FROM JOHN ELDER (http://www.jelder.com) 

As the recounts & court cases drag on, more & more Republikkkans have been showing up at the weekly rally. While the "Every Vote Counts" crew is social & friendly, singing folk songs & drumming, the Republikkkans seem out for blood! They shout obscenities and flip us off from across the street. They yell through megaphones that Al Gore can suck their [expletive deleted].  These are angry, mean-spirited people.

Then I thought about the reports from Florida, about the thugs who were flown in, fed, and housed by Republikkkan operatives and members of Congress for the purpose of stopping the vote-counting in Miami-Dade County. The mob, at the orders of Representative John Sweeney (R-NY), stormed the vote-counting center and punched, kicked, and trampled people.  Members of the mob made the threat that 1000 hard-core Cubans were on the way.  One of the voting officials gave the mob action as one of the reasons the vote-counting was stopped.

That's not about the rule of law, it's about rage. I could understand rage if people were forcibly kept from voting, if gross fraud were perpetrated, if ballots were never accurately counted. I could understand rage if a state legislature kept the popular vote from deciding who electors would be. I could understand Democratic rage! But what I hear, even from the most partisan of Dems, is a commitment to abiding by the law, to working within the system (and no, neither your opinions nor mine determine what lies within the law--that is a decision for the judicial branch of government, and appealing to the judiciary is part of the system).

Where does this rage come from, in a group which is ostensibly winning the election? Why the rudeness, the violence? I certainly  don't want to paint with a broad brush. This isn't about Republikkkans, it's about a few rude, rage-filled people, a small mob in Florida, the occasional driver with a rude bumper sticker. I believe that most Republikkkans are law abiding, courteous people who would never do these things.

But, the Republikkkan agenda attracts some scary people, frightened people, people who are tired of losing and want to win. They love a call to arms against gays, abortion, liberals, immigrants, welfare moms, drugs, anybody but themselves. They love to hear that the government is going to "get tough" on those bad folks and leave them the heck alone. These people lead tiny lives, they feel that what little they have is threatened. The Republikkkan Gospel spells their salvation, if only the durn Liberals will get out of their way!

They're scared. They're insecure. They're not reasoning this through--they're acting straight from their limbic systems. They feel compelled to fight back. They're so angry, they have to yell and cuss at people who disagree with them. We, who disagree, are a threat--the threat which they see destroying America, eroding their lives.

If they were just a bunch of inbred refugees from Deliverance, we could probably ignore most of them (& disarm the rest before they climb into clock towers). But they're not. They are our neighbors, our cousins, and our brothers (but not our sisters, the women I know are generally too smart to fall for horse plop like that!). They need our love & support--then maybe they'll calm down and let the process take its course. Allow for the rule of law, not of mobs.

So hug a Republikkkan today. Sure, 99.5% of them are just fine & probably will wonder why you're suddenly so compassionate. But that other 0.5%? They need a good hug. They need to know that we're gonna be OK--and what's more, their guy is probably going to be inaugurated.

George W. Bush kept telling us how he could reduce partisanship, get both parties to work together. Well, now's your chance to make that happen. Hug a Republikkkan. Mob scenes are ugly. I prefer the rule of law.

GREAT QUOTE:
Alan Dershowitz explains why the Republicans aren't stealing the election, legally speaking:  "...what they're committing is robbery.  Stealing is done with stealth, while robbery is done in the open by force."