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mmcirvinIt's interesting to me that people are reacting so incredulously to these reports of outrageous voter-intimidation flyers designed to convince people that they'll be arrested for various infractions if they go to vote. It's as if this were somehow novel.
Folks, spreading this garbage in black neighborhoods is a time-honored tactic. I'd heard of it before mostly in connection with Southern politics, but evidently it's a favored means everywhere of keeping black people from voting when you think they won't vote for you.
Do I think (he said, anticipating obvious response #1) black people are all stupid or ignorant enough to believe them? Of course not. I'm sure nearly everyone, regardless of color, recognizes them as the nonsense they are. But there will be some who do stay home, perhaps elderly people who as a result of long experience are inclined to be scared of cops and aren't inclined to take even a slim chance; and in some states it's a game of inches.
There's also (he said, anticipating obvious response #2) an "intelligence test" notion floating about, that there's something deeply wrong with trusting your government to the uneducated masses; that anyone dumb enough to believe something like that (or fill out the ballot wrong, or not know the names and parties of all the candidates, or...) shouldn't be voting anyway. It's a superficially attractive idea that I've heard floated by liberals and conservatives alike (though conservatives seem more fond of it). Why not have informed, qualified people do all the voting?
Once you go down that road, though, you're in trouble. That's not how democracy is supposed to work. It might seem better when times are good and you're debating complicated policy tweaks, but you need the voice of the masses to prevent really outrageous calamities to which the elite might not pay much attention (or that they might even perpetrate). Even the most ignorant person can tell when he's hungry all the time or somebody shot his sister.
Folks, spreading this garbage in black neighborhoods is a time-honored tactic. I'd heard of it before mostly in connection with Southern politics, but evidently it's a favored means everywhere of keeping black people from voting when you think they won't vote for you.
Do I think (he said, anticipating obvious response #1) black people are all stupid or ignorant enough to believe them? Of course not. I'm sure nearly everyone, regardless of color, recognizes them as the nonsense they are. But there will be some who do stay home, perhaps elderly people who as a result of long experience are inclined to be scared of cops and aren't inclined to take even a slim chance; and in some states it's a game of inches.
There's also (he said, anticipating obvious response #2) an "intelligence test" notion floating about, that there's something deeply wrong with trusting your government to the uneducated masses; that anyone dumb enough to believe something like that (or fill out the ballot wrong, or not know the names and parties of all the candidates, or...) shouldn't be voting anyway. It's a superficially attractive idea that I've heard floated by liberals and conservatives alike (though conservatives seem more fond of it). Why not have informed, qualified people do all the voting?
Once you go down that road, though, you're in trouble. That's not how democracy is supposed to work. It might seem better when times are good and you're debating complicated policy tweaks, but you need the voice of the masses to prevent really outrageous calamities to which the elite might not pay much attention (or that they might even perpetrate). Even the most ignorant person can tell when he's hungry all the time or somebody shot his sister.
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Date: 2004-10-31 10:21 pm (UTC)On the other hand, you're absolutely correct: when someone messes with voter turnout in this election, it seems like people gasp and wail and wonder what the world is coming to.
People want to think we've come a long way, baby. We haven't.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-31 11:43 pm (UTC)In 2000 it had been forty years since a national election really went right down to the wire—probably the closest one in the interim was 1992, and even that one became pretty clear in the final week or two.
From everything I've been hearing, though, we haven't seen anything like the level of obstruction tactics being prepared now in a very long time. I actually think the Republicans are being pretty stupid about this; everyone knows what's going on this time, and if they do come out ahead it's going to affect their ability to govern.