I just came back from Target where there was a young man gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to fund children's hospitals. At least, that's how he got my attention.
Since these paid signature gatherers do not usually have only one petition with them, and since I was suspicious that he was collecting signatures for the initiative to change the way California awards its electoral votes, I asked if that was his only petition. He said no, there was one on eminent domain, and one on the electoral college. I told him I would not sign his petitions and he made a snide remark, confirming what I knew: the children's hosptial petition and the eminent domain petition were not his main interests. He was going to use people's compassion for sick children and their fear the government might seize their property to get signatures for another Republican Party attempt to win an election they cannot win fairly and squarely.
These ploys (this one and the nonsense in the past two elections in Florida and Ohio) are signs of desperation. As the failed policies of the Republicans in power are exposed and people turn to new leadership in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party will resort to anything to stay in power. If it means rigging voting machines, they will do that. If it means scrubbing the voter rolls of legitimate voters whose names kinda sorta resemble the names of felons, they think it's a jolly good idea. If it means making African Americans - who mostly vote Democratic - stand in the rain for hours to vote, causing many of them to give up because they had to get to work, they'll do that too.
If the American people really want to keep a Republican in the White House for another four years, even though the dollar is dropping, gas prices are at an all time high, the stock market declined again today, the real estate crisis is causing tens of thousands to lose their homes and even more to lose their jobs, and we are on the verge of total meltdown in the Middle East with crises in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, then I will accept the will of the people as I believe in our system of government. But at least I want to know the vote was fair and that the parties respected the process. This latest ploy of the Republican Party isn't just dirty tricks, it's completely undemocratic.
