-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
There are two ways to increase your chances of winning an election, get more voters to cast their ballots for you, or get fewer voters to cast their ballots for your opponent. The GOP had decided to pursue the latter option.
There is nothing more sacred in a democracy that the right to vote, so an attack on voting rights is an attack on democracy. That is exactly what is happening in many states across our land. Republican governors and legislatures are passing laws making it extremely difficult for certain Americans to vote.
The Republicans use the illusion of voter fraud to mask their contempt of the Constitution. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice found the incidence of voter fraud at rates such as 0.0003 percent in Missouri and 0.000009 percent in New York. Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center said “Voter impersonation is an illusion.” The Brennan report also states:
We are not aware of any documented cases in which individual noncitizens have either intentionally registered to vote or voted while knowing that they were ineligible.
Kris Kobach, the secretary of state of Kansas and longtime conservative activist, has led the voter ID drive in his state. Kobach explained that between 1997 and 2010, Kansas has experienced “221 cases of reported voter fraud.” A dubious claim since not a single criminal conviction has resulted. Over the same period of time, Kansans cast 10 million votes. Even if everyone of the claimed cases of voter fraud were accurate, the rate of fraud would be miniscule.
Numerous surveys show that blacks, Hispanics, the elderly, and the young are less likely like to possess a form of government-issued identification. Except for the elderly, the other demographics are more likely to vote Democratic. The elderly are more likely to vote Republican. In a shameless display of the falsity of their voter fraud motivations, Republicans in Texas simply exempted the elderly from the new voter ID law.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, after signing a voter ID law requiring voters to have a photo ID, then closed DMV offices in Democratic areas and expanded DMV operating hours in Republican areas. South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said she “will go take them to the DMV myself and help them get that picture ID.” Even with carpooling, it would take 7 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 5 days to take the 178,000 voters to the DMV. That assumes good traffic conditions.
H/T: WaPo, Bloomberg, E.J. Dionne, Think Progress, Daily Kos.
Elaine M.
No the private sector didn’t. It was easing lending practices to people who had no concept of a dollar. Many people didn’t read their contracts and borrowed way above their heads, I do not blame the bank because every person knows what they earn and what they spend and should be accountable. Adam and Eve tried to pass the buck and blame the serpent and that didn’t work out too well.
Otteray Scribe
With an expanding population, increase in unemployment, lack of manufacturing, and unfair trade deals with the rest of the world, Do you believe the government can continue down this path of reckless spending with entitlement spending? As I stated earlier the only solution is to what we did as a nation as a result of the 1837-40 amd 1930s depressions: Increase tariffs and bring manufacturing home. In addition, we have to do something about unions even though many progressives don’t want to talk about it. The past is there to learn from. Friday Dylna Rattigan(MSNBC) explained well why we are in a mess: It began with Clinton, continued with Bush, and exploded under Obama.
Jack,
“I never said anything about not helping people. I stated that we as a people are more apt to give dollars and expect others to take care of the problem rather than giving of our time.”
Many people work long hours; some work two jobs. They also have to do food shopping, clean their houses, do laundry, make out bills, take care of their children–and maybe their parents. Not all people have the time or the energy to care for the elderly and the disabled in their “spare” time.
P.S. I believe it was the private sector that blew a hole in our economy. We taxpayers had to bail out the banks, AIG, etc.
People, I would rather be me than someone with a personality disorder.
Otteray Scribe
I never said anything about not helping people. I stated that we as a people are more apt to give dollars and expect others to take care of the problem rather than giving of our time. When government gives it creates a lot of abuse and waste and of course beauracracies. Also, we would tell those who abuse the system to buzz off and help those who are really in need. That is why entitlements would best work in the private sector.
Otteray,
Some folks prefer immoral posturing.
anon nurse, fabulous link regarding who’s editing Wikipedia. Considering how much heat Diebold takes for their voting machines I’m not surprised at their involvement at all.
Srsly, Illegals, the 3/5 designation and taxes? Can no thread remain un-corrupted by the manifestly ADD tendencies of the likely suspects. You know, there’s medication for that. The Professor is wise to not have me on the short list of posters he would trust as a guest poster- I would not hesitate to erase mean-spirited and stupid posts and block other posters of the hi-jacking kind with a whimsical and capricious abandon, for just cause, just cause I could. 🙂
@Otteray Scribe,
Are you done with the moral posturing? Did it refresh you feelings of moral superiority?
D**n, my posting, with relevant quotes just disappeared with some kind of auto-refresh. I’ll try without the quotes, more or less.
