On Friday (5 November 2010) morning’s NPR Morning Edition the topic of “voter fraud” was discussed. There was a particularly acrimonious interviewee who insisted that elections 2010 was rife with voter fraud. NPR host Steve Inskeep was his usual cool professional asking questions that peeled back the allegations and found little support for them.
A close friend asked me how it was possible that an individual could be allowed on the air to spew such hate. Indeed.
The First Amendment to the Bill of Rights gives us freedom of speech. The balance of that benevolence or the other shoe dropping is that in our nation of laws it is also true that he/she who alleges must prove.
Steve Inskeep challenged the interviewee who was at a loss for answers and proof. Then it was mentioned that there is in fact a scarcity of cases of fraudulent voting and that the undocumented have far better, more important matters to attend. Of course, the compassionate conservative religiosity Tea Partier would rather believe the allegations no matter how baseless.
Freedom in a democratic republic is a difficult, contentious thing. I've heard it said that "democracy" is a contact sport. If so, that's a Euro Anglo mindset and philosophy and not likely to disappear for a variety of reasons.
But here’s the rub. During one of the very few unguarded moments of the 2008 presidential campaign then candidate Barack Obama said something real. He said that when Americans were apprehensive (as when "w" told them the sky was falling in September 2008) that---they (Americans) cling to their guns and bibles. That is a true story. But don't tell the compassionate conservative religiosities. Though they resemble those remarks they get real pissy that you had the temerity to mention it. That's the reason successful politicians lie. People do not want truth. It is far too painful.
There are a few other truths about the recent mid-term general election 2010 results. Though people say they want change when they are given “change” it pushes them out of their respective comfort zones. The first chance they get---when there is no pressure to continue on the path of change they will do otherwise they will revert to what they know---their comfort zone.
Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum writes today, “Weird Findings From 2010's Exit Poll Data
The most important categories are probably white voters and older voters, both of whom shifted Republican far more than the general population. Beyond the raw size of the shift, however, whites are important because their absolute numbers are so big and older voters are important because their big.” Big in this case being “majority rule” or as the founders knew it “tyranny by majority.”
That majority created the template, the infrastructure for what straight out of the womb is sold to us as “reality.” It may be but if so it is not the only reality---just the one the majority population foists on all of the rest of us---for now. Think of it as the “American Values” we are told is what we should all hold sacred---however inimical to our identity or existence.
Though the Euro Anglo segment of the population is slowly being overtaken by minorities the Euro Anglo still comprises the majority population in Texas Red and apparently throughout the rest of the nation as well. When that segment of the population votes we get---eh well you know…..
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Republicans map out their agenda of less
Immigrant Voter Fraud Fears Didn't Materialize
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131089170
Comedy of errors, outright fraud (no illegals involved) and power of the bailiwick…….
Late Connecticut Governor Ballots Favor Democrat
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/nyregion/06ctgov.html?bl
compassionate conservative euro anglo religiosity majority made the difference---weirdly usual…..
Weird Findings From 2010's Exit Poll Data
The most important categories are probably white voters and older voters, both of whom shifted Republican far more than the general population. Beyond the raw size of the shift, however, whites are important because their absolute numbers are so big and older voters are important because their big.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/11/raw-data
A return to the norm
For all the turmoil, the spectacle, the churning - for all the old bulls slain and fuzzy-cheeked freshmen born - the great Republican wave of 2010 is simply a return to the norm. The tide had gone out; the tide came back. A center-right country restores the normal congressional map: a sea of interior red, bordered by blue coasts and dotted by blue islands of ethnic/urban density.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110406581.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline
It Wasn't About the Economy, Stupid
We witnessed no massive realigning of the electoral map, instead, America remains divided along the same political, cultural, and economic axes.
My own earlier analysis of polling data suggested that short-term economic factors like the unemployment rate or changes in housing values provided little explanation of state favorites for Senate or governor, while more deep-seated structural factors like income, social class, attitudes toward religion, and openness toward immigrants, as well as gays and lesbians were more likely to hold sway. [emphasis added]
say it isn’t so….
UN investigator: Migrants suffer worst racism
UNITED NATIONS – Migrants in Europe, the United States and many other parts of the world are subjected to the worst forms of racial discrimination and xenophobia, a U.N. independent investigator said Monday.Githu Muigai, a Kenyan lawyer, said many other groups are also victims including ethnic minorities attacked because of their minority status, individuals stopped and searched because of their perceived religious or ethnic background, and soccer players insulted because of their color.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101102/ap_on_re_us/un_un_racism_and_immigration
Mexicans and Mexican Americans, the U.S. Gazans….
Colossus: the giant Gazan prison
The blockade imposed on Gaza is a powerful psychological device aimed at wringing concessions from Gazans and Hama
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/11/20101138294106415.html
Mexicans and Mexican Americans, the U.S. Gazans….
Crisis on the Border: Migrant Youth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKKVBouROI&feature=player_embedded
Library of Congress/Religion
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way
The Conscience of a Liberal
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity
13 Bankers
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Elections 2010: People’s mandate to the lapdogs, transformational or just a Yosemite Sam Tea Party moment?
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