>Doug replied
>>Nathan, though I happen to agree with your posish in this case,
>>your habit of treating criticsm as a form of insult reminds me of
>>Bush's characterization of Kerry as denigrating U.S. troops and our
>>glorious Polish allies.
>
>Doug, I don't think all criticism is a form of insult. But when you
>basically say the NAACP, which is coordinating its voting efforts as
>part of the Dem-led voting efforts, is the same as the Bush vote
>suppression efforts, you go from criticism to insult.
The questions that I am raising are why, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we live in a nation where for working-class individuals to register as voters and then actually vote is still so damn difficult that the NAACP, as well as other non-profits (both established non-profits and new 527s), needs to expend so much efforts just getting citizens registered, making them vote, and having their votes counted -- and do so in an EVERY election cycle? Why have both the Democratic and Republican Party politicians made voting -- exercise of the most basic of democratic rights -- such an obstacle course, requiring tens of millions of dollars and untold work hours on the part of political parties and allied non-profits to help citizens negotiate it? Why have both the Democratic and Republican parties made sure -- through their legislations about drugs, crimes, and voter eligibilities -- that, today, "4.7 million Americans, or one in forty-three adults" -- of whom "1.4 million" are Black men -- are disenfranchised ("Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States," <http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1046.pdf>)? Why do we live in a nation where truly competitive elections in which voting really counts are so few? Why have both the Democratic and Republican Parties raised the ballot access bars so high that it would take millions of dollars and hundreds of lawyers for a new political party or candidate to gain ballot status in every state and keep it? Why have both the Democratic and Republican Parties made election laws differ so radically from one state to another when it comes to elections, regarding voting, establishing a new political party (see a bewildering array of party ballot status requirements at <http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus.html>), allowing voters to register their party identification, etc.? Why are working-class Americans not allowed to concentrate on *what political programs to vote for*, rather than whether they can register and vote at all? Who benefits from all the obstacles against working-class political participation as voters, party members, and candidates? -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>