"Republican" isn't just a name
Remember before, when I called the Republican party the party of electoral fraud? That wasn't just a bit of hyperbolic rhetorical flourish. They really go to extraordinary lengths to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters.
You may remember from high school civics or U.S. history that there was, once upon a time in the south, a poll tax. Eventually, it was widely recognized to be intended as a measure to keep poor people, who were disproportionately black, from voting, long after black men had been given the constitutional right to vote. This was just one of many such efforts, including literacy tests. Wikipedia has a page all about it if you want a refresher.
If your high school was anything like mine, this was presented as an affront to the principles of democracy, to American constitutional law, and to basic decency. It is all of those things. And yet, the Republican party continues to find ways to achieve the same ends, new ways that have not been explicitly declared illegal or unconstitutional. The recent U.S. attorney purge scandal really brings this home; no less than nine U.S. attorneys were fired by the Bush administration after they failed to aggressively pursue bogus allegations of voter fraud immediately before the 2006 midterm elections. Despite the continued denials of Alberto Gonzales and others in the administration, no plausible explanation has been produced for these firings other than this one, even after months of questioning and congressional hearings.
This scandal is big enough that it has already reached Gonzales, who is likely to suffer a vote of no confidence in a couple of weeks, and who would have already resigned long ago if he served under any president that actually had a shred a respect of the constitution or for the traditions of American democracy. But it's important to be clear that this is not the mistake of one person, or even one department. Although there is no conclusive evidence at this point, any reasonable observer would bet that Karl Rove was one of the architects of the strategy that ultimately resulted in the attorney purge, even if he was not directly involved in the firings (although there is some evidence that he was). But it goes deeper. The general strategy of suppressing minority voter turnout is not restricted even to the current executive branch, but is a much larger effort on the part of the Republican party as a whole.
This will not inform the voting behavior of many people. Some of those simply will not be aware of the problem, and many will just have other priorities. Some believe it is more important to pass laws regulating the sexual behavior of women, or to distribute wealth as unequally as possible so that those who already have plenty of it receive the largest share, than it is to ensure that our democracy is worthy of the name or to uphold constitutional law. But for the rest of us, I cannot see how we could justify voting for Republicans for national office for some time to come--not until their party undergoes radical changes in the way they operate. This is to say nothing of their actual positions on the issues.
You may remember from high school civics or U.S. history that there was, once upon a time in the south, a poll tax. Eventually, it was widely recognized to be intended as a measure to keep poor people, who were disproportionately black, from voting, long after black men had been given the constitutional right to vote. This was just one of many such efforts, including literacy tests. Wikipedia has a page all about it if you want a refresher.
If your high school was anything like mine, this was presented as an affront to the principles of democracy, to American constitutional law, and to basic decency. It is all of those things. And yet, the Republican party continues to find ways to achieve the same ends, new ways that have not been explicitly declared illegal or unconstitutional. The recent U.S. attorney purge scandal really brings this home; no less than nine U.S. attorneys were fired by the Bush administration after they failed to aggressively pursue bogus allegations of voter fraud immediately before the 2006 midterm elections. Despite the continued denials of Alberto Gonzales and others in the administration, no plausible explanation has been produced for these firings other than this one, even after months of questioning and congressional hearings.
This scandal is big enough that it has already reached Gonzales, who is likely to suffer a vote of no confidence in a couple of weeks, and who would have already resigned long ago if he served under any president that actually had a shred a respect of the constitution or for the traditions of American democracy. But it's important to be clear that this is not the mistake of one person, or even one department. Although there is no conclusive evidence at this point, any reasonable observer would bet that Karl Rove was one of the architects of the strategy that ultimately resulted in the attorney purge, even if he was not directly involved in the firings (although there is some evidence that he was). But it goes deeper. The general strategy of suppressing minority voter turnout is not restricted even to the current executive branch, but is a much larger effort on the part of the Republican party as a whole.
This will not inform the voting behavior of many people. Some of those simply will not be aware of the problem, and many will just have other priorities. Some believe it is more important to pass laws regulating the sexual behavior of women, or to distribute wealth as unequally as possible so that those who already have plenty of it receive the largest share, than it is to ensure that our democracy is worthy of the name or to uphold constitutional law. But for the rest of us, I cannot see how we could justify voting for Republicans for national office for some time to come--not until their party undergoes radical changes in the way they operate. This is to say nothing of their actual positions on the issues.
posted by gregates at 2:11 PM
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