Is it About the Vote?

[paft.livejournal.com]

What 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.

Comments

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

funny stuff. janet napolitano was governor and democrat during all that time, and guess what, she was twice elected, the second time by a wide margin.

but i love how people give latinos so little credit. i also love how they're always assumed to be "dark-skinned". ah the racial stereotypes.

[paft.livejournal.com]

You consider complaining about the suppression of latino voters is giving them "so little credit?" Why?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

How does requiring proof of citizenship to vote "suppress" anyone?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

i wasn't talking about vote suppression. i meant the way you assume hispanics are idiots.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Funny stuff: the Arizona State Dept is in charge of elections, voter registrations and policies, not the governor. Republican Jan Brewer (2003-2009) was the Secretary of State and had nearly 100,000 (primarly Latino) voters removed. Even more funny stuff: Napolitano was only elected in 2002 by only 20,000 votes; since most governors are typically re-elected (as was Jan Brewer) anway, your points are meaningless (as usual).

Now have some cautus tea.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

How was it Brewer's fault that Proposition 200 passed with 56% of the vote and that the law had to be followed? Why is it so bad to have to prove citizenship (note: a license is proof of citizenship in Arizona) to vote?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

i'm sure you have some proof that "most" of those 100,000 removed voters

a] were latino, and, more importantly,

b] were improperly removed?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

ince most governors are typically re-elected (as was Jan Brewer) anway, your points are meaningless (as usual)..

you obviously know little about arizona and its governors. do some research and then get back to me.