Is America Angola or the Land of Lincoln?

Written by: Eric Weis on Oct 12, 2008 12:11 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends

Yesterday, Christopher Buckley joined the ranks of the Recovering Republicaholics. The signs are encouraging and the polls are looking good.   But are we deluding ourselves?  This election is not yet decided, not by a long shot.

One possible outcome is NO election at all.  Look at the timing of the current economic meltdown and ask the question WHY NOW?  Is it conceivable that the US government might use economic catastrophe to derail the electoral process?  What is the chance that Bush43 will declare some sort of emergency, postponing the national election until such time as things "settle down"?

Unfortunately, all the elements of such a plan may be falling into place.  Read the Alternet article cited below:

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out "Crowd Control"
http://www.alternet.org/rights/101958

Members of Congress were told they could face martial law if they didn't pass the bailout bill. This will not be the last time.

Is this paranoia?  Let's hope so.  In the meantime, send letters to your elected representatives asking them to resist the march towards fear.  We must reject the false security of a posse maintaining order, at the expense of the rule of law.

A Little Relevant History:

In the last year of the Civil War (aka The War Between the States), the north managed to conduct a national election on November 8, 1864.  There were calls for delaying that election.  You can read Abraham Lincoln's words about that election in the following BBC article (the last paragraphs):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3885663.stm

Lincoln was re-elected, running on the National Union Party ticket, opposed by the Radical Republicans.  Four months and one week after winning that election, he was assassinated.  Andrew Johnson succeeded him, and tried to implement Lincoln's moderate Reconstruction policies which sought reconciliation with the former Confederate states.  Radical Republicans opposed being gentle, won control of the Congress in 1866 and then impeached Johnson.

The period of reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, was then characterized by harsh treatment of the south.  One consequence was the rise of the "Dixiecrat" wing of the Democratic party.  It lasted until another Johnson, Lyndon Baines, enacted civil rights legislation 100 years later in 1964.  LBJ predicted at the time that the Voting Rights Act would kill the southern wing of his party for decades to come.  His acumen was clairvoyant.  The fact that North Carolina and Virginia are now "in play" bespeak the vastly different nature of the 2008 Presidential campaign, compared to elections of the past 50 years.

In recent years, national elections have been delayed in Angola, Guinea, Iraq, Ivory Coast and Nepal.  Is our democracy this fragile?  Is America Angola?  Or does the advice of Abraham Lincoln still hold sway?  We are about to find out.

- Arctic Eric

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