October 09, 2004
Voting Rule Battles
Here's another article where the writers twist themselves into a pretzel in order to be evenhanded.
In the battlegrounds of Ohio and Missouri, Republican secretaries of state have crafted election rules that Democrats say could disenfranchise legitimate voters likely to cast ballots for Kerry. Republicans say Democratic election officials in New Mexico and Iowa are making it easier for potential Kerry supporters to vote.
Come on! In both cases, Democrats are trying to enable MORE voters, and Republicans are trying to RESTRICT voters from participating.
In fact, if you read the whole article, you see example after example, with Republicans always trying to throw OUT voters, and Democrats trying to include them.
Who's on the wrong side here? Come on, can there be any clearer proof that Republicans are anti-democracy? They know that the more fair an election is, the less power they have. That's an indictment right there. There's no reason to be even-handed here. The Republicans are pro-fraud, the Democrats are anti-fraud, and there's no way around that.
"Anti-democracy" describes the radical right in the US perfectly. I couldn't agree more. Neocon radio hosts openly discourage people to stay home on Election Day, especially if they're liberals. At first it sounds like a joke, but when their callers report in their efforts to turn people off the very idea of voting, the newstalk hosts cheer. They laugh and cheer their callers on. "That's the way to do it! Suppress the vote!" they say.
It's a concerted effort to undermine our rights. And I'm sure they don't see it as such. All they want is to get Bush re-elected at any cost. They excuse it all sorts of ways, a myriad of excuses, a thousand and one rationalizations. They all boil down to, "The ends justifies the means."
Posted by: Joe Medina at October 10, 2004 02:15 PMI would have to wholeheartedly agree that the Republicans have displayed no end to anti-democratic intentions and actions in the last few years. However, the behavior of many Democrats toward third-party candidates, at both a national and local level, shows a comparable amount of hostility toward the electorate and the idea of democracy itself.
While I begrudgingly support Kerry this time around (because ANYBODY is better than Bush), any party that is a party to disenfranchisement of candidates, parties, and voters is undemocratic and needs to be reformed or replaced.
Posted by: Rev. T-Monkey at October 27, 2004 02:26 PM