27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Final Detailed Review: Our Bunker Hill, June 8, 2009
This review is from: Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (Hardcover)
Edit of 29 Jun 09 to correct 25% of the black population, thanks Mikey.
Edit of 18 Jun 09 to add two books by others and downgrade own books to unlinked mention.
Do not be surprised if your vote "disappears". Amazon has the idea that anyone who votes for more than one of my reviews is a "fan" and should not count. We are all at the mercy of their control of the system.
I am giving this book five stars instead of four because it is the de facto "Bunker Hill" of our 21st Century Nation, doing for politics what Silent Spring did for the environment.
The book needs to be re-issued immediately in paperback with four additions that should themselves be offered free online: an annotated bibliography that properly embraces those who have gone before; an annotated legal list of cases; a list of the worst of the 527's; and a Presidential Decision Memorandum that itemizes the Electoral Reform Act of 2009.
The book does not acknowledge work by many including William Greider, e.g.
Who Will Tell The People? : The Betrayal Of American Democracy or Greg Palast, e.g.
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. The latter bears on the author's being unwitting about Al Gore being bought off in Florida (today he is worth $100 million), with Warren Christopher carrying the offer from Wall Street.
That having been said, this is a SENSATIONAL BOOK not least because for the first time it has gotten Ron Paul to endorse a book and to talk to Ralph Nader in constructive terms--I pray this means that Ralph Nader is now ready to play well with others, including Cynthia McKinney and Jackie Salit.
I have goosebumps as I write this and a huge smile. This book is the first shot at our Bunker Hill and the government Of, By, and For the Banks (see the image I have loaded) is on the run, Goldman Sachs is finishing up its looting of the US Treasury, and I for one am appalled at the lack of integrity across the Senate--John McCain included--in failing to stop this under Bush and now under Obama--what better evidence do we need that this book by this author is "on target"? See
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders;
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy);
Obama: The Postmodern Coup - Making of a Manchurian Candidate; and
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency among many others.
Here are my fly-leaf notes, followed by an itemization of the book's concluding thoughts and other recommended reading.
For me the gem of gems in this book is on page 253, and I quote the author directly: "Whether you can vote--and whether your vote counts--depends primarily on where you live."
In many states such as Florida, 25% of the male black population has been convicted of a felony, served its time, and is still not allowed to vote. I agree this needs to change. [See Intro note 3 for citation].
Across the entire book, using the two Nader campaigns as a source of actual experience--this is non-fiction at its very best--non-fiction of great consequence I might add--the author documents the degree to which state documentation requirements and voting procedures vary "wildly" and can also be intimidating.
Citing Steven Hill and his book
Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics PB, the author quotes Hill: "Winner take all is horse & buggy technology."
The Libertarian Party is mentioned six times, but not recognized by the author as a "main" third party, something I hope Ron Paul's endorsement of this book will change. I URGE THE PUBLISHER TO PAY ATTENTION: this book needs to be issued in paperback immediately, with the four additions detailed above.
I learn an enormous amount in this book, which is certain to be an academic, business, and political classic for years to come.
Terry McAuliffe is an unethical pig. Democratic Party under McAuliffe destroyed Nader's prospects, to include libeling him and creating massive published misrepresentation. I learn from the author that "You can get away with libel if you put it in a lawsuit."
"Campaigns are simultaneously over-regulated, under-regulated, and ineffectively regulated." The entire book documents this assertion.
$250,000 a day is what needs to be raised to be a Presidential candidate.
527s are not only out of control and use the federal complaints progress as well as state by state law suits to put third party campaigns into grid-lock.
3rd parties are not offered Secret Service protection (and in my view need it the most)
Press is a trivializing factor to point that 45% of the public now ignores the press (but I would add, still has no solid "truth teller" to rely upon).
Good chapter on the Presidential Debate Commission which is an unethical and unofficial fraud created to exclude Third Parties, and which uses the police to block third party candidates from even being in attendance.
Over 6 million "lost votes" across the Nation. Diebold is trash (I already knew that, but the book does a fine job of documenting Diebold's criminal insecurity.
Observers are blocked from vote counting by being called "threats to security." I have a note, "Insanity prevails."
