After listening to the news, talk radio, T.V. commentaries, reading, watching, and listening to political ads, I would like to propose that voter suppression and disenfranchisement is alive and well in the United States.
But this isn't the suppression and disenfranchisement we have heard about for years. This isn't the suppression by gangs, or by long lines at polling places, or even using courts to exclude military ballots. This suppression occurs much sooner than Election Day. In my opinion, the single largest cause of voter suppression and disenfranchisement is the political campaign.
During a campaign, there are some candidates and news services that actually try to present the ideas and issues and let you decide. However, it appears that the greatest efforts during recent campaigns has not been to entice someone to vote for the candidate, but rather how can "we" get you to vote against someone or to not even vote at all.
When the politics of personal destruction become the primary campaign tactic (or news reporting on the campaign), then the campaign has moved out of an inclusive model and into a model clearly intended to suppress some segment of the voting populace thereby intentionally disenfranchising them.
It is pernicious, it is wrong, it is dishonest, and worst, by continually using the politics of personal destruction it turns off more and more voters who determine that all politicians are slime and should be avoided at all costs. The politics of personal destruction also severely limits the amount of good, decent, quality people that are even willing to join in politics or the process.
Posted by SouthernRoots at October 18, 2006 03:58 PM | Email ThisThe classic example of media suppressing voters and causing disenfranchisement was the classic from Florida in 2000 where they "projected the winner" before the polls closed in the western half of the state.
How many years has Florida had elections? How many years has the western part of the state been in a different time zone? How many years has the media reported on elections in Florida? And with all of that experience, they still made a boneheaded call?
Oops, sorry you tens of thousands of voters that decided it wasn't necessary to go to the polls in that last hour. Having those extra votes may have added enough votes to negate the need for all those recounts. Don't know who would have won, but it probably wouldn't have been as close.
For example, when Bush ripped the Minutemen and refused to control the border ... conservatives got pissed off - even folks like Sean Hannity, who has now changed his tune, was saying this was going to hurt in November.
For example, when Bush and the R's blew out the deficit and dropped the value of the dollar by 40% fiscal conservatives got pissed.
For example, when Bush nominated his personel lawyer for supreme court, social conservatives got pissed.
The muddled conduct of the Iraq War is pissing off the neo-conservatives.
These actions tend to suppress the vote over time.
Bush tax cuts, the original invasion of Iraq, the capture of key Al Q guys etc. were big positives and energized the base heading into the 2004 elections. 2005 & 6 were seriously crappy years for conservatives as it seemed the Bush admin and R's were fighting conservatives -- now it's payback time.
Posted by: John McDonald on October 20, 2006 06:57 PM