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I received an e-mail highlighting your site -- which I have visited before, calling attention to the Ohio article.
My comments:
1) I am troubled by the way people on the "left" bash each other in public. The "right wing" in this country has become so strong by making a decision about 30 years ago never to bash each other in public. We could take that page from their play book.
2) Bashing Kerry for his decision to concede:
a) John Kerry's brother Cam and Gen. Wesley Clark have been working tirelessly before, during and after the election with Common Cause to assure all votes are counted. We received a letter directly from Cam Kerry shortly after the election.
b) I'm a psychologist by training and practice and my husband and I have been media activists for many years -- I tell you that to give you some idea where I'm coming from.
The day Kerry conceded we believed with every fiber in our bodies that the election process was not over but I l00% supported John Kerry in making a concession speech. I cheered the decision to do that as a good tactical decision. A concession speech is not a legal document; it is a tradition.
What it allowed is a quieting of the process & time to allow the voter fighters to put their "ducks in a row" (We have an attorney friend who worked on Voter Protection in Ohio and so were somewhat up to date on the process and timing).
It took a week or two for those folks to put their reports together. Our friend's husband described the process in Ohio as "Death by a Thousand Cuts"--as she said,there were many ways the process was undermined -- not one single way -- making it harder to determine the How. (the discovery that an African American Attorney General Candidate who was grossly underfunded and who lost -- had more votes in 37 counties than John Kerry stretched the imagination. Possibly her votes were not re-arranged. It took a little time for that pattern to emerge).
I love activists (was/have been one for years.) Bless the Libertarian and Green guys for rushing ahead. I always believed psychologically that Kerry did two things by conceding -- he threw responsibility for fixing this "to the people" -- it is not just his candidacy that took the hit; it is "we the people" and by stepping back, he gave us the power. Now he can bring the $45 million they held back for this fight into the intense legal preparation that will have to be done.
When I was a young activist in the 60's I worked in the inner city of Minneapolis and was tutored by some seasoned African leaders who did not grow up with the privilege of being white. They encouraged me to develop strategy and not always "Holler" right away about everything.
I believe Kerry had learned from the way the Press excoriated Gore that it would be better strategically to step back from the fray and let this come from other places. I think the legal strategy from Day 1 was to anchor this (or these) fights into the states -- to make every attempt to contain the fight inside Ohio so as to attempt to keep the Supreme Court out of it. (This is what I thought the day after the election and everything that has happened has shown that to be true).
I think Gore was a sacrificial lamb in our waking up to how treacherous the election process had become -- and it was not good P.R. for the Republicans to have countless media presentations confirm later that Gore had actually won the election. They attempted this time to get a more solid "win" so they could win the P.R. war.
I'm not happy with the Democratic Party leader- ship either -- I think they played it way too "safe" during the election and were not scrappy enough. We needed Ron Brown. We need to replace Terry McAuliffe. But we need to not be so willing to "air our dirty linen in public".
You certainly have the privilege of saying anything you want but I wish you would consider what I am saying -- and work to strengthen the voter rights coalition which seems to be forming -- giving our friends the benefit of the doubt -- but of course, tellin' them what we want 'em to do.
My comments:
1) I am troubled by the way people on the "left" bash each other in public. The "right wing" in this country has become so strong by making a decision about 30 years ago never to bash each other in public. We could take that page from their play book.
2) Bashing Kerry for his decision to concede:
a) John Kerry's brother Cam and Gen. Wesley Clark have been working tirelessly before, during and after the election with Common Cause to assure all votes are counted. We received a letter directly from Cam Kerry shortly after the election.
b) I'm a psychologist by training and practice and my husband and I have been media activists for many years -- I tell you that to give you some idea where I'm coming from.
The day Kerry conceded we believed with every fiber in our bodies that the election process was not over but I l00% supported John Kerry in making a concession speech. I cheered the decision to do that as a good tactical decision. A concession speech is not a legal document; it is a tradition.
What it allowed is a quieting of the process & time to allow the voter fighters to put their "ducks in a row" (We have an attorney friend who worked on Voter Protection in Ohio and so were somewhat up to date on the process and timing).
It took a week or two for those folks to put their reports together. Our friend's husband described the process in Ohio as "Death by a Thousand Cuts"--as she said,there were many ways the process was undermined -- not one single way -- making it harder to determine the How. (the discovery that an African American Attorney General Candidate who was grossly underfunded and who lost -- had more votes in 37 counties than John Kerry stretched the imagination. Possibly her votes were not re-arranged. It took a little time for that pattern to emerge).
I love activists (was/have been one for years.) Bless the Libertarian and Green guys for rushing ahead. I always believed psychologically that Kerry did two things by conceding -- he threw responsibility for fixing this "to the people" -- it is not just his candidacy that took the hit; it is "we the people" and by stepping back, he gave us the power. Now he can bring the $45 million they held back for this fight into the intense legal preparation that will have to be done.
When I was a young activist in the 60's I worked in the inner city of Minneapolis and was tutored by some seasoned African leaders who did not grow up with the privilege of being white. They encouraged me to develop strategy and not always "Holler" right away about everything.
I believe Kerry had learned from the way the Press excoriated Gore that it would be better strategically to step back from the fray and let this come from other places. I think the legal strategy from Day 1 was to anchor this (or these) fights into the states -- to make every attempt to contain the fight inside Ohio so as to attempt to keep the Supreme Court out of it. (This is what I thought the day after the election and everything that has happened has shown that to be true).
I think Gore was a sacrificial lamb in our waking up to how treacherous the election process had become -- and it was not good P.R. for the Republicans to have countless media presentations confirm later that Gore had actually won the election. They attempted this time to get a more solid "win" so they could win the P.R. war.
I'm not happy with the Democratic Party leader- ship either -- I think they played it way too "safe" during the election and were not scrappy enough. We needed Ron Brown. We need to replace Terry McAuliffe. But we need to not be so willing to "air our dirty linen in public".
You certainly have the privilege of saying anything you want but I wish you would consider what I am saying -- and work to strengthen the voter rights coalition which seems to be forming -- giving our friends the benefit of the doubt -- but of course, tellin' them what we want 'em to do.