Letters to the Editor
-
Looking backward
"So Walsh, Manjoo and their supporters here think the best thing to do is move on and focus on how to fix our electoral system and win future elections. Because we'll never be able to prove outright fraud in 2004, because we don't know for certain that it existed and because there may have been no criminal acts involved anyway, there's no profit in looking backward and risking alienating moderate voters by appearing petty or dishonest, especially when the Kerry campaign should have done a much better job in the first place."
If THAT were the case, I'd completely disagree with Walsh and Manjoo.
My position - and I think theirs - is that we should look back. Walsh points out a number of examples where Salon has been a leader in exposing election problems and voter suppression, each of which looked back.
However, their position is to put the truth ahead of the politics - to look for errors in claims.
What the heck is wrong with that? Do you want an error-filled case to go to the general public where it'll actually, for once, get attacked with accuracy by its opponents, and turn the issue of election wrongs into a 'boy who cried wolf' one which gives the republicans even MORE license to get away with the wrongs, because they know the public won't again listen any time soon to reports of wrongdoing?
I am disappointed by the many letters which criticize Farhad for being so completely wrong without any evidence.
We should put the truth first. If Farhad gets it wrong, then say how and expect him to correct it. I've seen many posts of people attacking him as having his mind made up that the election was not stolen, when it seems to me he's the one looking at the evidence to form his opinion, rather than just assuming the conclusion first and 'fitting the facts' around it - something that we so often criticize the right for doing.
I expect Salon to look back at 2004 and continue to investigate and report on the many problems.
They have done a lot of that, and more is needed.