What Winston Churchill Said*

A while back, I asked if the Democrats have a plan for November 8th through November 12th in case -- surprisingly, somehow, in spite of all the polls -- the Republicans steal the upcoming election. Just as I think it was retarded for Rumsfeld not to have a contingency plan in the event that the Iraqis didn't shower our troops with flowers and candy, I think it's retarded for the Democrats not to have a contingency plan in the event that (as they have for the last three elections) the Republicans Diebold us. As far as I can tell, we've got no contingency plan. We're just going to count on the Republicans playing fair and being willing to hand over power graciously.

Good luck with that.

Now, I'd like to ask another question. (Socrates, as my dad used to note, went around asking people questions. They made him drink hemlock.) What's our plan for the evening of November 7th?

Here, in my most optimistic imagination, is how that evening is likely to play out. There will be stories all day long about voting machine snafus. These "glitches" will result in incredibly long lines that somehow are concentrated in key areas where the Republican candidate is only a few points behind the Democrat. Working people will have to peel out of line and get to work, go pick up their nannyless children, go cook dinner. There will be other "human" glitches that curiously involve more African American voters finding their names inexplicably left off of voter rolls. Those folks might get "provisional" ballots. We won't get any exit polling because the Republicans and their wholly-owned media have figured out by now that it's kind of embarrassing for the exit polling to ALWAYS predict a Democratic victory that the Diebold machines then take away. Along about midnight, there will be a fairly large handful of races that are "too close to call."

I AM WARNING YOU, DEMOCRATS (and I'm looking at you, Jim Webb). DO NOT DO "THE HONORABLE THING" AND CONCEDE. CONCEDING TO VOTER THEFT AND VOTER FRAUD IS NOT HONORABLE, NOR IT IS "BEST FOR THE COUNTRY NOT TO DRAG IT THROUGH A CONTENTIOUS BATTLE." The Republicans won't concede a single one of these races. There will be tremendous pressure on the Democratic candidates to concede, but the Democrats won't have a plan to put similar pressure on the Republicans to concede. The Republicans will mount recount battles and court challenges to every single close race, especially after their tactics have "made" the race close. The fact that this seems hypocritical after they did everything they could to stop recounts in Florida in 2000 will mean absolutely nothing. They are far more interested in retaining power than they are in not looking like hypocrites. So the Democrats better be ready to do the same. They'd better be ready to demand recount after recount on the races they "lose" and they'd better be ready to play serious defense on the races they win. We'd better be ready for a battle that lasts at least from the evening of November 7th until the evening of January 3rd.

Swear to Shakti, I'm going to put a hex on the first Dem that I see come out on Tuesday night and graciously concede. People's lives, in fact, the life of our entire planet, depend upon the outcome of this election. Let's drop the lace gloves and put on our boxing gloves. Let's get ready for the upcoming real fight to win this election. It starts on Tuesday.




*"[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."