|
October 21, 2004
Stop fascism! Abolish secret voting!
A woman named Sara Rich is helping Michael Moore in his "slacker" campaign. In a question-and-answer period, Eugene family therapist Sara Rich told Moore that her daughter, Suzanne, is a military police officer in Iraq who has managed to share a bootleg copy of "Fahrenheit 9/11" with her entire platoon.What the piece does not mention is that Ms. Rich is more than a family therapist; she chairs Eugene's Human Rights Commission, where she's something of a homeless advocate, so I doubt her involvement with Moore's "slacker" campaign is accidental: Ms. Johnson reminded commissioners that the process was complaint-driven, and that the department did not respond unless there was a complaint from a citizen.Yawn. (I used to sit through meetings like that, and believe me, they're boring. No wonder most people hate politics!) Let me emphasize that there's nothing wrong with being a homeless advocate. I have known a lot of really good homeless people, and over the years I have taken in and helped shelter more than I can remember. My objection to Moore's brand of activism is that it is heavy-handed, condescending in the extreme, and smacks of dishonesty. Homeless have the same right to vote as anyone else. What bothers me is that they are being taken for granted by people like Moore, who assume they'll vote as they're told (which means always Democrat and never Republican). I do not doubt that most homeless and human rights activists make the same assumption. I've seen evidence which convinced me that homeless are human beings capable of independent thought, and here's more evidence from a homeless advocacy group which confirms that: According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, voter registration drives show that about 60 percent of homeless people identify themselves as Democrats, 20 percent as Republicans and 20 percent as independents.In addition, only 53% of the homeless bother to register, and only about a third of that number ever vote. Which means only about one-sixth of the homeless actually vote. Yet twenty percent register Republican. This brings up a practical side to this which is being forgotten. Imagine, being a homeless person and actually registering to vote. Based on my own experience in Berkeley city politics, the activists who register the homeless are almost always from the left wing of the Democratic Party. When you register, you have to state a party affiliation. Homeless people have what's called "street smarts," and I think it would take balls for a homeless person to tell one of those activists he's a Republican. I'd be willing to bet most of them just go with the flow and say "Democrat." Actual voting, however, is secret. The homeless are smart enough to know that. Lots of them are also smart enough to think about things like personal protection and gun control. They remember all kinds of things like the seige at Waco. Does anyone remember what happened when they allowed secret voting in Nicaragua? Hmmmmm....... Perhaps the left should take a lesson from Nicaragua. One party fascists (much like Glenn Reynolds, who probably loves secret voting) used the slogan "Your vote is secret!" to confuse people into voting for their party against the people's own interests. Secret voting is therefore another fascist method which should be prohibited. Supervised voting makes much more sense. "The people" should have nothing to hide! Come to think about it, what about all those people who refuse to put signs in their yard? Are they hiding something? posted by Eric on 10.21.04 at 08:28 AM |
|
March 2007
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
March 2007
February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
War For Profit
How trying to prevent genocide becomes genocide I Have Not Yet Begun To Fight Wind Boom Isaiah Washington, victim Hippie Shirts A cunning exercise in liberation linguistics? Sometimes unprincipled demagogues are better than principled activists PETA agrees -- with me! The high pitched squeal of small carbon footprints
Links
Site Credits
|
|
Secret voting sounds like concealed carry, and other fascist plots. As Santorum pointed out, if people insist on a right to privacy, it means they're doing something deviant.