-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Although Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) does not believe “there is any particular evidence of polls barring African Americans from voting,” there is plenty of evidence that States are making it more difficult for African Americans to vote. Paul is using a strawman argument to recast the voting issue to one in which African Americans are prohibited from voting. Preventing African Americans from voting is the intended result of Republican efforts in numerous states. Using analysis of voting habits, Republicans have passed laws that intentionally create voting difficulties for groups that traditionally vote Democratic. Jim Crow has been dressed up a little, to become James Crow, Esq., but statistically speaking, the results are the same.
In Florida, minority voters waited to vote nearly double the time of white voters, as shown by this graph. 
Statistical analysis of voting patterns showed that 61.2 percent of all early voting ballots were cast by Democrats, compared with 18.7 percent by Republicans. The Republican solution: delete six days of early voting and extend voting hours to accommodate those voters who have jobs. A GOP consultant noted that “cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves.” Although not directly targeting African Americans, the intention is to reduce African American voter turnout.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker closed down DMV offices in predominately Democratic areas after passing a voter ID law. In Ohio, Republicans curtailed early voting from thirty-five to eleven days, including the Sunday before the election when African-American churches historically rally their congregants to go to the polls.
In North Carolina, voter suppression has been taken to new levels. Among the new measures are:
- The end of pre-registration for 16 & 17 year olds
- A ban on paid voter registration drives
- Elimination of same day voter registration
- A provision allowing voters to be challenged by any registered voter of the county in which they vote rather than just their precinct
- A week sliced off Early Voting
- Elimination of straight party ticket voting
- Authorization of vigilante poll observers, lots of them, with expanded range of interference
- An expansion of the scope of who may examine registration records and challenge voters
- A repeal of out-of-precinct voting
- A repeal of the current mandate for high-school registration drives
- Elimination of flexibility in opening early voting sites at different hours within a county
North Carolina now has the strictest voter ID law in the country. US military ID cards will be accepted, but IDs from students at state colleges will not be accepted. In the election of 2012, 1.4 million voters voted straight-ticket Democrat, while just 1.1 million voted straight ticket Republican, so that feature is gone. During the first seven days of early voting in the 2012 election, now eliminated, 458,258 Democrats used in-person early voting, while just 240,146 Republicans did so. Although not directly targeting African Americans, the intention is the same.
There doesn’t appear to be any help from the Constitution which states:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
In a 2007, the Brennan Center for Justice reported (pdf) that “by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare.” If Republicans can’t win by getting more votes than Democrats, they’ll lessen the number of Democratic voters and achieve an identical result.
As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965 regarding the right to vote:
Every device of which human ingenuity is capable, has been used to deny this right.
H/T: Tom Anstrom, Dara Kam and John Lantigua, Ian Millhiser, Washington Post, Associated Press, Charles P. Pierce.
Oro , most white people want everybody to succeed, so stop the race baiting
“Much of the “Racist!” name calling crowd do sooo for emotional reasons.”
And that is truly puzzling to a sociopath I would imagine. Empathy is such a drag when one can spend their day in self admiration.
“Oro , most white people want everybody to succeed, so stop the race baiting”
Some say brevity is the source of wit, in this case not so much.
Somebody from up above: “Here is a tip, most Americans are sick of hearing about race.”
Corrected version: “Here is a tip, most white people — resentful and fearful of their loss of the privileges which accompany being born white — are sick of hearing about race.”
Mike Appleton,
Concisely organized and well written. Bravo.
Regarding point (6), the Republican right-wing faction of the Property Party has indeed become reactionary in that it seeks to roll back political and economic progress made over the last century, while the Democratic right-wing faction has become conservative by default in that it desperately tries to simply hang on to the few remaining shreds of that century of progress. No discussion of contemporary American political culture can even begin until we recognize these facts and insist on a vocabulary that names and describes them accurately. The received terminology of “Conservative” vs “Liberal” has become ludicrous in its inapplicability to the real world of corporate/fundamentalist militarism currently driving policy in the United States.
Regarding point (5) and the ideology (actually, theology) of the “deserving” (i.e., blessed) businessman/preacher versus the “undeserving” (i.e., sinful) poor laborer or indebted student, a useful discussion would further require some historical background on the development of Calvinist Puritanism — an intolerant amalgamation of sacred business and profitable religion — dating back to the Reformation. As Kevin Phillips, a long-time analyst of the Republican party, has written in American Theocracy:
Although useful in some racial contexts, I don’t think that the word “bigotry” covers enough of the Calvinist worldview of the elect versus the damned as defined by class and economic “success” in America. I’ve got some notes to put together on that development which I will try to contribute later.
Again, thanks for a concise and focused presentation of the reality we face today.
Squeeky Fromm said, “Another thing that happens is all the porn has really poisoned the expectations of a lot of guys my age and younger.”
