What Will it Say to Young People Like This if the Republicans Steal the Election Again?

I no longer expect elections to be fair. I no longer expect Republicans to respect people's right to vote. I no longer expect my vote to be counted. I no longer expect voting machines that accurately record the vote and that aggregate correctly. I now assume that the election taking place in less than a month will be stolen by John McCain and Sarah Palin with the help of the thugs they've whipped into a frenzy, the executives of the voting machine companies, and their shills in the media like Tom Brokaw, who has turned Press the Meat into a "Vote McCain" commercial.

But I am 53 and I am a cynic.

In 1968, another generation endured a year that saw its symbols of hope mowed down not at the ballot box but by bullets. Another generation wanted an end to the relentless feeding of the giant war machine. Another generation thought it could, through the ballot box, effect the changes that would end the Vietnam War. That generation saw its candidate of hope mowed down in the Ambassador Hotel, and the icon of the Civil Rights movement mowed down on a motel balcony. And it rioted in Chicago as a decent man who just happened to have the misfortune to be tied to the policies of an unpopular president nominated for the presidency -- and lose a close election to the hated Richard Nixon.

And for the next four years, there was unrest in this country, led by SDS, the Weathermen, and their ever-more-nihilistic brethren.

No wonder the McCain campaign is so obsessed with William Ayers. No wonder they want to tie Obama to him at the wrists and ankles.