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What a bizarre article . . .
I'm trying to understand Farhad's motivation for writing this article. Is he concerned that many Salon readers have been misled? That we have been lied to and need to know the truth? Perhaps we have, and perhaps there are more liars out there than Robert F. Kennedy. Regardless, Farhad has bitten off this particular chunk of lies to disabuse his readers of.
Just as RFK is reporting old stories, Farhad is just as culpable for trotting out old rebuttals. Regardless of who is right or wrong, the overall smug, self-righteous affect of Farhad's article comes off like a beach bodybuilder kicking sand in someone's face, just because they can. Sure RFK may be guilty of hyperbole, just like many pushing the other side of this story. Farhad is equally capable of writing an article damning of the election apologists, but chose not to.
Personally, I do not think there is anything wrong with being extra careful when it comes to insuring the legitimacy of our election processes. I'm not at all surprised that those who share my belief have sunk to the same tactics used by those who wish to undermine our basic right to choose our leadership. Like Farhad, I would prefer that people know the truth and act appropriately, but - wow - how on earth does he think beating up RFK is going to help anything?
Regardless of whether or not the election was stolen, if a stack of election irregularities can pile up at the feet of congress and ultimately be shrugged off as a normal part of the election process, unfortunate but unavoidable, what is to stop true electoral manipulations. It should be patently obvious to all in power that if they actually do try steal an election, any evidence will be written off as normal ("it happened in '04, right? And that election was clean!" Farhad demonstrates that if the conspiracy nuts keep pushing the issue, there will always be a someone willing to divert the conversation into the realm of political-infighting to fuel his own ego.
There's no reason to assume malfeasance must be limited to one party. After all, if they are doing it, we can't win without doing it too, right? Without a legitimate election process, we are not a democracy. Legitimacy must be protected and encouraged with all our energy. The onus must not be on our people and institutions to prove fraud where it may have occured, but to maintain all appearances of legitimacy and effectively investigate anything which undermines it. In this, the last few elections have been abject failures.
If Farhad really wants all us conspiracy nuts to crawl back into our caves, perhaps he might spend some time advocating for election reforms that limit the ability of political operatives to influence electoral politics and criminalizes the most egregious methods. I would doubtless sleep better if I thought there were real consequences for cheaters -- as it is, a politician (or party) these days would have to be an idiot not to.