I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds depressing. 🙁 By the way, if you really live in East Texas, it must be friggin’ hot there. It’s friggin’ hot here. It’s sapping my will to do anything. I hope you get some cool things to drink like lemonade or pure fruit juice with lots & lots of ice.
Darren said, “That news report you linked about the firefighters. Those acts alleged are outrageous and totally unacceptable. Very, very bad.”
Yeah, it’s really sad. 🙁 Maybe they can sincerely repent and become good people. It’s possible!
Judging from all of the great white attacks recently, it appears that the Turley blog is enjoying its very own Shark Week. Some observations:
1. The efforts by Republican-dominated legislatures to enact voter ID laws over the past few years is not a response to either real or even falsely perceived voting fraud. That notion has been so thoroughly discredited that it is no longer a subject of debate among reasonable people.
2. Republicans certainly understand demographic changes and voting trends. That is precisely why Reince Priebus has struggled so mightily to broaden his party’s appeal. He has been unsuccessful because the focus has been on rewriting the message as opposed to re-examining policy. But no serious policy analysis is possible when the discussion is controlled by a voting base that is ideologically opposed to the views of a majority of the voting public. Don’t take my word for it. Just ask Marco Rubio, the Human Pretzel of Immigration Reform.
3. An inability to broaden its base means that the Republican Party cannot increase its chances in national elections without an alternative strategy. If the party can’t garner more votes, the only logical approach is to try to reduce the number of likely Democratic voters. Since the voting process is largely controlled by the states under the Constitution, the party has turned to the states for assistance, and their efforts have been quite successful.
4. Pretextual legislation is hardly new in the history of voting rights in this country. Anyone with only a passing familiarity with that history understands that the new laws fall squarely within the tradition that gave us literacy tests and poll taxes. The principal difference is that the internet has made it virtually impossible for politicians to hide their motives. Indeed, a number of Republican officials have admitted the obvious-reducing the number of blacks and students participating in the electoral process means fewer Democratic votes.
5. There are also those who believe ideologically that we should make it more difficult to vote. The principal sponsor of Florida’s new law insisted that he regarded voting as a privilege rather than a right and fully intended to make it more difficult. Other Republicans have publicly bemoaned the fact that voting is not restricted to freeholders, a notion completely in line with the view that those without financial substance are undeserving of all of the rights of full citizenship. Fortunately, such fools are few in number.
6. Those with a knowledge of history also understand that laws imposing new registration burdens and shortening early voting periods are reactionary in the classic sense of that term in that they seek to reverse fifty years of efforts to expand suffrage and increase voter turnout.
For all of these reasons, the assertion that the new laws are merely reasonable measures by reasonable men to preserve the integrity of the electoral process is either naive or disingenuous. It is naive if one does not know the history of voting rights. It is disingenuous if one does.
MikeS:
You can’t really “lose arguments” to people who are not operating on a rational level. Much of the “Racist!” name calling crowd do sooo for emotional reasons. It boosts their self-esteem, and gives them a purpose in life. Plus, a lot of it is just force of habit.
But, there is no Law of the Universe that says people have to do things for rational or intelligent reasons. If they weren’t really screwing with race relations and SYG rights, I probably wouldn’t give a hoot and just figure it would be better than them becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses or Amway salesman.
There is sooo much that is screwed up with the world, that a person could spend all their time trying to fix things, and miss out on good things like friends, cats, books, good films, guitars, music, poetry, and stuff like that.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
MikeS:
Hmmm. So you are a geo-bigot. And no, it was her not me. I didn’t need the extra money or I might have. Plus, I hate all that noise and hollering stuff. My goodness, men whine enough as it is. Why make it worse???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“So you are a geo-bigot.”
“I’m rubber you’re glue…………………”
The extent of Squeeky rhetorical abilities
@MichaelM:
Yep, the whole shebang tends to make a person cynical. My father had the idea that Libertarianism was going to ruin both parties and I think he was right. If it gets bad enough, there will be a revolution here. Probably a mindless one like the French had.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
As Thomas Frank has the populist Kansas teabaggers raging at the “elite” millionaires in their gated community mansions:
“We hate you, and we’ve come to lower your taxes!”
Koch Brothers populism. Something very cynical about this, but it does garner the Republicans at least a fighting chance in the Electoral College.
@michaelm:
There is a lot of truth there. My father used to say when people are doing what they are supposed to be doing, and taking care of business, they don’t have the time or energy to get into a lot of meanness.
Plus, Puritanism can take different forms, which are pretty much reduced to mind control: Somebody wants to tell you how to think, and how to act and what to do, and what to say – all beyond societal norms. I mean people shouldn’t be drunks, but that doesn’t mean they have to be teetotalers.