Well, two things: The Civil Rights Act speaks only about restricting literacy tests. Other qualifying procedures are not enumerated. While the Voting Rights Act has a more broad statement about protecting voter rights both statutes specifically single out race or the 15th Amendment. The VRA also provides procedures for how a proceeding initiated by the Attorney General will be handled and what procedures regarding oversight of a state or smaller state subdivision can take place if the Attorney General prevails.
The good news is that while the actual statutes regarding voting rights are narrowly focused the actual procedures to make it difficult to vote generally make it difficult for more than one protected class so that any remedy that removes the impediment re-establishes voting rights to all affected classes.
The bad news is the the Justice Department doesn’t appear to be interested in even performing oversight in the states it it charged with overseeing (Preclearance) changes to voting qualification laws in the states it has a statutory requirement to oversee.
It looks like people or on their own in securing voting rights these days.
“The United States Commission on Civil Rights recently reviewed the Justice Department Preclearance record and found that the percentage of DOJ objections to submitted changes has declined markedly throughout the 40-year period of the Act: from 5.5 percent in the first period to 1.2 percent in the second, and to 0.6 percent in the third. Over the last 10 years, the overall objection rate was so low as to be practically negligible, at less than 0.1 percent.[15] The Commission’s two Democratic members dissented from the report, charging that the Commission had “abandon[ed] the field of battle.”[16]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act
The second thing is, OS is right, getting the vote is one thing but using a completely unreliable system to do it and count it is something else altogether. We need to go back to paper and pencils, easy and verifiable.
Jack and others who think like Jack:
I do not dislike you, do not hate you and do not disrespect you. I simply pity you. Pity for your lack of compassion, lack of empathy and lack of soul. Pity for your inability to see a larger picture than your narrow economic self interest. I truly feel sorry for you and all who think like you.
I sincerely hope you do not fall on the kind of hard times that have befallen others and that if you you do, there will be programs that will save you. Those are not empty words; I mean that.
@Frank
Why don’t you expalin in your own words,or at least in owrds of other’s you understand why the 3/5ths clause was all about.
“yes, to there ever lasting shame Ds did vote for it. ”
Thank you.
“just like to is Rs that passed part D with the stipulation that the government could not negotiate prices on drugs. It gives the drug companies a ton of money & ensures that this new Medicare is unsustainable.”
Support? Who voted for the bill?
Klwon boy – just like to is Rs that passed part D with the stipulation that the government could not negotiate prices on drugs. It gives the drug companies a ton of money & ensures that this new Medicare is unsustainable. Rather than fix the problem by buying in bulk & getting a better price they want to pretend there is a real crisis and the only solution is to gut the entire program.
Klown boy – yes, to there ever lasting shame Ds did vote for it. But is Rs that now want to steal that money to hide Boy Georges tax cut devastation.
Klownderosa – really it was a Republican that first really tore up the Constitution. Good old Abe Lincoln! He stole private property from fine gentlemen and pissed all over the 3/5ths clause the founders had written out explicitly.
And I bet you think the world would be a better place if that had never happened and chattel slavery was still the law of the land.
Jack,
No one knows how long they are going to live. Many elderly people are living longer today than they did in the past. Many may have put money aside for their retirement but have used up what they had saved because they lived longer than expected. What do you suggest we do with those elderly who no longer have money to pay for their own medical care or nursing homes?
I’d prefer that my tax dollars help pay for the care of the sick and elderly who don’t have the money to pay for themselves. I think it’s much better than spending billions of tax dollars on wars and giving tax breaks to huge corporations. To me it’s all about the priorities a society has. Many people in this country seem to have lost their compassion and empathy in recent years.
Frank, you aren’t entitled to your own historical facts.
A majority of Democrats voted for that bill in the House and a majority of Republicans in the House voted against it.
anon nurse:
interesting quotation.
Why does it have to be suffering which gives man existence? Sounds rather bleak to me and pretty depressing, in fact it seems like the guy would rather be dead.
Jack – let me clue you in to a little secret. Back in the 80’s when Reagan tripled the national debt in his first term by cutting taxes actual conservatives panicked. The result was to create a phoney crisis about the solvency of social security and raise the taxes on working people. That extra money was spent to disguise the real cost of the income tax cuts. There are now several trillion dollars of surplus paid in, so when you suggest taking away SS and Medicare simply to maintain the income tax cuts Boy Blunder and his Super Friends passed in his first term you are stealing from working people to give more money to people who already have an awful lot of it. Much of it earned by the sweat of people who paid those additional FICA taxes.
Then of course, the Progressives came into power in the 30s and tore up the Constitution.