MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
President Obama's Letter To The Editor
By barefooted on Thu, 08/13/2015 - 11:50pm |For the cover story of our Aug. 2 issue, Jim Rutenberg wrote about efforts over the last 50 years to dismantle the protections in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark piece of legislation that cleared barriers between black voters and the ballot. The story surveyed a broad sweep of history and characters, from United States Chief Justice John Roberts to ordinary citizens like 94-year-old Rosanell Eaton, a plaintiff in the current North Carolina case arguing to repeal voting restrictions enacted in 2013. The magazine received an unusual volume of responses to this article, most notably from President Barack Obama.
URL:
http://nytimes.com/2015/08/16/magazine/president-obamas-letter-to-the-editor.html
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Comments
Two disturbing themes come from modern Republicans. The first is that they want a candidate who will not compromise. The GOP base wants a dictator who will not have to respond to critics who disagree with a hard right agenda. Second, they believe that the recent evidence of racial strife is all due to Barack Obama, They see no fault or racism in their front runner in the Presidential race demanding that the current President show his birth certificate. The reason that I continually mention voter suppression is that it is the only way we have to legally remove the Tea Party bigots from Congress. Voting Rights have been under attack for decades.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 08/14/2015 - 10:19am
Registering voters and helping voters comply with all the various state voter ID laws should be a very high priority for the Democratic Party. Dems need to counter attempts at voter suppression with an aggressive response in my opinion.
by MrSmith1 on Sun, 08/16/2015 - 4:21pm
Democrats work very hard in registering voters in Florida.
This week at the Iowa State Fair, the SOS Paul Platt has a booth set up to register voters. He is doing a straw pole to get people to the booth. They get to drop a kernel of corn into a jar of their favorite candidate. You can see the daily results here: http://sos.iowa.gov/statefair.html
I will let you look at the results. It is not scientific but that is the way Iowa likes to kick off their election season. This year they dropped the fund raising with a straw pole.
They want participation in the caucuses of both parties because it is good for Iowa economically. They want to hang on to being first. I don't think Iowa or New Hampshire actually looks much like the rest of the country.
It make me wish Florida's SOS wasn't always trying to kill voter registration. There are more Democrats now registered in Florida then Republicans.
Edit to add. A BLT sandwich is beating Trump....LOL...
by trkingmomoe on Sun, 08/16/2015 - 8:37pm
I was just now wondering why the Republicans never seem to need to push voter registration, like Democrats do, to win elections.
In the Good Old Days the Democrats were quite adept at registering people even dead people but today it seems even the live ones don't come out to vote.
by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 2:16am
The dead people are now Republicans, They switched parties about 25 years ago.
Republicans are into voter suppression and gerrymandering. Why take the time to register voters when it is easier to pass laws to keep the Democratic base from voting?
by trkingmomoe on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 2:59am
The "dead people" meme often neglects the fact that in downstate Illinois, Republicans were stealing votes. It was a bipartisan practice. if Kennedy lost in Illinois, he would have still been President. Republicans at the time, including Eisenhower, blamed Nixon's poor campaign style for the loss.
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/133484
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 9:13am
It has been 55 years since it was common practice. Now they just don't let you vote. I live in Florida and it is common practice here for them to lose your registration.
by trkingmomoe on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 9:25am
The GOP has been forced to the right by Fox, right wing websites, and AM radio. They are forced to take ridiculous and heartless positions. They will divide immigrant families or deport legal U.S. citizens who are children. They will force rape and incest victims to bear children in support of a religion that Christians don't recognize. They want war in the Middle East with everybody. They fight non-existent Sharia law. They want as few people as possible to vote because once you get out of the Republican bubble, they have lost the national electorate.
Scott Walker is destroying the Wisconsin economy. Sam Brownbeck destroyed the Kansas economy. Bobby Jindal destroyed the Louisiana economy. They now want to make a second attempt to destroy the economy of the U.S. If Trump is the candidate, look for a Barry Goldwater sized loss for the GOP.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 10:51am
I probably should have left out the gibe about the infamous dead democrat voters because it allowed commenters to avoid the question 'why don't the Repugs need voter registration drives to win elections'? The people who vote for the Repugs are faced with the same 'common practices' that supposedly limit other people's access to voting but they don't seem to need assistance to avoid these supposed roadblocks.
People can't receive government assistance without being coerced to register to vote and the assumption is that they will register as a D because they are poor and dumb and the D's offer some miserly dole as a replacement for any expectation of a job that would make them less dependent on the benevolence of the D's.
