It Is To Laugh ...
... But only if you are given to bitter, sardonic laughter.
The charge by Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party that Democrats are trying to steal the election is a startling, but classic case of hypocritical misdirection. After a decade of purging voter lists, heightened this year by the attempt to remove the right to vote from those whose homes are in foreclosure, and adding unnecessary requirements at the polls such as government issued photo IDs, the Republicans are focusing on faulty registration lists submitted by ACORN, which itself reported the irregularities to government election officials, and claiming Obama is wrecking the fabric of citizen participation.
From today's NY Times.
Senator John McCain warned at the last presidential debate that the Nov. 4 election could be marred by voter fraud and added that Acorn, an organizing group in minority and low-income communities, was “now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” ...
Voting rights advocates say the Republicans’ accusations of fraud (even though party operatives themselves face possible charges of fraud, most notably in California) are part of a deliberate strategy to create confusion among voters, to galvanize the conservative base and to set the table for possible legal challenges of voters at the polls and of the election results.
“There’s always been a struggle, throughout the country’s history, over who could vote, how their votes would be counted,” said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, “and this is not that different, but it does seem more strategic this year. The same arguments are being made all over the country at the same time.”
Robert F. Bauer, who is general counsel for the Obama campaign and is overseeing its voter protection program, said that what was different this year was “the very aggressive involvement of the top of the ticket in promoting this fear message.” Mr. Bauer said this was intended to create “an ominous atmosphere” to discourage people from voting.
“I don’t recall in recent history,” he added, “a presidential candidate before the fact trying to suggest in a nationally televised debate that the entire electoral system was under assault, the fabric of democracy was at risk.” [Emphasis added]
You will notice that Sen. McCain has said nothing about the Republican contractor who was arrested in California for registering himself at a childhood address (noted here) and whose employees fraudulently registered voters as Republicans by telling the citizens they were signing a petition to increase penalties for child molesters.
It's clear McCain has nothing, so much nothing that Republicans down the ballot will be affected. All he has left is cheap tricks and disgusting lies. What's next? How about ICE agents in plainly marked windbreakers at the polls in Hispanic neighborhoods. Or maybe uniformed cops in front of the polls in Black neighborhoods. My guess he and his party will do everything they can to keep voters home and away from the polls, because a low turnout means they, not the Democrats, will be able to steal the election once again.
Hopefully, all the registered voters who have been turned off by the Republican way of doing business the last ten years will be so angry at this latest bullshit tactic that they turn out early on election day and refuse to fall for any of this nonsense. It worked in 2006. It will work again.
The charge by Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party that Democrats are trying to steal the election is a startling, but classic case of hypocritical misdirection. After a decade of purging voter lists, heightened this year by the attempt to remove the right to vote from those whose homes are in foreclosure, and adding unnecessary requirements at the polls such as government issued photo IDs, the Republicans are focusing on faulty registration lists submitted by ACORN, which itself reported the irregularities to government election officials, and claiming Obama is wrecking the fabric of citizen participation.
From today's NY Times.
Senator John McCain warned at the last presidential debate that the Nov. 4 election could be marred by voter fraud and added that Acorn, an organizing group in minority and low-income communities, was “now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” ...
Voting rights advocates say the Republicans’ accusations of fraud (even though party operatives themselves face possible charges of fraud, most notably in California) are part of a deliberate strategy to create confusion among voters, to galvanize the conservative base and to set the table for possible legal challenges of voters at the polls and of the election results.
“There’s always been a struggle, throughout the country’s history, over who could vote, how their votes would be counted,” said Michael Waldman, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, “and this is not that different, but it does seem more strategic this year. The same arguments are being made all over the country at the same time.”
Robert F. Bauer, who is general counsel for the Obama campaign and is overseeing its voter protection program, said that what was different this year was “the very aggressive involvement of the top of the ticket in promoting this fear message.” Mr. Bauer said this was intended to create “an ominous atmosphere” to discourage people from voting.
“I don’t recall in recent history,” he added, “a presidential candidate before the fact trying to suggest in a nationally televised debate that the entire electoral system was under assault, the fabric of democracy was at risk.” [Emphasis added]
You will notice that Sen. McCain has said nothing about the Republican contractor who was arrested in California for registering himself at a childhood address (noted here) and whose employees fraudulently registered voters as Republicans by telling the citizens they were signing a petition to increase penalties for child molesters.
It's clear McCain has nothing, so much nothing that Republicans down the ballot will be affected. All he has left is cheap tricks and disgusting lies. What's next? How about ICE agents in plainly marked windbreakers at the polls in Hispanic neighborhoods. Or maybe uniformed cops in front of the polls in Black neighborhoods. My guess he and his party will do everything they can to keep voters home and away from the polls, because a low turnout means they, not the Democrats, will be able to steal the election once again.
Hopefully, all the registered voters who have been turned off by the Republican way of doing business the last ten years will be so angry at this latest bullshit tactic that they turn out early on election day and refuse to fall for any of this nonsense. It worked in 2006. It will work again.
Labels: Election 2008, vote suppression, Voter Fraud
posted by Diane at 4:14 AM
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