The Right to Discriminate Against Voters in the US

It’s a wonderful world. A world where our perception is more likely than not to override reality. A person’s life is a mess but they don’t want to face it so they create a fiction that’s easier to live with. A dictator uses chemical weapons on citizens who oppose him but he sees himself as the country’s savior. A man has immense skills, intellect and creative capacity but his self esteem is so ravaged that he sees himself as worthless. A woman is absolutely beautiful but she’s addicted to plastic surgery and ends up looking like a blow-up doll and she thinks now I’m beautiful. 

A country has a world class Constitution that everybody reveres; that is looked to as the most progressive on the earth. And its Supreme Court makes a ruling that allows conservative states to implement rigorous voter ID laws that will effectively cut out a whole sector of the population’s access to voting. Of course the ruling allows progressive states to do it also, so it’s fair.

And the argument for striking down a law that prohibited this practice? Well, the law was to protect African Americans in the deep South racist states. And there’s no more racism there any more. Texas isn’t racist now? 48 years is plenty of time to change hatred, fear and a belief in the right to violent domination that’s been etched into a national psyche? This from the Supreme Court? The ignorance is shocking. Voter access standards should and must be at the lowest common denominator, so that the poorest person can vote. That’s what democracy is about. Otherwise, it’s not democracy.

This ruling notches up that standard so that the poorest can’t vote. Not if they can’t afford a photo ID. States can do whatever they want now. Their decision can be challenged – in Congress, that body notorious for employing dirty tricks to prevent reasonable laws being enacted that will empower the lower and middle classes.

Ross Douthat, a conservative Republican who writes a column for the New York Times, recently wrote that this ruling is actually a gift for Democrats, essentially because it will make them rally and voter turnout will increase. This writer has very curious logic and, in true Conservative Republican style, makes grandiose statements but doesn't back them up with facts - because the facts contradict his position. 

Sarcastically he writes that liberals are expecting Republican states to roll out laws that will “suppress” voters. Well, his sarcasm falls horribly flat. He omitted to mention that within 24 hours of the Supreme Court ruling, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said "With today's decision, the state's voter ID law will take effect immediately…Redistricting maps passed by the Legislature may also take effect without approval from the federal government." (DallasMorning News 25 June 2013).

As of last Thursday photo ID was required of voters in Texas. That was fast. Not mentioning this was the writer’s his way of proving his point and the merit of his sarcasm?

But the argument that really floored me was his saying that taking away a person’s rights to vote is good for them. Well then we must congratulate husbands who beat their wives and rape their little girls, priests who rape little boys, men and women who traffic women and children, because look at all the support there is for those victims now. 

This Supreme Court ruling makes a mockery of everything America hopes to stand for, and exposes the truth. Which is that half of America stands for everything that is good and progressive regarding human rights. 

The other half is doing everything it can to drag the country down to a place of no integrity, no morals, no respect for human rights or dignity. In other words, strip it of everything that makes it a democracy. And Justices seriously need to educate themselves on psychology and broaden their perspective. They know perfectly well that the current Congress will not stand in the way of any state that wants to instigate repressive voter ID laws. The only states that will want to do it are Republican, because the poorer people in America vote Democrat. Which means that Section 4 should not have been struck down.

Is this how Republicans plan to win the next election? Only a year ago they were talking about how they knew they had to change if they wanted to hold onto any position at all, given the shifting demographics. Well, this is one way of changing. Get dirtier.

US Immigration Laws and the Latino Vote – Persistence Pays

Persistence always takes courage and it always eventually pays off. In the US, Latinos have always been challenged by the immigration laws and US fear and scorn of them as a race. But none of that has stopped them coming in and working whenever and wherever they could. In states like Texas they’ve done – and still do - the work some Texans feel is beneath them and often gotten paid lousy wages and been treated like dogs.

Gradually, despite racial resistance, they began to make a significant contribution to the economy as a group and as numbers grew so did resistance, partly because Latino gangsterism also mushroomed. The combination of poverty – because so many Latinos couldn’t get work or were paid such terrible wages – and the ease with which guns are available in the US, had a lot to do with the violence, although it’s rarely acknowledged.

Ppunitive laws passed in the last few years haven’t discriminated between gangsters and hard-working Latinos – which speaks loudly of racism and fear. Because of the way they’ve been exploited and treated as if they were almost not human, Latinos been utterly disempowered politically. Still, numbers have continued to grow, and so has their awareness of their basic rights, and of their power as a group. Some have even boldly spoken out about their illegal status.

But not all Latinos remained illegal. And those who managed to get legal status fought for the rest. Finally their numbers and the momentum of their persistence have reached a threshold where politicians have to pay attention to them.

In the last election, Republicans had a chance to get the Latino vote because Obama hadn’t come through with the immigration promises he made – partly because of Republican resistance. But they couldn’t get over their racism and shot themselves in the foot repeatedly. So they lost the Latino vote. 

That old boys’ club mentality- not just about immigration but about war, taxes, gun control, government spending - lost them the election, and immediately post election they seemed aware that unless they changed they’d never be elected again because their support base is dying off and not being replaced.  

