Where are the rank and file Republicans?

Citizens having to sign loyalty oaths to even attend Bush/Cheney speaking events, being removed from such events because they are not wearing the proper t-shirts, or because they are known democrats, and even a soldier removed because he was standing by a democrat! The purging of felons from the voting rolls, refusing to count provisional votes, the dumping of Democrats registration forms, improper registrations, having to register on only a certain type of paper, phone calls to tell people to vote in the wrong places, the illegal registration of students as Republicans, the intimidation of voters, particularly black voters, changing the location of voting booths, and more. These are all tactics being employed by Republicans to suppress the vote and try to insure the election of Bush/Cheney. Is this what democracy is all about? The real question that needs to be asked here is where are the rank and file Republicans? Do they support and condone this kind of behavior? Have they all abandoned even the pretense of democracy? I know there are Republicans who will vote Republican not matter what. People like my mother-in-law who pays no attention to what is happening and simply says she will vote Republican because she always has. But are there no Republicans who actually care about democracy? Who think people should have the right to vote without coercion, without being cheated and disenfranchised? It has already been made clear there are no honorable Republicans in Congress, but is it the case that there are no honorable Republicans at all? Granted that lying during the campaigns is commonplace, deliberately trying to steal the votes through dirty tricks is quite another problem. Republicans seem to have mastered the techniques and employed them much better than Democrats. Will the Republican base be truly satisfied to have stolen another election through such devious and illegal tactics? Is this what American democracy has become?

Forget the polls. They lie. They also make absolutely no sense. Especially this year as they don’t even include cell phone users. And they cheat in other ways as well. One positive sign that things are going well for Democrats is that the rats are beginning to leave the sinking ship. Think of all the newspapers, including the New York Times, that previously supported Bush but now have switched to supporting Kerry. Think of the fact that apparently Wall Street money has been drying up for Bush. Think of all the thousands of new voters who have registered and are overwhelmingly for Kerry, especially young people. Without the cheating this would be no contest. The best outcome will be if Kerry/Edwards win with a sufficiently large margin to make any challenge simply irrelevant. So get out and vote your conscience. For those Republicans who seem to have no conscience, you deserve what you get.