The South Dakota Sioux Reservation Vote--D'asshole's letter to the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Wednesday, November 20, 2002 | Sen. Tom Daschle

[TroutStalker]

Your attack on the Oglala Sioux voters in South Dakota offers a sterling example of what minorities in this country can expect from hard-right editorial politics ("The Oglala Sioux's Senator," Review & Outlook, Nov. 14).

Consider one close race, Florida's presidential election in 2000. The margin was 500-plus votes (out of 5.8 million votes cast), and breakdowns in the electoral machinery depressed minority voting (among other problems). A problem for you? Not at all: Your ardently supported candidate won.

[okie01]

Given the living conditions and South Dakota's unpredictable weather, voting Indians absentee is the only practical way.
Clifford Scott
Former Chair
South Dakota Democrat Party

"Does that phrase seem funny to anyone else? Almost sounds non-PC."
The Observant
T.P. Pole

It almost sounds like a Freudian slip. As in "you gotta vote those Indians absentee to make sure they vote...and vote 'right'".

In fact, it almost certainly is a Freudian slip, recalling all those tactical sessions concerned with "getting out the vote" that Mr. Scott attended in his former role.

As such, it is repulsively condescending and patronizing. The Oglala Sioux are clearly considered Democrat chattel, confined to that great liberal plantation on the plains.

Excellent catch. Scott and the South Dakota Democrats are caught out, right there on the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

[jwalsh07]

The WSJ has deep pockets. Mr Scott and Mr Daschle better hope everything was on the up and up because they have just invited the WSJ to South Dakota.

[WaveThatFlag]

So what can minorities expect from the editorial right in this country? To be ignored when the right's candidates win, and blamed when those candidates lose?

Or, to put it another way, what can we expect from the editorial left in this country (read "the media in this country")? A month long feeding frenzy which produces no evidence of voter fraud when the right's candidates win, and an immediate dismissal and subject change when those candidates lose?

[woodyinscc]

Yes!And John Fund has this high up on his list.

[WarrenC]

Contrary to Mr. Daschle, in the 2000 Florida election minority turnout was much higher than normal. I forget the exact numbers but if there had been the normal minority turnout in FL in 2000, G.W. Bush would have won the state by several hundred thousand votes.

[5by5]

All the more reason to turn the issue to racism against Indians.

The racism "smoke" obscures the vote fraud "fire."

Of course, mentioning smoke and fire in the same thread as indians makes me a racist too...

[San Jacinto]

" Missing only was some mention of "firewater."

That Omission should be corrected.:

"The DemocRAT vote on the reservations was further enhanced by promises of heap big firewater for all those who vote for Johnson."

[BohDaThone]

Actually, the minority turnout was not unusually high, relative to the non-minority. The erroneous information was based on the same bad exit polls that gave the state to Gore. Florida codes voters by race, so when the actual figures came out, black voting (casting a ballot, counted or not) as a PERCENTAGE OF REGISTERED VOTERS was about 4% lower than the state average.

[FryingPan101]

"Consider another close race, South Dakota's Senate election in 2002. Again we have a 500-plus margin (out of only 330,000 votes cast). A problem for you? Very much so, because on this occasion your candidate lost. Yet now minority voting, disregarded in Florida, is announced to be the culprit. You believe Oglala Sioux voting in Shannon County was "fishy." That's about it: no evidence, no basis whatsoever for the claim, and an omission of the fact that South Dakota's Republican attorney general and Republican secretary of state found no grounds for any such suggestion of fraud. What your readers are offered instead is an outright slur on our Indian voting community, complete with snide stereotypical references to "smoke signals." Missing only was some mention of "firewater." Goodness. Whoa! How about buildingSomebodysaveAmericaandvotethisguyoutofoffice.com. Good grief...he's makes decisions that impact our lives. I didn't vote for him. South Dakota has no right to put someone in office who appears so unstable.

[Don Corleone]

He was too busy being "disappointed".

God if we only could DIS-APPOINT him.

[Libloather]

...nonetheless has been very disconcerting to the Indians.

Check out Puff and his goons. Since when is 'indians' PC?

[listenhillary]

If there were so many absentee ballots, why did they wait to count them (or release them) at 8:00am the day after the election?

Are these districts always counted last? Previous elections, same story?

[Clemenza]

Anecdotal evidence (and media reports) when I lived in Miami-Dade, where I lived in 2000, showed that black turnout was VERY high. I know that our local candidate for State's Attorney, Al Millian, was winning the election until these huge vote totals came in from the northern part of the county (heavily black) and the Beach (heavily Jewish and Gay).

[Deb]

The meltdown continues!!

Glad you posted both letters. I was just about to.

[Elle Bee]

Dead Men Voting - Voter Fraud Wanders Off the Reservation ~ John Fund

Welcome to "Operation Big Vote," a non-Democratic Party effort ~ WSJ.

The Democrats stole two Senate seats--and still it wasn't enough ~ WSJ.

Landrieu Redux ~ WSJ. '97

Trouble in Paradise - Elections in Hawaii may not be a luau for Democrats ~ John Fund

Polling Isn't Perfect - Why polls so often get it wrong ~ John Fund

[kcvl]

I suppose Daschle and his Democrat "friends" think that calling everyone who doesn't agree with them "right-wing fundamentalists" will work instead of having a REAL MESSAGE. Well, I guess he had better talk to his "senator friend" MS. Hillary. It didn't work for her and it won't work for him either!

[BohDaThone]

Perhaps unfortunately, anecdotal evidence doesn't fly in the face of record facts. It could well be true that minority precincts made the difference in a number of races. You can lose a precinct 990-10, and it really hurts, but if there are 2000 registered voters, it's still only a 50% turnout.

You can go to Florida state and county web sites, and see the precinct-by-precinct turnout figures. Florida also published the figures for turnout by race and party, and showed the results I indicated.

It doesn't mean that there were not a LOT of minority votes, and that they were unfavorable, just that the proportionate turnout was not unusual.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Since when is 'indians' PC?"

Well, I'm one-sixteenth Injun--which, using the "one-drop rule" the RATS apply to so-called Black-Americans makes me a full-fledged Injun--and I don't have a problem being called Native-American and/or Indian.

PoliticalCorrectness Be Damned!!

FReegards...MUD

[goldilucky]

I'm a quarter Indian and damn proud of it too.

[Mudboy Slim]

"damn proud of it"

You and me both...I'm mostly of German, French, and Welsh stock, but that little bit of Native-American just spices up the family tree a tad. My grandmother on my mama's side is coming to Richmond for the Thanksgiving holidays, and I'm gonna pump her fer more details that I'll be able to run with to do some geneological research.

FReegards...MUD