When Julian Bond was denied his seat

Following the death of civil rights activist Julian Bond, we're reminded that refusal to abide by free and fair elections isn't entirely new among progress's opponents - who once denied Bond a legislative seat that he had won.

Back in 1965, Bond was one of several African-Americans elected to the Georgia House - right after the Voting Rights Act opened up voting registration. But when Bond's term started in 1966, fellow lawmakers refused to let him take office because he opposed the Vietnam War.

Bond took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled in his favor. (This was a much different Supreme Court from the one that gutted the Voting Rights Act not long ago.)

Later in life, Bond was a critic of the George W. Bush regime, because Bush had seized power through election fraud.

Julian Bond had won an election fair and square, but initially wasn't allowed to take office. Yet Bush stole an election and took office right on time. In fact, Bush stole more than one election. I don't think Bush ever legitimately won an election to any public office - even when it looked like a blowout. Didn't one of the networks post the result of the 1998 Texas gubernatorial "election" before most voting had even started? A decade earlier, Bushaganda was already being transmitted by the right-wing media to put the Bush crime family in charge, and anyone who dissented was up against zillions of dollars' worth of the Bushes' Orwellian behavior modification program.