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Reflections from the
Election...Part II
Posted 12-1-2004
Why did John Kerry end the presidential election with $51 million in
his campaign fund? Couldn't some of that money have been used to maybe swing
Ohio voters his way? Bush ended with about $17 million, and Gore had ended
the 2000 election with only $3 million. If Kerry is saving it for 2008, that
is foolish.
So much for graciousness from
the Republican Party and the right-wingers that are claiming to have
delivered a victory for Bush, but I hope the right-wingers try to make this
country a theocracy. Eventually, they will push too far, and there will be a
response from moderate Republicans. Already we see Republican majorities in
counties like Montgomery, Delaware, and Lehigh vote for the Democratic
presidential candidate in pretty large numbers in the last two elections.
I know you are saying, what
about Westmoreland County? We seem to be going in the opposite direction. I
don't want to oversimplify the issue, but take the partisan daily newspaper
out of the mix, and our county might be moving to the Right, but surely not
as much. The daily paper lost any vestige of impartiality when it sued
Kukovich.
In 12 years, we have seen a
44,000 vote swing from the Democratic candidate to the Republican candidate
for president. I doubt that large of a swing took place in too many other
counties in Pennsylvania or the country for that matter.
Please, can someone explain
to me why Westmoreland County is moving in the opposite direction of the
other larger counties in Pennsylvania when it comes to national politics?
Are our demographic qualities that different? We may have an older
population than the counties surrounding Philadelphia, but just what segment
of the county's electorate is moving in a different direction than the
people in southeastern Pennsylvania?
Can we just end any
discussion of a "liberal" media once and for all? Where has the outcry been
from the media over House Republicans changing the rules so Tom Delay can
stay in his leadership position if he is indicted along with some of his
Texas friends that have already been indicted? If that were Democrats trying
to do such a thing, we'd see one self-righteous Republican after another on
television crying foul. Let's remember, the Republicans in Congress pushed
for the rule to be in place when they were feasting on Dan Rostonkowski, the
former Illinois congressman. I think it is a fine rule, but we all know it
should cut both ways. But if the media goes silent, unlike it did through
the entire Clinton presidency, it can only been seen as in the pocket of the
Republican Party.
Now, Senator Frist wants to
silence moderate Republican in the Senate also. He wants to change the rules
there, so the leader can appoint the first two members of any committee,
thus if moderate Republicans don't toe the line, they lose committee
assignments. How much of an issue has the media made of Frist's power play?
I am glad the Green Party and
the Libertarian Party are not meekly going away in Ohio, but will file for a
recount in every single county. Voters have the right to know if the votes
were counted fairly, and these states that have partisan Secretaries of
State, like Ohio and Florida, cast a cloud over fair elections. Congress
passed the Help America Vote Act to supposedly ensure fair elections. Why
not prohibit states from allowing their top election official from being
politically involved in campaigns?
Any of those supposedly
Democratic committee people that helped Regola, should do the honorable
thing and change party registrations. With Democrats like them, who needs
Republicans?
Say good-bye to our solid and
honest lever voting machines. Again that Help America Vote Act is compelling
us to scrap our machines that work just fine. Those machines must be
replaced by computerized machines by the end of 2005. They will supply
one-third of the money and guess who is paying the other two-thirds?
And finally… if the exit
polling was wrong again (how come it is only wrong in the last two
Presidential elections?) about who won the Presidency, how could it be right
about "values" being the number one issue?
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