Marginal Voters
Monday October 27, 2008
Profile: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin sums up right-wing hostility towards ACORN:
Townhall.com columnist Burt Prelutsky also seems to say (in an article titled "ACORN: A Clear and Present Danger") that the unemployed, whose numbers have increased under the Bush administration's leadership, are also marginal voters:
Conservatives have every right to be outraged over the fictitious voter registrations collected by a small percentage of ACORN members, but to expand this anti-registration movement to exclude an entire category of "marginal" voters is to reject the democratic process itself. That some have been deemed unworthy to vote because of their financial circumstances or racial or socioeconomic identity is evidence that many more marginal voters need to be registered, partly because this will reduce the relative influence of aristocrats who do not understand, or who understand but do not value, the concept of representative democracy.
Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin sums up right-wing hostility towards ACORN:
Obama and ACORN have practiced their thug thizzle together for years: organizing an ever-expanding community of ineligible and marginal voters to expand the Democratic power base.Okay, we all know what an ineligible voter is. But what's a marginal voter? A marginal voter is someone who is eligible to vote, but not someone that the Republican Party believes has earned the right to vote. Malkin's article, for example, targets the homeless and mockingly uses the sort of street slang ("thug thizzle") that some whites associate with low-income African-American communities.
Townhall.com columnist Burt Prelutsky also seems to say (in an article titled "ACORN: A Clear and Present Danger") that the unemployed, whose numbers have increased under the Bush administration's leadership, are also marginal voters:
These people, self-proclaimed defenders of freedom, liberty and the working man -- or, more often, non-working man -- devote most of their energy and resources to making sure that they fix elections in much the same way that crooked gamblers fix fights.The vast majority of ACORN's 1.3 million new voter registrations very likely come from communities that pundits such as Malkin and Prelutsky would consider marginal; in fact, the goal of voter registration in the civil rights community--as in the case of the Freedom Summer registrations in Mississippi back in June 1964--has been to register voters who have been pushed to the margins of the political process and bring them in closer, where they can exercise their constitutionally protected right to choose their (and our) leaders.
Conservatives have every right to be outraged over the fictitious voter registrations collected by a small percentage of ACORN members, but to expand this anti-registration movement to exclude an entire category of "marginal" voters is to reject the democratic process itself. That some have been deemed unworthy to vote because of their financial circumstances or racial or socioeconomic identity is evidence that many more marginal voters need to be registered, partly because this will reduce the relative influence of aristocrats who do not understand, or who understand but do not value, the concept of representative democracy.
Comments
The really sad thing about Malkin’s comment is that she is Asian American! Reminds me of the book “How the Irish Became White,” which I have admittedly not read, but from reading the reviews, I understand that the book explains how early Irish immigrants became socially acceptable in White society by becoming oppressors themselves. Similarly, Malkin is trying gain acceptance among bigoted White conservatives by marginalizing other people of color.
If the bigoted Republicans don’t believe “marginal” people deserve to vote, what else don’t they deserve? Health care? Social security? Food stamps?
Being Asian American has never stopped Malkin from being a fascist. She also has out a book [In Defense of Internment] where she “explains” how the WWII internment of Japanese Americans was a good thing, because, of course, they were disloyal and all potential sabeteurs. I mean, just LOOK at them. She is a disgusting throwback to Hitler and his crew and proud of it.