A letter from Mike Byron (page 18) to Eric Alterman of MSNBC
in reply to Mr. Alterman's article "Fundamentally Corrupt"
July 16, 2001


Dear Mr. Alterman,

With respect to your essay on MSNBC.com entitled ÒFundamentally CorruptÓ (http://www.msnbc.com/news/600667.asp) I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart for FINALLY articulating the clear and simple truth about the 2000 Presidential election: It was indeed fundamentally corrupt. You may be surprised to know that substantial numbers of people in the US have been actively engaging in peaceful protest of the resultant *illegal* installation of the Bush/Cheney regime. None of these demonstrations have ever been covered by any of the national media. I personally participated in the May 19th voter march in San Francisco and so can testify to this as an eyewitness. You might check out http://www.democrats.com and http://www.votermarch.org for additional information. For that matter you might take a look at http://www.fringefolk.com to gain some insight into the thinking of a broad cross-section of Americans who really share only one thing in common: an abiding commitment to ensure that this unconstitutional aggression against our democracy does not stand. IF this theft of the 2000 Presidential election is allowed to stand, speaking as a PhD in Political Science (UC Irvine 1996) it will mark the effective end of American Democracy. I say this because once the tactics employed by the Republican Party (or a faction of that party certainly the same methodology was employed, by this same fascist-oriented clique to knock genuine Republican, genuine war hero, John McCain out of contention earlier on in campaign 2000) are allowed to succeed, then they will become the new political norm. Once this happens, the parallels with say, late 1920Õs Germany and the delegitimization of the political system of Weimar Germany become frightening. There appears to be a sort of political entropy: unless political systems are ACTIVELY maintained they deteriorate. We have now arrived at that crucial moment of decision, that critical bifurcation point, where our political system either emerges from this crisis with renewed vigor, or where it is *allowed* through our silence, to reward thuggishness, and so gives way to some American variant of Fascism. Accordingly, given your public profile, I implore you to always (in the words of the NAACP) Òspeak the truth to power.Ó More generally I implore you to just speak the truth as often as possible and as clearly as possible. I implore you to encourage, cajole, shame, or otherwise motivate your colleagues to do likewise. Do not willingly acquiesce in this unjust coup dÕetat. And yes it is indeed a coup dÕetat. Former NSC, State Department and CIA analyst and consultant Edward Luttwak in his classic 1968 Òcoup manualÓ Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook, states that: ÒA coup consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder.Ó [pp 26-27] Sound familiar? Please follow your conscience. Finally, I would request that you give thought to taking the logical next step and calling for the resignation or removal of this illegal government. The net harm this would cause the nation is dwarfed by the irreparable harm of allowing this coup to be legitimated and hence consolidated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike Byron

Adjunct Professor of Political Science
California State University San Marcos
University of San Diego
University of California San Diego (Visiting Professor Winter 2000)

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