The R's certainly smell worse than the D's but both parties stink and with Obama and most his ilk instituting an Austerity Regime there is even less reason for poor or not so poor people to support the D's and they are not voting, in growing numbers, for either of these stinkers.
by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 11:23am
What are you using to support your statement?
Thursday's report, from the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, put 2012 voter turnout at 57.5% of all eligible voters, compared to 62.3% who voted in 2008 and 60.4% who cast ballots in 2004. In 2000, the turnout rate was 54.2%.
Voter turnout has been higher than 2000 in 2004, 2008, and 2012.
http://www.abc15.com/news/national/election-results-2012-voter-turnout-l...
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 11:32am
I don't know what state you are from but let me explain some of the registration problems. Last year I had to down grade my CDL to a E class because of the new Fed regulations. I was not notified until 30 days before the expiration date from the state. I still had 3 years left on my license so I had to order birth certificate from another state by express mail. I also had several more documents to gather to prove I was a state resident.
I followed what was on the state and county web sites. I got it all together and waited my turn. When I got to the desk they said I had to create a paper trail back to my maiden name. No where did the web sites say any thing about marriage or divorce papers. Even though I had produced two professional licenses from the state and a NG-22 from the state and the title to my trailer. They wanted a marriage license from the state I was married in with a state seal on it. She made it very clear it could not be a church record.
I rushed home and went through my documents and found from 1968 the original marriage license my copy with signatures and seal in the original envelope. The other copy is on record at the state. So I went back the same day and got back in line. This time the young lady had to take it back to the supervisor to get his approval because she had never seen a document like that. That is BS because this is Florida and lots of old people have these.
Had I been a person of color I would not have been given a driver license until I spent more money ordering another document. The whole thing to do this cost me over $125. Now that is how they set their traps. Now that the Republican population sees how it is also effecting them, it has lost support.
You do not have to register to vote to get government assistance. I know from personal experience. I am poor but I am not dumb. I have been a registered Democrat since the early 1970's. I have also over the years helped with voter drives.
Oh and the state since the Republicans have taken over has a voter purge just before each election. I used to vote a few miles from my home but now I have to drive to the county line to vote away from a bus line. Do you know why? Because our new Elections Supervisor believes that people should have to walk 200 miles to vote like they do in Africa.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/11/3278101/florida-county-reduces-minority-precincts/
So your libertarian views don't hold water.
by trkingmomoe on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 12:56pm
You do not have to register to vote to get government assistance.
True, but more than that there is no coercion or even an attempt at persuasion. A person getting public assistance may be asked if they want to register to vote. If they say yes they will be helped to register.. If they say no the matter will be dropped. Asking a question does not constitute coercion or even persuasion. Peter thinks about the world in a series of conspiracy theories that are unmoored from reality.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 2:50pm
It has been a while since we heard from Peter.
Since the Texas voter bill has been thrown out maybe Florida's will have a chance to be over ruled. We did win our gerrymandering case. That gives us a few more possibilities to pick up House Seats.
I don't remember being asked to register to vote, I have been registered since 1982 in this state. They may have already knew that by a computer check. I was applying for Medicaid for the grandkids. They had me fill out for other possible assistance just in case I qualified for them.
by trkingmomoe on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 3:19pm
I see no one wants to even offer a theory in answer to my question about why Republicans don't need voter registration drives to win elections.
It;s interesting that Black voter turnout in '12 was higher than White even in states with strict voter ID laws which means that when they have a reason, Obama, to vote they are able to overcome any obsticles or harrassment that is in their way. The overall turnout in '14 was the lowest since WW2, 36% mirroring a steady decline that started in '64 and it included much lower Black turnout because they saw nothing worthwile to vote for just as most White people agreed with that view.
SNAP benefit forms include a voter registration form and people are simply told to fill out all forms and you must sign the registration form to reject it , this is repeated every time you update your application. I'm not familiar with Medicaid which is a private/public progam.
I won't ask what caused you to have to seek government assistance for your grandchildren but if it is economic reasons as it is for many you might question your Dem as well as Repug representitives why they refuse to support real liveable wage job creation.
It seems that both parties have given up on helping create new jobs, real unemployment is at 20%+ so the battle now is simply how much assistance will be offered to the displaced and unneeded workers whose millions of children will grow up as wards of the state.
by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 6:59pm
Gerrymandering helps explain why Republican votes counted more.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/11/05/gerrymandering-rigged-2014-elections-re...
Instead of us playing a guessing game why don't you just make your case?
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 7:08pm
What is your theory of why Republicans don't need GOTV campaigns?
