Was “Kamala Harris” a hologram?
How about “Al Gore”? “John Kerry”? “Hillary Clinton”?
And how about the “Democratic Party” that ran them…and that
now embraces irrelevance in a hollow, timid shell as Donald
Trump dismantles American democracy?
Despite the uncounted millions who organized, funded and voted
for them, those four Presidential candidates and their Party have
left American democracy in need dire of political leadership powerful
enough to regenerate an electoral system that actually answers to
its populace.
By a dubious official vote count, Donald Trump in 2024 carried
less than half the US electorate. More than 75,000,000 citizens
are known to have voted for Harris.
But then she disappeared…as if she’d never run…as if the tens of
millions who organized, raised money, sweated blood and voted
for her had no reason to expect her to continue the fight.
Harris has two downfalls in common with Gore, Kerry and
Clinton:
They’ve all denied that race-based Jim Crow vote stripping swung
their elections to George W. Bush (2000/2004) and Donald Trump
(2016/2024).
And they’ve all vanished immediately after their dubious defeats,
doing zero to protect American democracy.
This time it’s VP Harris who’s vaporized before our eyes, along
with any real Democratic challenge to what really happened in
this election.
This epic unwillingness to protect or even scrutinize the vote has
gutted the American electoral process, enshrining the
Trump/MAGA dictatorship with no effective opposition or
foreseeable end.
In Florida 2000, Al Gore rightfully defeated George W. Bush.
But Bush’s brother, Governor Jeb, did a Jim Crow purge on
enough eligible voters----mostly of color---to claim a phony 537-
ballot “victory.”
As reported by Greg Palast, a “wrongful purge of thousands of
Black Floridians from the voter rolls” denied the Democrats the
White House. As reported by Bev Harris, the theft was
augmented by “irregularities” that flipped thousands of ballots in
Volusia and other key counties.
The 2000 coup was nailed by a “Brooks Brothers Mob” that
violently attacked the south Florida vote count. The theft was
soon certified by a shamelessly partisan 5-4 Supreme Court.
Al Gore completely ignored the corruption of 2000’s electoral
process. While presiding over the outgoing Congress, the VP
killed a legal Black Caucus attempt to convene a formal
investigation of the Florida Electoral delegation that decided the
election.
Gore later importantly confronted the epic issue of climate chaos.
But he never addressed the obvious reality that Governor Bush in
2000 had disenfranchised just enough voters of color to swing
that election. .
Instead, the Democratic Party screamed for years at third party
candidate Ralph Nader, trashing a genuine change-maker while
failing to reform our elections.
Ohio, 2004’s unreconstructed election was then easy prey for Karl
Rove and his “dirty tricks” regime. The Buckeye election was run
by a GOP Secretary of State who also ran Ohio’s Committee to
Re-elect Bush.
As reported from Columbus by Bob Fitrakis and I, among many
others, Ohio 2004 was hijacked by an astonishing array of dirty
tricks that are still in play.
Kerry had a $7 million legal challenge fund. But when our
grassroots coalition detailed to his staff how Ohio 2004 had been
stolen, Kerry went wind surfing. The Dems still won’t deal with
any of it.
In 2010, with Barack Obama in the White House, the Rove GOP
used gerrymandered maps to seize state legislatures and the US
Congress. Obama glibly called it a “shellacking.”
But the “Ratfu**ed Coup” left a fascist phalanx firmly in control of
the nation’s power structure. (Obama also ducked the game-
changing chance to grant statehood to the District of Columbia or
Puerto Rico).
Still yelling at Nader, the Dems in 2016 again blew off grassroots
demands for a democratized election. The Party’s refusal to
protect voters of youth and color in the primaries let the hacks
bury Bernie Sanders’ grassroots candidacy.
In the generals, Team Trump did the same to Hillary Clinton,
shredding swing states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania
(among others). Green Party candidate Jill Stein convinced a
Michigan judge that a recount was warranted. But even with the
presidency on the line, Hillary Clinton skipped town.
In 2020, Covid demanded mailed out/in paper ballots. The
grassroots democracy movement was able to protect them.
Despite what was likely our history’s most accurate count, an
incumbent Donald Trump refused to accept that he’d lost by 7
million votes.
Through his very loud four-year hiatus, Team Trump pushed
scores of anti-democracy Jim Crow attacks through their
gerrymandered legislatures. The Democrats’ ineffectual response
was colored by their excuse that if they attacked the legitimacy of
any election, their constituents would not show up to vote.
But they never explained why that would matter if those citizens
were deprived of their ballots anyway…or if the ones that made it
through would then be trashed.
In 2024, a quarter-century of avoidance came home to roost.
Elon Musk’s “lottery” fused with a tsunami of computerized dirty
tricks. And a decisive Jim Crow campaign (as again documented
by Greg Palast) disenfranchised the millions Trump needed to
retake the White House.
As ever, the losing Democrats said nothing. And their candidate
vaporized the day after.
As Trump destroys what’s left of American democracy, the
Democratic Party elite continues to attack the grassroots experts
and organizers who warn that without core reforms, no coming
election (if there are any) will restore our democracy.
From Gore’s autocratic override of the Black Caucus, to Kerry’s
wind-surf, to Hillary Clinton’s nixing a court-approved recount, to
VP Harris’s instant disappearance, there’s been ZERO effective
reform of the American democratic process.
“When we fight, we win,” she so famously said.
But then ---like Gore, Kerry and Clinton---the VP fled as if she’d
never run.
The mainstream Democratic Party continues to attack those who
warn that our electoral process is poised again to be manipulated
and stolen.
But the candidates for whom the activist public pours so much
time, effort, money and hope have historically vanished, along
with the pro-democracy organizing might be expected from a
Party that calls itself “Democrat.”
The epitaph is painfully obvious.
Our “one dollar, one vote” Citizens United government is now
owned by a cruel, digitized billionaire elite.
Without grassroots bottom-up reforms, or focused leadership, no
elections that might come in 2026, 2028 or beyond will stop such
an entrenched dictatorship.
Even amidst the horror of the Trump coup, the call to stand firm
elicits hostile denial from top-down Democrats unwilling to fight for
the universal right to vote, or to make sure those votes are
counted.
Our most basic rights and freedoms will not survive without
effective, enduring push-back from grassroots organizations and
political parties ready to defeat the corporatized theft of our
gerrymandered Jim Crow elections.
Until that comes, “American democracy” is a long-gone illusion.
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Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman co-convenes the Green Grassroots
Emergency Election Protection Zooms most Mondays at 2pm
PT www.grassrootsep.org. He wrote The People’s Spiral of US
History, &, with Bob Fitrakis, many books on election protection
[ www.freepress.org ].
Also visit www.Gregpalast.com to see Greg Palast’s “Vigilantes Inc.”