Is it About the Vote?
30/4/10 09:22![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsWhat moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Greg Palast, Gregpalast.com
Greg Palast has hit on what may be the method behind the madness of Arizona’s recent anti-immigrant law – voter suppression. Even if the law is overturned eventually, it can still be used in the short term to prevent thousands of legal Hispanic voters from filling out a ballot.
Governor Brewer, Palast points out, has a history of this. A very recent history. As Arizona’s Secretary of State. she oversaw a purge in which at least 100,000 voters were purged from the rolls, most of whom were Hispanic.
A Texas lawmaker is now planning to introduce a bill similar to Arizona’s.
The fact is, the right has long had a problem with the vote and all those people who actually get to do it. The typical assumption seems to be that if someone trying to vote is dark skinned, there must be some sort of dishonesty going on.
Rush Limbaugh Why, why this furious reaction to the Arizona immigration law? I’ll tell you why, that’s why I am here and you are there. The left, the Democrats, Obama, recognize that this notion of proving one’s identity is a lethal blow to their agenda….It’s regards the vote. Illegal voting, illegal voters is the only hope the Democrats have of retaining power….You see, the Democrats are betting everything on their ability to maintain vote fraud.
Beck even seems to have a problem with the very concept of “Democratic election.”
Glenn Beck
Democratic elections. You’ll hear this when they talk about the “Democratically elected leader of Iran. The democratic leader Chavez. Democratically elected you know! Castro, democratically elected, Hitler, democratically elected.” It’s code language.
The right wing is edging ever closer to coming out and simply saying that the franchise should be limited to their kind of voters – people of a certain income level, of a certain ethnic and religious background, of a certain viewpoint. That's the only way they can be sure that elections will come out they way they want them to.
As Tom Tancredo put it a tea party gathering just a few months ago:
Tom Tancredo, February 2010
Because, uh, I think we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country, (wild applause) people, people who could not even spell the word ‘vote’ or say it in English, (cheers) put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.
(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 17:09 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 18:16 (UTC)Disagreeing with someone's conclusions is not necessarily the same as proving that he's a member of the tin foil hat brigade.
Palast's coverage of voter suppression has been very, very well documented. Nobody familiar with voter suppression history would dismiss his concerns as paranoid or kooky.
(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 19:14 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 19:32 (UTC)Re: Uh?
Date: 30/4/10 19:46 (UTC)Re: I'm reminded of a quote about a dining room table.
Date: 30/4/10 23:28 (UTC)Re: I'm reminded of a quote about a dining room table.
Date: 1/5/10 23:58 (UTC)What is it about the statement "I would like a direct quote from Greg Palast" that you find confusing?
b: I gave you an overview of his ideas
You gave me your version of his ideas.
b: and I directed you to a video of the man himself talking. You have to click, maybe, three things.
You directed me to a 54 minute video. No, I'm not going to kill the better part of an hour watching the video and trying to figure out what quote you might have in mind.
If Greg Palast's crackpottery was so obvious, why are you having such trouble finding a quote from him to back up your assessment?
bs: You'll also have to excuse me as this seems like you're not actually interested in discussing the topic at hand, as you're willfully refusing to investigate these things I'm talking about independently.
Look, I've read Greg Palast. I've listened to him. He's no crackpot. He documents pretty much everything he says. I'm not going to read a book or spend 54 minutes watching a video solely to figure out what you had in mind when you called him a crackpot.
Back up what you've said about Greg Palast being a crackpot, WITH THE QUOTE YOU FEEL ESTABLISHES HIM AS A CRACKPOT.
As things stand, I suspect you're merely saying this because you happen to disagree with his conclusions. You're not producing a crackpot post from Palast because you can't find any.
bs: I'm very sorry that I cannot directly cite the author of a book I read once about a year ago; you want me to drive home, get the book, and spend 20 minutes transcribing a chapter for you? Does the acronym LMGTFY mean anything to you?
No need to transcribe an entire chapter. A sentence or two would do the trick. A paragraph at most.
20 minutes? You're asking me to spend more than twice that amount of time watching a video. Even more reading an entire book.
bs: I mean, seriously. If you're trying to raise my blood pressure, you're accomplishing your goal. If you're trying to have a sincere discussion, however, you're failing.
No, sorry, I'm not the one who's "failing." The one who's failing is the person who, faced with the simple request that he back up something he's said, comes up empty, gets mad, and blames the person who asked him.
(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 19:43 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 23:12 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 18:11 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/4/10 18:21 (UTC)Uh...Guess what?
Is there something in this piece that is factually incorrect? Please point it out.
revenge of the elms.
Date: 30/4/10 21:57 (UTC)egads, that means it was a conspiracy of nature.