP, would you want to be found guilty of running a clever, devious stolen election? Or would you rather be found too stupid to lead?

this is pessimistic but labels such as this DO affect many people--

All we're doing is being the other side of an adversarial system. Checks and balances. It's our yob, mon.

It is telling that TPTB prefer to label us nutcases rather than do
the simple, honest, direct thing and just count the votes.

Edit: just like 2000, too, anything but a careful count of the votes.

which actually is not a negative term, its like liberal, theyve been allowed to spin the meaning of the words

Get to work and write these folks, and post your letters.

This editorial seems to be missing the point. The problem wasn't being concerned about fraud, but the focus on individuals rather than reforming the systems that allow the fraud. There will always be another Repubs to take the place of the ones you knock down, but setting up the tools of election to be free of fraud should be the real goal.

county, and it took four years and two botched elections to pry her out.

Adnan Kashoggi's "flight attendant" was an Operative. It was important to dislodge her. The rest of what goes on in Florida is up to the people there to work on at the Grassroots level.

I usually like to read Palm Beach Post...but "Conspiracy Theory" about malfunctioning voting machines is pushing it too far. The blame is with the Jeb Bush regime. They should have voted him out... (well they probably did...but in Florida "votes don't get counted."

willing to share the wisdom of those who want us to shut up and sit down so they can carry on with their plans for a corporate theocracy.

Yadda yadda yadda.

Shove it.

Count the votes.