Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Meanwhile, While the Left Was Looking for Reasons to Criticize the President ...

Three years have passed. That's three years when Democratic voters of all stripes could have built a viable coalition behind the President's leadership. (Yes, Professional Left, he does lead. He leads; you stir shit).

And whilst the Professional Left were busy pretending to be a friend of the sheeple who hang on their every word, whilst these selfsame sheeple depended on the celebrity talking head icons to assume their "voice," strange things happened.

First, a strident voice of the Professional Left called on his supporters to boycott the 2010 Midterms. This would "show" the President a thing or two. Well, it did. It showed him something that he already knew: that when turnouts are low, Republicans profit; and so we now have a Republican House of Representatives consisting of some of the most ignorant dumbasses ever to sit in that hallowed chamber.

Secondly, Republicans scored big in state elections as well, resulting in the fact that most state governors now are Republican. Now the Republicans know as well that when large numbers of people vote, the result usually favours the Democrats; therefore many Republican-controlled State legislatures implemented legalised efforts to deprive certain demographics of the basic right to vote.

Some measures were so extreme by some states, it harkened back to the days of poll taxes and literacy tests. Specific demographics targeted were usually the elderly, ethnic minorities and students - especially students.

But a strange phenomenon occurred. All the while this legislation was being passed, state by state, the liberal media voices - MSNBC and Current - said diddly-squat. No, indeedy. They were having far too much fun lambasting the President. Big mouthed satirists like Bill Maher ignored it as well. Far easier to lob missiles from the sidelines at President Sanford and Son.

Now, chickens have come home to roost.

Today's New York Times lists just some of the efforts that have legislatively been invested in keeping college students away from the polls.

Political leaders should be encouraging young adults to participate in civic life, but many Republican state lawmakers are doing everything they can instead to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. Some have openly acknowledged doing so because students tend to be liberal.

Seven states have already passed strict laws requiring a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license or a passport) to vote, which many students don’t have, and 27 others are considering such measures. Many of those laws have been interpreted as prohibiting out-of-state driver’s licenses from being used for voting.

It’s all part of a widespread Republican effort to restrict the voting rights of demographic groups that tend to vote Democratic. Blacks, Hispanics, the poor and the young, who are more likely to support President Obama, are disproportionately represented in the 21 million people without government IDs. On Friday, the Justice Department, finally taking action against these abuses, blocked the new voter ID law in South Carolina.

Republicans usually don’t want to acknowledge that their purpose is to turn away voters, especially when race is involved, so they invented an explanation, claiming that stricter ID laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud. In fact, there is almost no voter fraud in America to prevent.

William O’Brien, the speaker of the New Hampshire State House, told a Tea Party group earlier this year that students are “foolish” and tend to “vote their feelings” because they lack life experience. “Voting as a liberal,” he said, “that’s what kids do.” And that’s why, he said, he supported measures to prohibit students from voting from their college addresses and to end same-day registration. New Hampshire Republicans even tried to pass a bill that would have kept students who previously lived elsewhere from voting in the state; fortunately, the measure failed, as did the others Mr. O’Brien favored.

Many students have taken advantage of Election Day registration laws, which is one reason Maine Republicans passed a law eliminating the practice. Voters restored it last month, but Republican lawmakers there are already trying new ways to restrict voting. The secretary of state said he was investigating students who are registered to vote in the state but pay out-of-state tuition.

Wisconsin once made it easy for students to vote, making it one of the leading states in turnout of younger voters in 2004 and 2008. When Republicans swept into power there last year, they undid all of that, imposing requirements that invalidated the use of virtually all college ID cards in voter registration. Colleges are scrambling to change their cards to add signatures and expiration dates, but it’s not clear whether the state will let them.

Imposing these restrictions to win an election will embitter a generation of students in its first encounter with the machinery of democracy.


Quite right, but I feel the author of this article is wrong when he implies that the Justice Department was late to rally to counter these measures. The media had a part to play in publicizing what was happening as well. I didn't expect Fox to point out this atrocity, but I expected better from MSNBC and Current.

Instead, they've spent their time trying to take down the President; so all those young people who aren't disenfranchised by the odious actions of some states, will be dissuaded from voting anyway via the odious remarks made by the celebrities in whom they invest admiration and trust for political commentary and guidance - even though one of the most popular members of the Professional Left doesn't vote, himself.

1 comment:

  1. This is a bit much. You are almost as hard to please as the pro left. MSNBC has done a good job of covering GOP voter suppression, in my estimate. How often do you watch? The Rev Al, has been absolutely great covering this issue since he got his own show. Was Obama late to the show on this issue? I have heard that silly question from Olbermann, but not from those on MSNBC.

    ReplyDelete