I am one of many who still rage about the 2000 election. Both at the outright injustice of all the tricks and scams that sent George Bush to the white house – but also at the failure of the American people to appreciate the true weight of what it met for our country and democracy and to stand up against this hostile republican take over. That is why I was so happy when you said that you would not concede until all the votes had been counted – and why I am outraged when I woke up on November 3rd to your concession speech.

In 2000 the outraged masses lacked leadership in Washington and had no voice in the mainstream media and debate. I had hoped that if the election went south, you would offer the leadership that was missing in 2000.

The minute you conceded the election began dropping down the list of important issues in the news. While the news was returning to reports on house cleaning tips and weight loss tricks, reports were coming out of Ohio and Florida and many other places about voter fraud, faulty voting machines, and unimaginable voting statistics. The only election talk that remained on main stream media was about the sniffling democrats and how we would manage to pull ourselves out of the Bush victory mud.

Had you not conceded you would have been front page news and would have had a forum to talk about election fraud and the need for reform. Who cares that it seemed “statistically impossible” the people who voted for you didn’t care about the statistical possibility of you winning – they cared about what you stood for and were motivated to get GWB out of the white house. They cared about being counted and being heard. And if you claim to represent those people then you should have kept your promise and stood up for your self and democracy by waiting for all the votes to be counted – or discounted as the case may be.

Had you not conceded the news wouldn’t have been reporting on how are the democrats ever going to regroup. But instead you could have had prominent democrats out spinning the message about election reform and the findings of election fraud. Instead you conceded and all of this became back page news to Bush’s mandate.

Millions of Americans headed to the poles on November 2nd with hope and faith in their hearts, and for many, tears in their eyes, as they participated the only way they could in an effort to restore democracy to the white house and these people voted for you, either out of loyalty or necessity. These people did not lose because they were to few in number, they lost because you broke your promise and you let thieves bully you out of doing the right thing for democracy.