Posted on 08/23/2015 4:42:56 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A writer over at The Washington Post has a bold new proposal he believes can heal the American racial divide: empower blacks by making their votes count more than those of other races.
“Racial reconciliation is impossible without some kind of broad-based, systemic reparations,” writes Theodore R. Johnson, a former White House fellow and current Ph.D candidate in law and policy at Northeastern University. “But if a pecuniary answer can’t fix the structural disadvantage — and it can’t — what can?”
The answer, Johnson argues, is simple: weighted voting, where black votes count for more than white ones. Specifically, Johnson suggests giving each black person five-thirds of a vote, to reverse the old three-fifths compromise written into the U.S. Constitution.
As Johnson gleefully notes, counting black votes more than others would significantly alter many elections in the U.S. In the 2012 election, several Southern states with high black populations, such as Mississippi and Georgia, would have swung over to Barack Obama’s column, and their recent Senate races would have been decided in Democrats’ favor as well.
Johnson justifies his argument by saying it’s the only way to solve the “structural disadvantages” faced by blacks.
“A five-thirds compromise would imbue African Americans with a larger political voice that could be used to fight the structural discrimination expressed in housing, education, criminal justice and employment,” he says. “Allowing black votes to count for 167 percent of everyone else’s would mean that 30 million African American votes would count as 50 million, substituting super-votes for the implausible idea of cash payments.” With black voters so massively empowered, politicians will have no choice to but to put black priorities first if they hope to remain in office.
Johnson pays lip service to the important democratic principle of “one man, one vote,” but then dismisses it on grounds that the term is “unclear,” by pointing to a Supreme Court case that has nothing to do with the topic of explicitly giving one racial group super-votes.
Having taken care of his justification of the policy itself, Johnson goes into detail about how it should be constructed. He says it only needs to last for a set period of time (he proposes 24 years), and he also proposes taking inspiration from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for handling the thorny topic of who counts as black and who doesn’t.
To conclude, Johnson forthrightly says that only reverse racism will be sufficient to achieve the goal of racial justice.
“Of course, weighted-vote reparations are only slightly more politically feasible than a multi-trillion-dollar payout,” he says. “But we have to consider novel approaches to racial reconciliation … if we are serious about ridding the nation of barriers to opportunity and overcoming the racial discrimination woven into America’s fabric. If racism is the culprit, then dismantling it requires the same tools that constructed it.”
This guy is looking for a “final solution” to the “white question” ...
Who decides who is black? This is insane.
The next thing that will be demanded is separate schools exclusively for their black children, then they will want restaurants that serve Blacks Only, there will be signs that direct white riders to sit in the back of the bus, Sports Editorials will be written about how those Crackers are ruining Basketball and Baseball, and Football etc., then their will be demands for separate Black Only Restrooms, and someone will demand segregated water fountains... Wait, I remember those, who made us get rid of those? What was the reason, for getting rid of them? Wasn’t it to eliminate Racism?
Those who fail to pay attention to History, are destined to repeat it... Badly.
It doesn’t seem fair to let them vote as many times as they want AND make each vote count more.
Of course, these people would be in favor of Southern secession so long as the "right" people were calling for it.
feh...
I’d say that if you don’t own property or if you pay no federal income tax, you don’t vote at all.....and every voter has to have I.D.
Is this a joke? April 1st is a long way off.
I am being to think that we should think of ourselves as shareholders in our republic. People who own real property have a stake. It is human nature to want to take away from those who have more through the voting process and use other people’s money.
I can’t debate this idea, but thoughts are coming to me, especially since the “entitlements” are out of hand.
1) Anyone who receives the additional votes forgoes any and ALL government payments, Federal and State. This means EVERYTHING: wages, welfare, Social Security, child support, whether state and federal. NO GOVERNMENT MONEY, period. If you take Social Security or government wage, the deal is off and you revert to one vote at the next election.
2) If anyone who takes #1 and then accepts one penny of government money other than wages or Social Security, they lose the right to vote for six years. Attempting to vote during this period would be a Federal Felony resulting in a permanent loss of the right to vote in addition to prison time for vote fraud.
"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Ironically; this is where I disagree. If someone pays their dues to society; I believe they should have all their rights restored.
No; I’m not a felon but I do understand human nature. Those who want to straighten up and fly right can’t because the deck is stacked against them. They are seen by our gov and society as less than a citizen.
I’m not saying we should scrub their record. Just that we should restore the basic American rights we all have once they have paid their full debt to society as mandated by the courts and our judicial system.
How can anyone feel like they can make a fresh start while having to carry the burden of being treated like a second class citizen for the rest of their days?
JMHO, YMMV, FWIW.
In Texas, when registering to vote, an individual lacking ID can obtain, FREE OF CHARGE, an ID card sufficient for voting purposes.
So when it comes to Demo'Rats alleging voter disenfranchisement, if that is spoken about in Texas, and said to be a problem in Texas, they are flat-out lying.
What they are really talking about, other than to have an accusation to hurl at Republicans, is their Party's efforts to obtain voter registration for non-citizen undocumented immigrants, and possibly to make it easier for their Party to get away with queering the vote-counting process.
How about whites count for 3/5th of a black vote. Would that make them happy?
FU Theodore R. Johnson! You are a despicable excuse for any kind of human being, and we delegate you to the dung pile of illiterates who masquerade as elitists.
TR Johnson, get a grip...the leftist, socialist mentality of LBJ’s ‘great society’ is solely responsible for placing blacks in a never-do-well class.
Get over it, and got to H3ll. Soon.
Sure, why not. By the example of how all the city governments controlled by blacks in this country have made those cities great centers of cultural richness and economic success, everything would be peachy keen in short order if all the shots where to be called by the majority of black voters.
What a racist moron. The added value to the black vote he wants, and rationalizes with the reverse of what happened in the 19th century, will only accomplish more of what we already have; discrimination to favor promoting blacks who are not competent in their respective fields. In essence, lowering standards rather than encouraging ambition. It has so far not helped, and it will never help.
I totally agree with you. Felons should be allowed to vote because if they were a danger to society they shouldn’t be alive.
C’mon more of their dead votethan any of the other races...
They can vote in Africa.
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