Open Letter to John Kerry, Al Frankan and John Stewart Re: Elections

[McCamy Taylor]

I love them all, but they all have one thing in common. They insist on having this ridiculous faith in our American electoral system--a faith which they would know is unfounded if they had grown up in the South in the pre-Civil Rights era.

Yes, in the past three decades we have seen an end to poll taxes and literacy tests. Yes, we have seen African-americans in Congress and in mayor's offices. Shall I tell you why? It isn't because American's suddenly got nicer or purer or suddenly learned how to read the Constitution. It is because LBJ went to bat for the Voting Rights Act, and for the three decades which followed the federal Attorney Generals enforced that landmark piece of legislation.

Well, you guys may not have noticed, but since W. took office, the Voting Rights Act has become optional. Ashcroft never bothered to ask why Katy Harris had Database Technology scrub the names of thousands of African-american voters who were known not to be felons from her state's voters rolls, even though they changed the election results on election day. No one inquired about police cars parked at African-american polling places or any other selected disenfranchisement tactics used in that election, like disregarding voter intent on ballots cast.

So, it should come as no suprise that Ohio Secretary of State and Bush campaign chair Blackwell felt perfectly free to issue all kinds of proclamations in advance of the 2004 elections that were in obvious violation of the Voting Rights Act, like arbitrarily deciding that only certain weight paper could be used on registration forms. He knew that Ashcroft was not going to interfere with him. No one was going to question his judgment when he allocated machines, more for Republicans, less for Democrats. He could strips the residents of poor and African-american neighborhoods from voters rolls selectively secure in the knowledge that his reputation as a law abiding Secretary of State would not be besmirched. Operatives from Texas could stroll into Ohio and start threatening that state's Blacks with FBI criminal investigations if they dared to vote without fear that the FBI or Ashcroft would take offense.

And now, we have the miracle of nationwide electronic voting, thanks to soon to be indicted Ohio Congressman Bob Ney. This is a system so riddle with flaws that no banker would allow an ATM to use it, but we are going to entrust our elections to it. And have faith in it. Lucky for the GOP that people like John Kerry, Al Frankan and John Stewart so desperately want to believe.

In the wake of RFK Jr's article in the Rolling Stone, I hear a lot of people ask for reassurance that our electoral system is strong. I feel for them. It is hard to accept that fact that the majority of Americans are now Black living in Jim Crow. "Where were the lawyers in Ohio?" they ask. "Why weren't they doing their job?" Honey, there were plenty of lawyers. Lawyers can't do jack, when the feds and the courts and the legislature won't enforce the law.

Since we are all now Black living in Jim Crow, we need to rethink our strategy. The media is our only hope. It is trying to help, but we have to do our part. It is time to get off our butts and take to the street, arm in arm, peacefully but doing whatever it takes to get them to turn the firehoses and dogs on us.

[robinlynne]

1. I'm ready.

[AX10]

2. KICK

[blm]

3. Kerry's now on board with getting electronic voting machines banned

state by state. From the bloggers who talked to him last week, it sounded like he'd like to make it national, but with GOPs in charge, he said they'd put together another useless bill that masks the real problems..... AGAIN.