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Letters on “Bush administration takes steps to cancel US election”

The following is a selection letters on the July 12 statement of the Socialist Equality Party, “Bush administration takes steps to cancel US election” and other WSWS articles on the same subject.

It seems rather incredible to me that the Bush administration would go out of its way to publicly announce that the US is making preparations to cancel the presidential election in case of a terror attack, unless such announcement was actually a signal to Al Qaeda indicating to them when the Bush administration desired the next attack to take place, for maximal political effect. Are these announcements really just “trial balloons” to see how much the public will allow them to get away with, as some have wondered, or are they communicating a tactical message to our so-called enemies?

M

13 July 2004

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Your article is quite comprehensive, the best I have so far seen on this latest threat to civil rule in the US on behalf of the unelected crypto-fascists at the helms of power. Several points I think worthy of further amplification: The floating of this story in the mainstream press at this time serves as a means of providing entree to just those elements and coalitions disposed to carry out a terrorist attack preceding the ’04 elections.

It provides a signal to them that the way will be made clear—through forms of “benign neglect” and even active assistance by elements of the intelligence establishment (as took place during the 9/11 attacks)—for the carrying forth of just such an attack.

If this appears excessively conspiratorial to some, I suggest a more through investigation into the collaborative circumstances surrounding and facilitating the 9/11 attacks as well as the attacks preceding the recent Spanish elections, several very good articles about which have appeared in these very pages.

It’s also worth noting that plans for Martial Law, domestic concentration camps and military occupation have been on the books for some time. Do a web search for “Operation Garden Plot” and “Rex 84” for starters.

As well, as implied by your article, the floating of this story is a way of “softening up public opinion”; intending to blunt opposition beforehand to declarations of martial law, suspensions of elections, and comprehensive suspensions of democratic and legal procedure. A sort of preemptive “psychological operation” aimed at the broad masses of the US public. In the same category have been the whole absurd litany of “Code Orange” alerts put forth by the Commissars of “Homeland Security”.

Also, in a bizarre way, such threats serve to legitimize the two-party monopoly capitalist electoral setup since it implies that these elections really do make much of a difference and that their cancellation would mean much. Even though it’s clear that the policies pursued by both the Dems and Repubs are virtually identical in that they reflect the consensus of their plutocratic funders.

Our hope is that enough of the population is awake to the fascist criminality of the Regime—in no small part thanks to alternative media and sites such as wsws.org—that the more ruthlessly inclined sectors of the ruling classes involved perceive these plans as unworkable.

Another deeper political element which I believe comes in to play as motivation for the engineering of domestic and foreign terrorist networks and operations at this time, are impending resource shortages (oil, natural gas, potable water, etc.), whose imminence makes it that much more imperative to the ruling classes that they gain total control of their sources and disbursements.

SZ

Albuquerque, New Mexico

13 July 2004

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Dear brothers and sisters,

In your article you state in the last paragraph: “The essential issue is the creation of a genuine political alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, the parties of the corporate and financial plutocracy.”

That reminded me of a passage in the introduction of Richard Hofstadter’s The American Political Tradition, published in 1948. He says, “Although it has been said repeatedly that we need a new conception of the world to replace the ideology of self-help, free enterprise, competition, and beneficent cupidity upon which Americans have been nourished since the foundation of the Republic, no new conceptions of comparable strength have taken root and no statesman with a great mass following has arisen to propound them.

Bereft of a coherent and plausible body of belief ... Americans have become more receptive than ever to dynamic personal leadership as a substitute. This is part of the secret of Roosevelt’s popularity, and, since his death, of the rudderless and demoralized state of American “liberalism.”

I very much enjoy reading the WSWS news clips I receive from you.

Sincerely,

JB

13 July 2004

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When I first brought up the WSWS article of 4-28-2004 about the Bush regime using criminal means to retain power by canceling the elections and declaring marshal law, several people thought that this was just another extremist view. Now that the current regime is moving to stranglehold all branches of the government, the premise doesn’t seem so extreme anymore.

We have reached a point in this country where radical change is needed, radical change that is just as extreme as declaring martial law and canceling elections. Radical change that begins with the workers of this country supporting a true alternative to the gangster thug mentality of the rich Republican and Democrat parties. The workers of this country, the people that care about their families’ futures, need to stop cowering behind lies of changing the system from within, need to stop running scared from their shadows and the “Terrorist Menace” and support the only alternative that comes from outside the corrupt two-party system. The Socialist Equality Party is the only true way to force change and the last hope for the workers of this country and the world to reign in the jack-booted thugs with their corrupt policies, that have installed themselves in the highest offices in the world.

C

13 July 2004

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Dear Editor:

This article is greatly appreciated. There are those of us who have been predicting the collapse of the Wall Street Wall since the fall of the Soviet Union. All dictatorships are born from public catastrophes or social upheavals. The one factor that was not mentioned in this excellent article is the advent of the military of mercenaries that was conjured up in the 70s. So much then for the Constitutional proscription of a ‘large standing army’ and the assurance that it will not be used against the populace.

PS

14 July 2004

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