Still, Republican old boys clung to their position. Firstly they did it on taxes, and they lost. Now they’re doing it with gun control, government spending, and war – resisting Chuck Hagel primarily because he doesn’t believe in war for its own sake, which includes Israel declaring war on Iran. Their back is to the wall on all issues, but they simply can’t let themselves see it yet. This is not a subtle group. 

With immigration, they see it, miracle of miracles. At least in the Senate. President Obama, who can’t be accused of doing it for political reasons, has been working on an overhaul of immigration laws that will give legal status to most of the 11 million currently illegal Latinos. He’s not proposing amnesty; certain conditions have to be met, including paying back taxes, but it does acknowledge the role Latinos in the economy and reward them fairly for it, whether they are highly skilled workers or low-wage earners. It acknowledges their basic human rights.

Whitehouse officials say Mr. Obama has made immigration a top priority this year (nytimes.com). He wants to push it through Congress on one bill – in my opinion, maybe because he’s got so much to do and it’s a way of avoiding another long-drawn-out, hair-splitting, knock-down drag out fight. Maybe because he’s tired of giving the old boys more room to manoevre than they deserve – again, my personal opinion. 

He aims to present his plan in a couple of weeks (nytimes.com). There is some Republican resistance to a single bill of course but so far the plan has had bipartisan support in the Senate. Early in Obama’s first term he couldn’t get it past Republican resistance. Back then, Republicans were over-sure of themselves – just as they were with the fiscal cliff. Now they need that Latino vote and they know it. In two major areas they have had to admit defeat and it hasn’t been dignified. 

I wonder if they’ll ever learn that lesson. Probably not. It’s frustrating, because they stand in the way of real progress, but they can’t stop the tide of it and that’s what really matters.

What’s that Bob Dylan song? The Times They Are A-Changin’

Come gather 'round people / Wherever you roam / And admit that the waters / Around you have grown / And accept it that soon / You'll be drenched to the bone / If your time to you / Is worth savin' / Then you better start swimmin' / Or you'll sink like a stone / For the times they are a-changin'...

Come senators, congressmen / Please heed the call / Don't stand in the doorway / Don't block up the hall / For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled / There's a battle outside / And it is ragin' / It'll soon shake your windows / And rattle your walls / For the times they are a-changin'.

That was a different era, but the words still apply. They always will.

IMAGE adapted from a poster for a 2012 post-election reception and briefing presented and hosted by La Coalicion

History Repeating Itself in Texas with 'Illegal Immigrants' and Secession

People with a predisposition to violence or oppression always have short memories. Take Texas. From the anger conservatives hold towards Mexican 'illegal' immigrants, anybody would think Texas has always belonged to Americans. But it hasn’t and I’m not just talking about it being stolen from American Indians. Once Europeans had done that, Americans were in fact the original illegal immigrants in Texas. And they disobeyed the law.

By 1803 the Louisiana Territory (15 current states including northern Texas) ‘belonged’ to the French and Napoleon sold it to the United States. Texas was included in the deal. A new boundary was set between it and New Spain to the west, which was ignored by US settlers wanting to push west. So they were the first illegal immigrants with no respect for the local law. 

They were a minority at that point. 21 years later Mexico took over that Spanish part of Texas and to increase the population, the Mexican government relaxed immigration laws, granting land to empresarios who recruited settlers from the US, Europe and Mexico. By 1825 the population of Texas was about 3,500, most of them Mexican, but within 9 years it had grown to around 37,800, and only 20% were of Mexican descent. 

Many American Texans openly flouted Mexican law, particularly the prohibition against slavery. So in 1830 Mexico prohibited further immigration from the US, and imposed stringent customs duties. The latter of course angered everybody, not just the US immigrants. And thus began the Texan fight for independence from Mexico. In part because the Mexican government abhorred slavery and the American Texans found it useful.

Considering Texan history, the conservative resentment of Mexicans is absurd. It’s common knowledge that ‘illegal immigrants’ prop up the Texan economy. I wonder how much of the desire to secede from the US is driven by this racism. As always racism sows the seeds of its holder’s destruction. This is what ultra conservatives always do. Ignore reality. Ignore the facts. Fabricate whatever supports your prejudice. 

This is how I envision life would be in an independent Texas. No more government aid. No more cheap labour. Higher taxes for the middle class because of course the wealthy wouldn’t pay. And that’s the middle class who’d be doing the work they think is beneath them. Hardly a recipe for a strong economy and happy citizens. Then there are all the guns. Well you can’t shoot yourself out of a flagging economy. 

And besides, who would they shoot? All their enemies would be gone. They’d have to shoot each other. Conservative Texans who want stricter immigration laws and want to secede from the United States would do well to read their history books, take some lessons in the value of human rights and be done with fabricating. They should get rid of their guns too. 

The hatred of illegal immigrants is tragic and the whole scenario of secession is so absurd it’s hard to take it seriously. But when you add the guns, the fear of Mexican immigrants and disregard for their human rights, the propensity to rationalise with twisted logic and absence of truth, you’ve got a mix that could be lethal. The Middle East doesn’t have the monopoly on violent liberation organizations. 

Could it happen in America? Surely not. I hope not. The light in the tunnel here is that, just as in the 1800’s American immigrant population that started out as a minority quickly became a majority, it’s happening in Texas too, the other way round. Ironic.