Posted on 11/03/2014 9:34:13 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Progressive critics of electoral activism—those who question the ultimate significance of lamestream bourgeois politics—would do well to remember the 2010 midterms, a Republican victory that solidified the power of the Tea Party within the GOP and heralded a right-wing takeover of state governments that has immiserated millions of Americans.
A war is being waged on democracy in America.
Brazenly, with a smiling face, the Right is working to shore up the accumulated wealth and power of the 1% against any incursion by the voting hordes.
With the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, the Right—that convergence of billionaire activists, corporations, their salaried retainers, GOP officials (elected and unelected), flush think tanks, underwritten media shops and Republican-appointed judges—has already enabled the super rich and the corporations to give unlimited, secret campaign donations to elected officials and candidates.
Now, no doubt inspired by Jim Crow and our founding fathers, the Right is setting out to suppress the vote through legislative gambits.
Just as our forefathers mostly reserved the franchise for white male property holders, the most popular voter suppression scheme today requires that eligible voters hold property. The property in question: a government-issued photo identity card.
Like land in the 18th century, a valid photo ID in the 21st century is not distributed evenly among the population. According to a November 2006 Brennan Center survey, those who do not have current government-issued photo IDs include: 11 percent of voting-age American citizens (more than 21 million individuals): 18 percent of citizens age 65 and older; 18 percent of citizens age 18 to 24; and 25 percent of African-American voting-age citizens. Further, 7 percent of U.S. citizens do not have ready access to the citizenship documents that are needed to apply for a government-issued ID.
The opportunity presented by these facts is not lost on conservative strategists.
Since the 2010 midterm elections, 22 states have imposed new restrictions on voting. In 18 of those 22 states, the new laws were passed by GOP controlled legislatures, and in one, Mississippi, by popular referendum.
According to a 2014 Brennan Center report, “Of the 11 states with the highest African-American turnout in 2008, seven have new restrictions in place. Of the 12 states with the largest Hispanic population growth between 2000 and 2010, nine passed laws making it harder to vote.” It is no coincidence that both African Americans and Latinos tend to vote Democratic.
What’s more, since the 2010 midterms, nine of the 15 states previously covered in whole or in part by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (due to their Jim Crow-era history of race discrimination at the ballot box) have instituted new restrictions on voting. Recall that in 2013, the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder effectively prohibited the U.S. attorney general from enforcing the Voting Rights Act.
The results of the 2014 midterms—whether the Republicans take control of the Senate and whether GOP governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker win re-election—will tell us if Jim Crow is alive and well and helping the Right win its stealth war against democracy.
These people are insane.
I someone still really trying to pass off that “Jim Crow” blather?
Democrats are outspending the GOP in my State almost 5 to 1.
Democrats comprise most of the millionaires in Congress.
Democrats are funded by more “big money interests” than the GOP. The Koch brothers rank 15th on the list of big money donors and are the FIRST “conservatives” on the list.
Conclusion, this guy is an idiot and deserves a slap to the face with a chainsaw.
“Like land in the 18th century, a valid photo ID in the 21st century is not distributed evenly among the population.”
Unlike “land” ID cards are free.
“These people are insane.”
No, they understand their audience. Their audience hears this and it reaffirms a lifetime of propaganda that they are not slaves, but it’s the evil right that wishes to enslave them.
According to a recent poll, the majority of blacks support voter IDs. Are those black people being racist against black people? (snicker)
Now, no doubt inspired by Jim Crow and our founding fathers, the Right is setting out to suppress the vote through legislative gambits.
So let me get this straight, this buffoon is trying to say that the GOP are acting like Democrats have acted throughout their ENTIRE HISTORY??
ALL JIM CROW LAWS WERE DEMOCRAT CREATIONS.
I think voter id cards aren’t good enough!!!
No id? Fine, place your thumb here bub.
Works for the theme parks. Why not elections?
Such a writer relies for readership on an uneducated electorate of constitutionally-illiterate citizens who have been dumbed down by the education system of his fellow "progressive" regressives making and control.
"Liberty and justice"?
"War on democracy"?
When asked by a curious citizen after the adjournment of the Constitutional Convention what kind of government had been structured by the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin is said to have answered: "...A REPUBLIC, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT."
The extensive Constitutional republic they envisioned, in reality, became a place of liberty and opportunity for countless millions of people from all over the world. Their ideas worked, because they were based on enduring principles which recognized human imperfection and the need to structure a limited government of laws, dependent upon the consent of a people who, themselves, understood the principles. "...there have always been those who wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government. There is but one safe rule...confine (it) within the sphere of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise a revenue or impose taxes except for the purposes enumerated in the Constitution....Every attempt to exercise power beyond these limits should be promptly and firmly opposed." - Andrew Jackson's Valedictory
"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views...." - Jefferson's Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge for Virginia
"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson?...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it....It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." - James Madison
"These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." - Thomas Jefferson-First Inaugural Statement of Principles of Good Government
You need more than a photo ID to get welfare.
Nice try.
Not buying it.
Democrats = cheating
Period.
You wanna vote? Show that you can VOTE, dorks.
Not sure if it’s widely known but should be:
Nelson Mandela wore a tee shirt in 1999 that said
Get an ID
Register
Vote
So who are the Dems to pretend that voter id requirements are oppressive? Or do they think Mandela was stupid?
It’s not Jim Crow at the polling place, it’s Nelson Mandela.
Google It! If I knew how to post the pic I would,,but there are pics of Mandela wearing a tee that says
Get ID
Register
Vote
That would knock the Dems on their azzez!
Thank you post #5!
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