Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Voter ID Canard

The question of making Voter IDs mandatory for elections is a very hot issue as we approach the 2012 elections.  Approximately 34 states will have Voter ID bills on their ballots.  While there is always a need to promote ways to guarantee free, open, and honest elections, this push for Voter IDs is an inappropriate response which will disenfranchise countless times more votes than they will prevent fraud.

Indeed, the Voter ID movement is a canard: a suppressive response to a made up problem.

According to the Christian Century of 26 July, 2011, "Federal prosecutors spent five years during the Bush administration trying to crack down on voter fraud, but their cases were negligible because they could find so few cases.  Fewer than 100 people were convicted nationwide, and almost all the cases involved not deliberate fraud but honest confusion."

The Advancement Project, an advocacy group of civil rights lawyers, describes this push for government issued identification before people are allowed to vote as "the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century".  Why?

A survey by the Brennen Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found that 11% of citizens, 21 million people, do not have a current photo ID.  That fraction increases to 15% of low income citizens of voting age, 18% of young eligible voters, and 25% of Black eligible voters.  Those demographic groups tend to vote Democrat, and Republicans are imposing what they know many will be unable to meet. (New York Times, 27 April 2011).

In the state of Minnesota, the state which has perhaps the cleanest voting record of all states and the highest voter turn-out in the nation, The League of Women Voters reported that there were "0" voter impersonations and only 115 felons who voted.  In Minnesota felons cannot vote.  Of those, approximately 35 registered to vote but did not vote, and the rest voted.  This is a "fraud error of .0000383% in a total vote count of 3 million.  In a survey of all 87 Minnesota counties, of which 80% responded, which comprised 90% of all Minnesota voters, there were NO REPORTED FRAUDS other than the 115 felons, of which there were only 36 convictions.

The ACLU reports that between 2002 and 2007, the United States Attorney General reported ZERO evidence and convictions of impersonational voter fraud.  In Texas, the governor pushed through a Voter ID law even though there were ZERO instances of fraud, according to the Texas Attorney General.

Requiring Voter IDs presents problems: 1) Accessibility to Department of Motor Vehicle locations; 2) Having to accurately fill-out provisional ballots; 3) In some cases the expense of the card.  The people most affected will be those least able to go through the required hoops.

There is significant evidence that the big push for Voter IDs originates from the Republican Right.  Specifically, a Right-wing group called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), funded significantly by the Koch brothers, is playing a major role in this voter suppression drive.  ALEC has provided model bills for legislators to consider, including Voter ID bills.  I encourage you to Google ALEC.  ALEC is corporate power stifling the democratic process.  In 1980, Paul Weyrich, the founder of ALEC, said: "I don't want everybody to vote."

The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that nearly 5 million "would be voters" may be affected by the passage of these Voter ID bills.  Overwhelmingly, this would benefit the Republican Party.

Making voting more difficult for certain groups is a violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because everyone is guaranteeed the right to vote, and putting up unncessary barriers is a violation of the Constitution.  It is like an old fashioned "poll tax" which prevented many Blacks from voting.

The Voter ID is a canard designed to disenfranchise millions of voters at the expense of Democratic candidates, to the benefit of the Republican candidates.  This is unfair.  Unjust.

I would urge all to speak out against Voter ID cards and vote in opposition.  Voting is the kingpin of democracy.  Democracy requires equal opportunity for participation.  I would also encourage those interested to search Brennen Center for Justice and the ACLU for up to date information.

Democracy for ALL!  Equal participation for ALL!

Peace!
Ron

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Austerity = Inequality

One of the best books I have ever read is called The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.  She attacks the economic theory that austerity is the way to prosperity for all.  On the contrary, austerity, under the banner of supply side economics as proposed by economist Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago, creates inequality and hardship for most people, with more wealth going to the upper class corporate types and less for everyone else.

Naomi calls this economic strategy "disaster capitalism".  The strategy is: 1) Wait for a major crisis; 2) Sell-off pieces of the state to private players (privatize as much as possible); 3) Make these reforms permanent.  In short, create or seize upon economic chaos, create a "shock" to the system because "only a crisis produces real change".

What kind of changes evolve from this "shock doctrine"?  Ease public education requirements to promote charter schools, schools for profit.  Then: tax cuts, free trade, privatization, cuts to social spending, deregulation, vouchers, downsize government, flat tax, and more.  Sound familiar?  Austerity = inequality!

Klein documents this economic mess by citing what is happening in South Africa, Russia, Chile, Iraq, Asia, Argentina, and parts of Brazil.  Then the United States.  Sound familiar?  Austerity = inequality!

The human cost of austerity is unfathomable, its scattered wreckage clear.

Fast forward to the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  The OWSs are on to something.  They are in agreement with Klein's thesis.  Supply side economics is not the full answer to economic growth.  There also needs to be a stronger dose of Keynesian economics, meaning the government needs to insure the equalization of wealth, human stewardship, equal justice, and equal opportunity.  After all, the people are the government, or, the government is the people.  Remember Lincoln's famous dictum: "...that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth."  Hmm, was Lincoln on to something?

