Anderson@Large

Countdown to Election Day 2012

The 2012 presidential election will be held 47 weeks from today.

While the Republican presidential wannabes continue to duke it out, concerned citizens, civil rights and advocacy groups are fighting to make sure that every voter has equal access to the ballot. With the wave of new voting requirements since 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice estimates that more than five million registered voters may be disenfranchised.

And the new restrictions keep coming. Yesterday the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee passed the “Pennsylvania Voter Identification Protection Act” to protect against, um, “voter impersonation.”

In a recent op-ed, state Sen. Daylin Leach told the real story of voter impersonation:

A study conducted by President George W. Bush's Justice Department found that, out of more than 300 million votes cast from 2002 to 2007, there were only 86 cases of voter fraud nationwide and that most of them involved immigrants who misunderstood their eligibility. In Pennsylvania, since 2004, there have been more than 20 million votes cast and four convictions for fraud, all of which involved people registering when not eligible. None of these cases involved someone pretending to be someone she was not.

Fraudulently impersonating a voter is already a felony. Risking years in prison to gain an undeserved vote seems like a low-gain, high-risk crime, which is probably why it never happens. In addition, a voter already has to show proof of who he is the first time he votes in a new precinct. Thus, under current law, Pennsylvania has significant and apparently effective protections in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process.

So Pennsylvania may soon be added to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law “Map of Shame.”

We know what the problem is. With the election 329 days away, we can be part of the solution.

One of the lessons of the Tea Party and Occupy movements is that citizens don't need permission to advocate for their own interests. If you are concerned about the impact of photo ID requirements on voter turnout, pull up a chair and get involved with the citizen-powered Cost of Freedom Project.

Where the Action Is

The National Action Network’s 13th annual convention opened to a packed house. In his opening remarks, NAN President and Founder Al Sharpton said:

This is a working conference. That’s why we call it National Action Network, not National Pontification Network or National Procrastination Network.

Sharpton derided “activists who have never been in a fight”:

There’s a difference between an academician and an activist.

While I was looking forward to the first panel, “Politics 2011-2012: What are the Issues?,” I tuned out the speakers almost from the start. With the exception of a white woman, Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, all of the panelists were men. The optics were more 1961 than 2011.

Black women make up 53 percent of the black vote, but there was no black female panelist to talk about our issues. I have an issue with that.

So I have half-listened. My ears perked up when Rev. Frederick Haynes III laid out his agenda: economic justice, education justice, and a just foreign policy. He invoked Dr. King’s prophetic warning that “bombs dropped in Vietnam explode at home.”

Dr. Haynes said bombs dropped in Iraq. Afghanistan and Libya are exploding in this country. He questioned the trillions of dollars for war but no money for the poor. He said it’s past time to organize a “coalition of justice” to counter the Tea Party movement.

Sharpton plans to mobilize and energize black voters now:

We can’t wait till next year. There are some elections this year. And where there are no elections -- practice. Walk to the voting place.

I’m telling you these people are mean. They want to cut out Head Start, Pell grants, Social Security. We can’t say we are all for something if we don’t turn out. Without turnout it doesn’t count...We got to have turnout. Politics is about self-interest but it’s also about a process.

Sharpton’s call for grassroots action was echoed by David Axelrod, President Obama’s chief political strategist who left the White House to work on the reelection campaign. Axelrod said:

One of our great tasks for 2012 is registration and mobilization. Job number one is to get people registered and participating in the process.

I didn’t attend the gala, where President Obama delivered remarks:

It is wonderful to be here as you celebrate your 20th anniversary. Some things have changed a lot since 1991. I told Reverend Al backstage he’s getting skinnier than me. He’s getting skinnier than Spike. But he hasn’t lost his sense of style. The other thing that hasn’t changed is the National Action Network’s commitment to fight injustice and inequality here in New York City and across America. And that’s not only a testament to Reverend Sharpton. It’s a testament to all of you who are here tonight. I want to commend you for the work that you’ve done over the last two decades to lift up not only the African American community but the broader American family. That’s what you’re about.

The convention runs until Saturday. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #NANConv2011.

CPAC 2011

I am switching gears from all things social and heading to DC for the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

CPAC will be bookended by two favorites of the Tea Party movement – Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Allen West. Bachmann will speak at the opening plenary session. West, one of two African Americans elected to Congress last year, will deliver the closing remarks.

West tweeted:

I've been asked today to have the honor of giving the closing keynote address at CPAC Saturday. I'm humbled.

I'll be there. This is the second year that I have received a media credential. For real-time updates, follow me on Twitter.

You can view the livestream, beginning at 9 am ET.

Tweet This

A new Pew Internet report found that in the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections, 22 percent of online adults were “political social media users.” They used social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to get involved in a campaign, share political news and information, or encourage their friends to commit to vote.

