How is it that the carefully-researched, meticulously-documented, copiously-footnoted works of Administration critics are dismissed as madness, while the unsupported, categorical rhetoric of Administration supporters is accepted as common wisdom?
Miller is a clear and convincing writer. He's done his homework, and he makes a powerful case, calling the legitimacy of the Bush White House into question. This is a story that has been woefully neglected, even by the 'liberal' arm of the US press. It has been told piecemeal by internet bloggers and non-profit websites. In Europe and New Zealand (!) the story of the election heist of 2004 has been reported by the commercial press, and is common knowledge. But in America, it has been considered slightly loony to question the integrity of our electoral machinery.
'Fooled Again' may just prove to be a turning point for the conventional wisdom. What Miller has done with this book is far more than to document anecdotes of election fraud and put them in perspective. He paints for us a coherent picture that I, for one, have understood for the first time after reading his work. I had been familiar with the economic analysis of right-wing politics - the growing power of multinational corporations, the lobbyists and the PACS, and their dominance in setting our government's agenda. It had seemed to me to be the work of a distant, inaccessible money machine.
Miller adds a psychological perspective, making the actions of the power-grabbers very tangible, comprehensible and real. The subversion of our democracy was planned for decades by people who are not so much evil as afraid, and no more dishonest with us than they are with themselves. If the methods with which they push their agenda seem deceptive, autocratic and draconian, it is because they perceive their situation (and ours) to be desperate.
One weakness of the book is that it focuses exclusively on anecdotal evidence for election theft. There is another half of the story which is told by numerical evidence. The widespread statistical anomalies in the 2004 election provide a context for the anecdotes, so that they cannot be dismissed as isolated aberrations. The statistical story will be told in a forthcoming book by Steve Freeman.
Since November '04, I had been a follower of the internet dialogs about election fraud, and a minor contributor to the statistical analysis. I have found Miller's book to be empowering: He offers us a context in which we might hope to organize a new movement for electoral integrity, setting the system aright before it becomes entrenched.