I learn there is a National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) which is important, since it was this position that stole the election for Bush in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
The concluding review covers:
Electoral College
Vote Counting
Voter ID
Absentee & early Voting
Military & Overseas Votes
Write-In Votes
Provisional Votes
Recounts
The recommendations for reform are comprehensive:
Eliminate Electoral College
Add Affirmative Right to Vote
Federalize Federal elections
Federal Administration (24 specifics)
State-Level Reforms (25 specifics)
Judiciary Integrity
For a shorter eight-point version, search for <Electoral Reform Act oss.net>. The book ends with thoughts on the consequences of doing nothing. I urge one and all to demand of Obama an Electoral Reform Act of 2009, which itself should be defined by a nation-wide virtual summit among all interested voters.
Three other books of note:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for AllVOICE OF THE PEOPLE: The Transpartisan Imperative in American LifeThe People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring DemocracyI have offered up free online all of the books from Earth Intelligence Network, at oss.net/BOOKS (add the www), and especially recommend the annotated bibliography at oss.net/PIG, as it is a virtual "Citizen's Reader" and my summaries of 500+ books across a range of topics relevant to restoring the goodness of America at home and abroad can be helpful in arming those who mean to government themselves with the power of knowledge. The three best books here at Amazon (out of links) are:
ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig
NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE: Personal, Public, & Political
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
Resist the Borg. Do not be assimilated. Demand Electoral Reform NOW.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nader's Challenge, June 16, 2009
This review is from: Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (Hardcover)
Grand Illusion
The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny
(The New Press: New York, 2009)
By Theresa Amato
A Review by Pat Choate
_________________________________
As the 1996 presidential election approached, the Association of State Green Parties was looking for someone to be their candidate for President. The person they drafted was Ralph Nader; one of the most respected public figures in the United States.
Although the Greens were able to get Nader on the ballot in 22 states, he never had a chance of winning the presidency. However, presidential campaigns are about far more than winning. Being in a race for the Presidency, a candidate has an opportunity to raise issues with the American public in a serious forum. Thus, Nader used the race to highlight policy issues that Bill Clinton, the Democratic candidate, and Robert Dole, the Republican candidate ignored, such as the outsourcing of jobs and industries because of the U.S. participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement and the lack of a national health care agenda. The race provided a unique opportunity, and he made good use of it.
Bill Clinton, the sitting President, easily won the election. Nader got 684,000 votes or slightly less than one percent. Yet, something else happened in that election of great significance. The newly formed Reform Party, and its candidate Ross Perot, received slightly more than eight million votes, though Dole and Clinton blocked his participation in the Presidential debates. Under the 1974 Campaign Reform Act if a party secures five percent or more of the popular vote, they qualify as a "National Party" and thus public funding for the next Presidential election. Suddenly, the possibility of a real third party challenge to the two party duopoly on policy issues and even for public office seemed possible.
Following the 1996 election, however, the Reform Party drifted into internal squabbling, fell apart, and by the time of the primaries for the 2000 election had squandered their opportunity.
Ralph Nader and the Green Party picked up the fallen baton. In the 2000 elections, Nader again led the Green ticket, but this time he mounted a serious effort to secure the five percent of the national vote required to make the Greens a national party. Moreover, the Nader campaign was able to get their candidate on the ballot in 44 states. A five percent win meant that Nader and this new party would have a national forum for at least four more years from which they could raise the issues the two major parties refused to discuss, plus they could mount state and local campaigns. Overnight, the Greens would be a major rallying point for independents and others who wanted real policy and political change. And they would get precious public financing in the 2004 Presidential campaign.
The 2000 presidential race was intense and despite a heroic effort, the Greens were unable to reach the five percent mark. However, Nader did get more than 2.8 million votes or 2.7 percent, a strong showing for any third party. Gore, of course, lost though he won the popular vote. Leading Democrats, then as now, claimed that Nader's success was the cause of Al Gore's defeat.
Even a superficial review of that election reveals that Gore lost because of his political incompetence. He failed to win his home state, where his family had a long-standing political dynasty. He refused to allow his campaign to actively involve Bill Clinton, who though ethically challenged was nonetheless immensely popular with voters. He dithered on how to handle the Florida recount, eventually allowing the Republicans to take the matter before the GOP-dominated U.S. Supreme Court which then stopped the recount in Florida and gave the election to George W. Bush in a 5-4 decision.
Because of Gore's failure, the most incompetent President in American history took the office, led the nation into a seemingly endless war in the Mid-East, and precipitated a collapse of the global economy that wiped out almost 40 percent of the national wealth in a span of his last 18 months in office.