Which is how I see a lot of the liberal PC stuff, as an attempt to control the whole shebang. Not only should you believe that racism is bad, you have to buy into all the victimology stuff to boot. And whoop it up whenever the rest of the Puritan Crowd whoops it up.
I don’t make whoopie anymore.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“My father used to say when people are doing what they are supposed to be doing, and taking care of business, they don’t have the time or energy to get into a lot of meanness.”
He told you how to think and that was the last time you bothered.
@mikes:
Hmmm. Those are some very persuasive arguments you make! I think I am maybe being swayed by your logic. . .Nope, that was just a passing 18-wheeler. Never mind.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“Hmmm. Those are some very persuasive arguments you make! I think I am maybe being swayed by your logic. . .Nope, that was just a passing 18-wheeler. Never mind.”
Squeeky dear you give yourself far too much credit. You’ve lost the argument to others. You proven yourself a bigot from East Texas. Argue with you, I wouldn’t bother. You’re just a know-nothing teabagger from Texas who has swallowed the right wing authoritarian Kool Aid. I just enjoy making fun of you because your pretensions amuse me.
@Lottakatz,
Thanks for the link and comments. I’ll get back to you on those.
@Squeeky,
No doubt you’ve read Elmer Gantry and know the genre of the hypocrite preacher, but — as usual — George Orwell nailed the real purpose behind political Puritanism in 1984:
You will understand, then, why every time I see or hear a politician, preacher, corporate CEO, or military General — but I repeat myself — piously propound his or her own moral purity, I think: sex gone sour and just tune out. I think a lot of younger people today — and a great many American women — have somehow figured this out and do the same. Not good demographic news for the Republicans, but fortunately for them the Democrats will take the political blame for pornography and crap culture while the Republicans gladly coddle the corporations that produce it — all the while enjoying the pecuniary plunder that comes back their way as return on investment in cynical political and economic prurience — I mean, Puritanism.
Vestal Virgin.
That news report you linked about the firefighters. Those acts alleged are outrageous and totally unacceptable. Very, very bad.
@bobk:
I have been fighting with Birthers for about 2 years. Sooo, yes. I am very much aware that some people get an idea in their head, and it just stays there, and no amount of logic and reasoning will get it out. People like that will go behind a jury, and reinvent facts to suit their preconceptions, and then just argue up and down that wasn’t what they did. They will get their panties in a major wad over something as simple as Voter ID, and then just swear up and down anybody who disagrees is a Sekrit Racist. However, just like with Birthers, most people see through their nonsense. Which is why:
http://www.truethevote.org/news/more-polling-data-show-overwhelming-support-for-voter-id
That number seems to be about the same all over the net.
Did that help???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Lee Atwater has been dead for 22 years. Yet he lives on in the hearts and minds of the RepubliCon Party. Here are some portions of the Wikepedia page on Good Ol Lee:
After the 1980 election, Atwater went to Washington and became an aide in the Ronald Reagan administration, working under political director Ed Rollins. In 1984, Rollins managed Reagan’s re-election campaign, and Atwater became the campaign’s deputy director and political director. Rollins mentions Atwaters work several times in his 1996 book Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms.[6] He states that Atwater ran a dirty tricks operation against vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, including publicizing the fact that Ferraro’s parents had been indicted on numbers running in the 1940s. Rollins also described Atwater as “ruthless,” “Ollie North in civilian clothes,” and someone who “just had to drive in one more stake.”[citation needed]
During his years in Washington, Atwater became aligned with Vice President George H.W. Bush, who chose Atwater to manage his 1988 presidential campaign.[citation needed]
Atwater on the Southern Strategy[edit source]
As a member of the Reagan administration in 1981, Atwater gave an anonymous interview to political scientist Alexander P. Lamis. Part of the interview was printed in Lamis’s book The Two-Party South, then reprinted in Southern Politics in the 1990s with Atwater’s name revealed. Bob Herbert reported on the interview in the October 6, 2005, edition of the New York Times. On November 13, 2012, The Nation magazine released what it claimed to be audio of the full interview.[7] James Carter IV, grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, had asked and been granted access to these tapes by the widow of the recently deceased interviewer, Mr. Lamis. Atwater talked about the Republican Southern Strategy and Ronald Reagan’s version of it:
Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn’t have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he’s campaigned on since 1964 and that’s fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.
Questioner: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”[8][9]
all the talk about voter fraud yet no changes in absentee ballots.
http://watchdog.org/101444/absentee-ballot-fraud-rampant-in-florida/
Squeeky,
Hmmm.
Sooo…you’ll say absolutely anything to gratify your pathetic craving for attention.
No one, including yourself, believes the poorly-crafted, mindless arguments that you offer.
Did that help?
Super service!! Thanks Elaine.
lotta,
I just retrieved your comment.
Help, a posting in reply to Michael Murry got eated by the spam filter- can it be retrieved?