337
Two great turns of phrases by Robert Parry in his book on the October Surprise–the allegation that the Reagan campaign colluded with Iran to delay the release of the hostages to guarantee the election for Reagan:
The long genealogy of Republican chicanery and the Republican family reputation for electoral manipulation and intelligence abuses that both preceded and followed the 1980 election.
Pg. Xiii
As I documented in (Chapter A) of all the examples I put forward in this book about GOP electoral chicanery up to and including colluding with a hostile foreign power to win the Presidency, no doubt the claim about Reagan-Iran 1980 is particularly controversial-as elite opinion has long since relegated this theory to a cold, unmarked grave.
The allegedly liberal media saw it as a bad joke-they saw Whitewater, and even Vince Foster not really having committed suicide as a lot more plausible-note that it was Vince Foster that precipitated Janet Reno’s appointing of an Independent Counsel.
Yet I take it in this book for likely being true-based on a reasonable suspicion-probable cause possibly preponderance of the evidence standard rather than beyond a reasonable doubt-to establish that there’d need to be a real investigation. And with the story of what happened in 2016 being withheld by Coverup Bill Barr
This DOJ explanation is baloney for they could have gone to court to get the grand jury info released. They haven’t done anything other than stall. Barr doesn’t want the Mueller Report out. https://t.co/zErnMPsSVp via @politico
— John W. Dean (@JohnWDean) April 4, 2019
who has time for such a historical excursion?
Why? As Parry notes, there is a long pattern and history of it. Parry also mentions Nixon circa 1968. If a party-the Republican party-rigged two elections with the help of a hostile foreign power-1968 and 2016-it’s much more plausible that they did the same thing in 1980.
Indeed, the fact of 1968 and 2016, make 1980 possible true and possibly false but either way not absurd-as the ‘liberal media’ treated it.
UPDATE: The simply awful MSM reaction to Barr’s’ fake exoneration suggests that the MSM has become tired of Mueller as they became tired of Irangate by the early 1990s. The only stories the ‘SmartSet’ doesn’t tire of are fake investigations of Democrats.
And the recent history clearly shows Parry was right-this Republican chicanery has continued post 1980 and post 2016.
Indeed, while some-not necessarily of great imagination-may find it hard to wrap their heads around the idea of colluding with a foreign power we have the more prosaic cases of GOP electoral manipulation everyday. In North Carolina where the GOP-ironically-used voter fraud, in Wisconsin who just like North Carolina after a Democrat won in 2016 is trying to limit the incoming Democratic Governor’s power.
I mean wether or not the Reagan campaign colluded with Iran in 1980, it’s clear the GOP has no principled opposition to minority rule and overriding the popular will. Check out sore loser extraordinaire, Scott Walker:
Sore loser Scott Walker just signed legislation that will strip power from the Democrat who unseated him in November. https://t.co/tAkFiWGDmI
— American Journal News (@AmerJournalNews) December 15, 2018
How exactly do you get to do this in a democratic country?
On one of his last days as governor, Scott Walker signed a law stealing power from the Democrat who beat him.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker just signed legislation that will strip power from the Democrat who unseated him in the recent election.
On Friday, Walker signed an undemocratic bill that had been jammed through by his allies in the Republican-led Assembly.
“The new measures will give the Legislature, not the governor, control over the state’s economic development agency; limit early voting to give Republicans an advantage on election days; and strip other powers from the state attorney general, an office that also flipped from Republican to Democrat.”
“Crucially, the new law will prevent Democratic governor-elect Tony Evers from ending Walker’s war on Obamacare. Evers won’t be able to withdraw Wisconsin from a major lawsuit attacking the health care law.”
Evers slammed the power grab in a statement.
“Today, Governor Walker chose to ignore and override the will of the people of Wisconsin,” Evers said. “This will no doubt be his legacy.”
The reason Evers won”t be able to override it is the Legislature will still be controlled by the GOP-thanks to a hyper gerrymandered map where, even though the Democrats won 54% of seats in Legislature races, the Republicans will actually control 63% of the body.
So overriding the will of the voters is the rule not the exception of the GOP which is why you should logically always hold them to be guilty not innocent regarding election chicanery. The history of their anti democratic dirty tricks is so long, broad, and compelling, that it amounts to prima facie evidence-as noted elsewhere, prima facie evidence reverses the burden of proof to the accused-a classic example is Trump’s talk of a Muslim ban during the campaign. In light of that, the actual ‘travel ban’ he’s attempted to install as ‘President’ can be presumed to be a Muslim ban in fact-the burden on proof is on him to prove that it isn’t.
UPDATE: No that the Republican Supreme Court ruled his Muslim ban legal doesn’t mean it’s not a Muslim ban.
“Today, Governor Walker chose to ignore and override the will of the people of Wisconsin,” Evers said. “This will no doubt be his legacy.”
“Before signing the bills, Walker made excuses on Facebook for supporting the extreme legislation, and laughably asserted that the change was really about increasing “transparency” and “accountability.”
“Walker has held his position since January of 2011. If he really thought that curtailing the governor’s powers was necessary to ensure transparency and accountability, perhaps he should have done something about it earlier in his eight-year tenure.”
“Voters in Wisconsin sent a clear message on Election Day rejecting Walker and his approach to leadership. Walker and his party reacted like sore losers by manipulating the laws to weaken the effects of the election.”
“Other Republicans across the country are following the same pattern. In Michigan and Florida, Republican lawmakers are doing the best that they can to thwart the will of the voters and keep their party in power and control.”
“Republicans are losing elections, but they’re refusing to get the message voters are clearly sending. Instead, they’re stealing power and subverting democracy.”
Sticking with the horse that brung em.
The lesson is that voters have to make them pay-November 6 was a start but until they get it-assuming they ever do-they must be in the penalty box and voters must view Republicans anywhere ‘with prejudice’-to use a legal term, that is to say, presume they’re corrupt authoritarian cheats until seeing a compelling reason not to believe so.
In chapter A I argued the GOP should be in the voter penalty box the next 20 years. That might be too generous, time will tell.