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 10:42pm
This is another thing you won't see the Repugs do , donning the tattered robes of the victim after an electoral loss except for maybe Nixon in '60.
Statements such as ' Republican votes counted more' reminds me of the 3/5 Compromise, pity the poor hapless democrats and excuse their failures because it is always someone's or something else's fault never that their candidate was unappealing, untrustworthy or incompetent.
Republicans are certainly more adept at data-based redistricting than the Democrats but in Texas the Supreme Court found only one district, in the whole state, that was gerrymandered and that was remedied.
I'm not a Republican so i was just wondering if anyone would address the fact that Republicans don't have to register felons to win elections or pad their party membership.
by Peter (not verified) on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 12:19pm
The Republicans have won the popular vote for President only once in the last 6 elections, dating back to 1992.
There is no evidence they lost all those popular vote counts due to the registration of felons.
When all else fails they stop the vote counting by gaming the system with their guys on the Supreme Court.
by NCD on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 1:38pm
You obviously didn't look at the charts shown in the linked article and looks at the number of states under discussion. Republicans have been very open in their gerrymandering and voter suppression. The important point is that the GOTV movement works to overcome the suppression of votes. During each election hotlines are set up to allow voters in the black community to alert others to roadblocks being faced at polling places. Lawyers are assigned to deal with problems. Turnout is high despite GOP efforts to suppress votes.
Armchair revolutionaries who despise both parties and have no rational alternative of their own are always amusing. They have no workable solution. They criticize. They offer no platform. Yet they imagine that when the revolution comes they will be better off. These armchair revolutionaries never see themselves as detritus ready to be discarded by real revolutionaries. Amusing.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 2:51pm
Peter , regarding your condescending 3/5ths comment, you should be made aware that attacks on the voting rights of the black community are real and shown by the actions of the Supreme Court in gutting the Voting Rights Act and the state's in voter suppression,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/18/think-your-voting-right...
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 3:13pm
SNAP benefit forms include a voter registration form and people are simply told to fill out all forms and you must sign the registration form to reject it , this is repeated every time you update your application.
That's not what happened to me in both Florida and Arizona when I went in to get snap. I doubt that my experience is unusual and I think it's likely that most people have a similar experience to mine. There is a form I occasionally signed. I don't remember how often but it was not every time I updated. Signing the form does not register you to vote. You must also check one of two boxes that say, I want or I do not want to register to vote. I told them I did not want to register. I was never pressured or encouraged to register when I was asked to sign the form.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 08/17/2015 - 9:08pm
This is not as simple as it appears it is passive aggressive coercion even if it is for a good cause.
If the client was asked if they wanted to register to vote separately from applying for aid and then were given a form to fill out that would be a service to afford the client the right to register but that is not what happens. The client is given a stack of forms including a registration form that has nothing to do with the aid they seek but they are told to fill out all forms and no explanation was offered to me about anything related to this form. If the client isn't registered to vote they may very well see this registration as required for their aid to be approved unless they ask or even think to ask questions.
Many people don't even know when they are being manipulated and even if it is for a good cause it is still manipulation not choice. We still have the freedom and right to reject voting in a corrupt system although with declining voting some people would force compliance which is tyranny.
by Peter (not verified) on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 9:53am
You have a bizarre notion of what constitutes coercion. They also asked me if I wanted a free phone. You know, the Reagan era program that the right wing decided to call an Obama phone. I refused that as well. Horrors, more coercion.
by ocean-kat on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 7:24pm
So your nickers are in a knot because we have Democratic candidates addressing voter suppression with the solutions that might make voting mandatory. It isn't the question being asked if you want to register to vote when you are petitioning social services for assistance that is a major tyranny that should have everyone up in arms? Is this more important than voter suppression? But your problem is that you find the government corrupt and unworthy of your vote and you don't want to be made to participate in the process.
I find it insulting that poverty is used to make a point or an excuse for political hate. I don't know what world you live in but mine is full of poverty. In this world I find the people intelligent, hard working full of love of community and family also very generous to others. They are some of the most resourcefully and courageous people I have ever known. Checking off a box or signing a form about whether you wish to register vote is not a major issue that can make or break ones daily survival. Your priority of being able to choose not to vote is the least of our problems and not even on our radar. We are the ones who live with voter suppression and are please to hear it being addressed in this election. Don't try to even make a case of why some of us didn't vote because we didn't like the politicians that were running because in this neighborhood that was not the reason. They moved our voting place to the suburbs, they created expensive ID laws and they purged some of us off the roles because of our last names.
That dear friend is real world of the poor.
by trkingmomoe on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 3:21pm