Corporations, banks, Wall Street, are sitting on between $1.4 and $3 trillion of cash.  Meanwhile, to quote Robert Reich, "In the late 1970s, the richest 1% received 9% of total income and held 18% of the nation's wealth.  By 2007, they had more than 23% of the total income and 35% of the nation's wealth.  CEOs of the 1970s were paid 40 times the wage of the average worker.  Now they are paid 300 times the typical workers' wage."  Austerity = inequality!

This past Sunday, the Memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was dedicated.  He spent his last days in Memphis supporting the efforts of the sanitation workers.  President Obama is out on the stump promoting his Jobs Bill, or now pieces of it since the supply siders nixed it in the House and Senate.

Austerity, according to the supply siders is supposed to equal prosperity.  Austerity, by some magic formula, is supposed to cause a trickle-down effect, creating wealth or at least a sustaining wage for everyone.  On the contrary, austerity = inequality.  Austerity creates a trickle-up effect!  Austerity means prosperity for only the connected, the corporations, the Wall Street barons, the upper tiny minority.  Austerity is economic slavery where the shrinking middle class and growing lower class become serfs of the landed class and the owners.  The rest of us lose our schools, our teachers, our police, our fire fighters, our human services, our Social Security, our jobs, our....

We need an economics of love.  The Gospel lesson for this Sunday is from Matthew 22:34-40 where Jesus talks about the new law, the Greatest Commandment: love of God and love of neighbor.  We are created for each other, to make sure everyone has enough.  This Jesus love is not about austerity, but generosity!  Generosity = equality! Generosity = justice!

Peace!
Ron

Monday, October 10, 2011

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

In a time when people are crying for jobs, the passing of Steve Jobs provides an occasion for seeing a way towards creating those jobs.

The place to begin is a portion of his Stanford University Commencement Address in 2005.  Some have called this address the "Gettysburg Address" of all commencement addresses.  The context is his diagnosis with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Remembering I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever
encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost
everything - all expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or
failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only
what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to die is the
best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something
to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your
heart.  Stay hungry.  Stay foolish.

Knowledge of impending death means each moment is important.  Don't waste time.  Focus now.  If you want to accomplish something, get on with it.  Make your life count for something.  Don't worry about all the consequences because you won't be around to take all the flak.  Fear nothing!  Create something helpful!  Try it!  Take risks!

It is significant that Jobs was a college drop-out who teamed up with a friend to start his computer journey in a garage.  Jobs was also fired from Apple.  He said it was the best thing that ever happened to him because it freed him to travel another direction which ended up being the most creative journey of his life.  

Jobs also realized that what he was able to do, he could not have done alone.  He said: "My business model is the Beatles.... they balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts.... great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people."  

One of his favorite quotes was from Picasso: "Good artists copy.  Great artists steal."  Steve Jobs studied the works of others and was able to connect their genius with his genius.  He said: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."  He had respect for others' insights.  

I have learned in life that you can always do something.  Even when there are times of scarce resources, you can always dream, always write a letter, always read a book, always meet with a friend, always bat around ideas, always make a phone call, always visit with a leader, always comfort a friend, always reconcile with an enemy, always lay plans for the future, always spend time Google-ing, always love your spouse and family, colleagues and the poor, always march and demonstrate for peace and justice, always join a committee to make life better for folks, always start a group, always scrounge for financial resources, always take time for the family and neighbors, always look for a way through, always seek employment, always support each other, always worship Jesus, ALWAYS....  There are always ALWAYS. 

ALWAYS isn't easy.  We need each other.  This is one of the lessons of the "99%".  The "99%" are those who are Occupying Wall Street, saying "We have had enough of your greed and selfishness.  We demand fairness."  In 1977, the top 1% of wage earners controlled just 9% of the nation's wealth.  Today they control 24%. And the gap is widening.  Yet, these 99%ers are dreaming, working together, innovating with passion, casting risk to the wind, cleansing their wills of fear, acting foolishly (according to some), embodying Bob Dylan's classic phrase: "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose."

As I read scripture I am always struck by the Exodus deliverence story and Jesus' empathy with people's life situations.  I am also struck by God's call to be faithful and Jesus' call to discipleship.  The faithful are never left to wallow in hopelessness or powerlessness.  There is acknowledgement of people's plights, support and comfort in the difficult times, as well as opening the door to the future with promises.  Christ makes ALWAYS a reality.  

Jobs?  Christ is ALWAYS with us in our struggles; yet, also, Christ is ALWAYS calling us to act, to "stay hungry", and "stay foolish"!  

In I Corinthians 15, Paul writes: "O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  Death is swallowed up in victory!.... Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, ALWAYS excelling in the work of God, because you know that in Christ your labor is not in vain." 

Press on!

Peace!
Ron