Which brings us to this magnificent book by Theresa Amato, Ralph Nader's campaign manager in the 2000 and 2004 election, and the riveting story she tells.
Amato was both Nader's national presidential campaign manager and in-house counsel for both those elections. She is a Harvard graduate and holds a law degree from NYU School of Law. She has been a fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and at the Harvard Law School. Even better for the reader, she was an insider in those campaigns and knows precisely what happened, plus she is skilled writer and storyteller. While the book covers the 2000 election, it is really about the 2004 campaign.
By late 2003, the disaster of the Bush Presidency was obvious to anyone who would look. Many Democrats viewed Bush's defeat in 2004 as a real possibility if not a certainty.
Because the Democratic leadership believed that Nader was the cause of Gore's defeat in 2000, they decided to do everything in their power to keep him off the ballot in 2004. As the book reveals, their obsession with Nader and the vast resources of money and lawyers they invested in smearing him and sabotaging his campaign is one of the reasons John Kerry lost the election in 2004.
As with the Reform Party, the Greens had internal conflicts by the time of the 2004 election. Thus, Nader ran as an independent. And as in the two prior elections, he had to mount a massive effort to get on the individual state ballots. This time, however, the full might of the Democratic establishment was put against him and his supporters, led by the Democratic National Committee. One of their smears is that Nader was simply an egotist. Another line was that the GOP was financing his campaign. Neither was true.
The challenge to get on the ballot by an independent or third party are a mish-mash that vary widely. Plus, any candidate must carefully follow all the rules imposed by the Federal Election Commission, which was created by the 1974 campaign laws. These state eligibility rules and FEC dictates, not surprisingly, favor the Democrats and Republican Parties and do so overwhelmingly.
To get on the state ballots, Amato hired professional petitioners who are skilled in securing the required signatures. The Democrats responded by enlisting paid and volunteer lawyers to disrupt the process with any legal technique, proper or not, that they could. In Oregon, a prominent law firm sent petitioners an intimidating letter warning that anyone falsely signing a petition may be convicted of a felony with a fine of up to $100,000 or prison for five years. Then, thirty of the Nader petitioners had an unannounced visit at their homes by two persons identifying themselves as "investigators" who asked information about who had hired them and where they were seeking signatures. Amato, of course, protested such intimidation to the Oregon Secretary of State's office, which oversees elections, but did nothing. Subsequently, she learned that the lawyer and "investigators" were working for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) using the same thuggish techniques that anti-union employers use against union organizers.
Despite the intimidation, the Nader campaign submitted 28,000 signatures, although he needed only 15,306 to get on the ballot. The balance was for insurance.
Although all the signatures had been validated by county elections officers, who signed and dated every sheet with an affidavit of authenticity, the Secretary of State's Office created some new "unwritten rules" to disqualify signatures. One new rule was that every signature on a sheet, which may have 50 or more names, must be legible. If even one signature was ruled illegible, the Secretary of State discarded the entire sheet and all the voter signatures. Another "unwritten" rule was that any correction of a date by a single person on the sheet, such as changing a 7 to an 8, meant that the entire sheet and all the signatures were also discarded. After all these new unwritten rules were applied, Nader had a final tally of 15,088 signatures - 258 short.
Ray Bradbury -- the Oregon Secretary of State, a Kerry supporter, and the Democratic candidate in 2004 for reelection to the position- sent out a letter after his decision bragging about how he had kept Nader off the ticket, while asking the recipients for campaign contributions to fund his own reelection. Kathleen Harris, the former Secretary of State in Florida who botched the 2000 Florida recount, looks positively competent in comparison with Bradbury and dozens of other state election officials that Amato identifies in this book.
The Nader campaign immediately appealed Bradbury's decision to the Marion County Circuit Court, which ruled in Nader's favor and ordered his name put onto the ballot. The Secretary of State appealed the decision at the Oregon Supreme Court, which ruled that Bradbury had the authority to make up "unwritten rules" and thus ordered Nader's name taken off the ballot. Amato appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It refused to hear the case.
Over the next several months, the Nader campaign faced 24 similar actions in 17 other states. Repeatedly, they would petition the U.S. Supreme Court for what were obvious constitutional violations and always the Justices rejected their request for a hearing. Perhaps no one should be surprised that a Court that would stop a voter recount and declare the winner of a Presidential election by a 5-4 vote would ignore the pleas of a third party candidate. Legal discrimination comes not just against race, gender, sexual...
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