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Elevated from the Diaries - MB]
I posted a comment in a currently Recommended Diary by Renee in Ohio - her diary refers to a recent story in the Free Press which details suppression of the minority vote in Columbus by grossly under-allocating voting machines to minority precincts and various other techniques. And I received an eloquent and passionate reply from pronin2. The reason that I am putting all this in a diary is because I think this topic deserves a full discussion and a full airing, and I'm hoping that it receives one.
In particular, I hope that you read pronin2's comment below, because I believe he speaks for many people in the black community.
The bottom line is that many of us are writing diaries about possible fraud in the recent election, and about voter suppression in the recent election, because we are hopeful that a full investigation will result in strong election reform, and some of us are also still holding out hope that the result itself will be overturned.
But I fear the aspect of this that is overlooked, or at least not being given enough focus, is that our party leadership is doing a grave disservice to it's minority supporters by not speaking out strongly and persistently about the outrageous, blatant racism of the Republican strategy of suppression of the minority vote. Black voters voted for Gore over Busy by 91 to 9 percent, and for Kerry over Bush by 89 to 11 percent. Many of them waited on line for 5, 6, or 7 hours in order to cast their vote, an inconvenience that very few white voters had to deal with. They are BY FAR the most loyal constituency that the democratic party has. What does the democratic party owe them? Does it owe them it's voice in speaking out against this disgusting garbage that the Republicans pull every goddamned election? How many elections should we expect black voters to maintain this loyalty to the democratic party while it remains silent about this gross assault on their most basic right as a citizen, the right to vote?
Loyalty is a two-way street. Right now, it seems to me that it is all too much a one-way street when it comes to black voters and the Democratic party.
The diary, free press article, my original comment and pronin2's response are all below:
Renee from Ohio's Diary is here
And the free press article is here
MY COMMENT IS HERE:
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
People died so that black people can have the right to vote in this country. When they were directly prevented from voting in the 50s and 60s, thousands marched in the streets to fight against that. When it is done now via these subtler techniques, the public and the MSM are dead silent.
This is a direct assault on our democracy and the freedom that our country claims to stand for. I don't give a damn if we have eight out of eight recommended diaries on this, and we don't discuss another issue here for a year or more if that's what it takes. If we don't ensure a fair electoral system in this country, everything else we talk about will come for naught.
PRONIN2'S REPLY IS HERE:
you are right on. I know many in the black community, including well contected party activists and they, like you, feel the same. 2000 was betrayl of the upmost. with GOP storming florida to stop ALL votes from being counted and the supremes blocking and ending recount blacks were betrayed by the public and the court. their anger in 2000 was primarily at the GOP and the supremes. then the question is asked: why vote? my vote doesnt count! when congress convened on jan 6 to count the eletoral ballots not one democratic senator would contest florida's slate of electors. now the betrayl is from the dem party. not one so called "white liberal" would stand up and we have paid dearly for that. one of the darkest moments in our nation's history. not one! not even ted kennedy for godsakes. now 2004 rolls around and what happens? betrayl again, directly from the GOP lawyers who hassled blacks in Ohio and then from the DNC who wont even fight for ALL votes. and we know whose votes were "spoiled"-black votes (freepress.org). will betrayl happen again on the senate floor? I think the term betrayl sums it all up...."