It nearly sent me through the roof when John McCain alleged in the final debate that intentional voter fraud by ACORN - which registered 1.3 million mostly non-white voters in the past cycle - could result in “destroying the fabric of democracy”. The allegation that ACORN or any other group that registers large amounts of voters are responsible for organized voter fraud is completely misleading and hypocritical. According to Marc Crispin Miller in his recent interview with Bill Moyers, in the last four years there have only been about 150 cases of anyone charged with intentionally voting unlawfully. And only a fraction of these cases have been prosecuted.

One of the major differences between the two parties is that Democrats would like to make it easier for more people to vote and Republicans would like to limit voting only to their supporters. When Republicans try to make the public scared about voter fraud, it is really because they don’t want anyone to notice that they themselves are responsible for major sources of voter disenfranchisement.

Both parties would seem to agree with the premise that larger turnout results in Democratic domination. Almost invariably Republican efforts at voter suppression are aimed at minorities and the poor, or in other words those least likely to be the party faithful. In every cycle, minorities are singled out to be purged from voter rolls based on inaccurate and arbitrary data bases, to receive phone calls and mailings with intentionally misleading information and to deny adequate voting equipment in minority neighborhoods.

The allegations against ACORN represent just one of the right wing’s favorite tricks in its big bag of dirty tricks. It’s called the “TELL A BIG ENOUGH LIE” strategy.

It works like this: Accuse your opponent of doing something terrible. Accuse them before they accuse you. It doesn’t matter that you have been doing the same thing all along. Accuse them in a way that paints their actions as an affront to American society. Accuse them often so that in the echo chamber you have created, your outlandish statement will begin to ring true. At campaign events, whip the faithful into a frenzy over the terrible things the opposition has stooped to. In the din you have created, your own behind the scenes manipulation of the same set of factors may go unnoticed.

This is the Republican strategy in their allegations against ACORN. And also in the end they are looking for a way to discredit the entire election if McCain loses. It’s like they are pre-loading for that moment in Citizen Kane when there are two layouts for the front page of the newspaper. 1) Kane wins; 2) Voter Fraud.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Joseph Goebbels