And unlike in 2008, Democrats do not have an advantage:

Overall, Democratic and Republican voters are equally likely to use social networking sites (among internet users, 58% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans do so). This is a notable change from the 2008 campaign, in which Obama voters were significantly more likely than McCain voters to use these sites, and reflects recent overall trends in social networking site adoption by older adults (who tend to lean Republican in their voting habits). Similarly, both supporters and detractors of the “Tea Party” movement each use these sites at roughly similar rates (54% of internet users who agree with the Tea Party movement and 60% of those who disagree with the group use these sites, a difference that is not statistically significant).

Aaron Smith, a senior research specialist at Pew, said in a statement:

The social networking population as a whole has grown larger and demographically more diverse in recent years, and the same is true when it comes to political activity on social networking sites. These platforms are now utilized by politically active individuals of all ages and ideologies to get news, connect with others, and offer their thoughts on the issues that are important to them.

Read more: 22% of online Americans used social networking or Twitter for politics in 2010 campaign

Tucson and America

In his remarks at the memorial service for the victims of the Tucson gunman, President Barack Obama said:

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -– at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do -– it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.

[…]

For the truth is none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind.

Obama continued:

For the truth is none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind. Yes, we have to examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. That we cannot do.

As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.

In the spirit of the moment, I will resist saying “I told you so” to those who without a shred of evidence blamed Sarah Palin and tea partiers for the act of a mentally deranged individual.

Instead, I will echo Obama:

May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America.

One Lone Lunatic and the Looney Left

In the wake of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Gibbons, some on the left have taken aim at Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.

It is sad that anyone would try to exploit the acts of this lunatic.

With no evidence, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Jared Loughner may have been motivated by “the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.”

Dupnik has since toned down his political rhetoric.

He noted that Loughner “targeted the congresswoman specifically; there's considerable evidence to substantiate that.” Three days later, no one knows what motivated him:

While you can't prove what the motive was in this case, I think we know that people who have troubled personalities are being subjected to the anger and emotion that is being created in this country, and I think we need to at least look into our hearts and souls and think about it.

The standard of acceptable political speech must not be measured by what might set off a mentally ill individual. Anything, including an actress, can incite political violence.

As Jon Stewart observed:

Many are reflecting and grieving and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. And watching this is as predictable as it is dispiriting.

Stewart continued:

We live in a complex ecosystem of influence and motivations and I wouldn't blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.

[...]

You cannot outsmart crazy. You don't know what a troubled mind will get caught on. Crazy always seems to find a way. It always has.

The looney left is not troubled by the absence of evidence of motivation or double standards. In their worldview, the absence of evidence is evidence that Loughner was politically motivated. In their desire to demonize Sarah Palin, the term “target” has become the new n-word.

Never mind that terms like targeting, cross hairs and bull's eye are part of the lexicon of every political campaign, pundit and blogger.

Many on the left applauded when a film director placed former President George W. Bush in an assassin's cross hairs.

While I abhor guns and violence, the attempts to make political hay out of a national tragedy are deeply troubling.

Candidates for RNC Chair Attend Tea-infused Forum

The National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar heralds the GOP as the party of diversity:

The GOP success this year in electing minority leaders who can appeal to a wide cross-section of voters should serve as a wake-up call to Democrats, who are accustomed to carrying the mantle of diversity. If Democrats don’t address their own challenges recruiting minority candidates with widespread appeal, the rise of Obama could be more the exception than the rule.

There will be less diversity at the top when the Republican National Committee elects its new chairman in January.

I had planned to attend FreedomWorks’ tea-party-cum-candidate-forum to vet the candidates for the position of RNC chairman. Instead, I was stuck in Philadelphia so I viewed the live stream of the event.

Four of the six announced candidates showed up -- Michigan GOP national committeeman Saul Anuzis; former RNC political director Gentry Collins, former RNC co-chairwoman Ann Wagner and former RNC chairman Mike Duncan.

The candidates agreed that current chairman Michael Steele failed as a fundraiser and steward of the party’s finances. Collins said:

The party under his leadership failed to raise the major donor money it is going to require to defeat Barack Obama, defeat his policies and defeat his ideology and agenda in 2012.

Anuzis noted, “It takes two things to win an election: money and everything else.” And added:

We are in a situation where we need a different type of leader for a different type of challenge. We’re going to have to raise more money than we ever have before, and we have to put together a better ground operation than we have before.

Although no frontrunner emerged, Anuzis was the clear favorite of the online audience.

Steele has yet to say whether he will seek a second term, but he was the clear loser.

The final nails in Steele’s coffin are reports of too many Cooks on the RNC payroll. The Daily Caller reports:

If it wasn’t enough for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s former personal assistant, her son and her sister to be leading the preparations for the party’s national convention in Tampa in 2012, fear not. There are more Cooks in the RNC’s kitchen.

Also on the payroll of the Committee on Arrangements for the Republican National Convention is Pamela Kesner, Belinda Cook’s niece.

While Steele fancies himself a chairman for the grassroots, they also want him to get to stepping. A new Public Policy Polling survey found Republican voters oppose his reelection by more than a 2:1 margin.

It looks like the party is over for Steele.