Another election season. Another round of allegations of voter caging and other unseemly tactics.
The things which people will do for power and money! In a world where nothing's shocking, I'm still appalled at the things which go on in the political sphere. The machinations, deceit, lying and hypocrisy truly upset my sensibilities and rub my values system the wrong way. More so than the need get things done and done the right way, my political passions are driven by my opposition to people who would do anything and everything to win. There are some real bastards out there and it enrages me that they operate with impunity.
Especially when it comes to clean elections.
Is this a new phenomena? I don't have a good historical grasp on elections to really know - surely vote tampering is as old as voting itself. But I believe that interfering with voting as a political strategy for a major American party started with Karl Rove and the 2000 elections. I used to read stories about egregious denials of suffrage with an air of disbelief; now I read them and think 'oh it's happening there, too.'
You see, the Ken Blackwells and Tim Griffins won the day. And the Democrats' response was to whine a little. We think that "sunshine is the best disinfectant" and by merely blowing the whistle on these players we can get them to stop. But they are so shameless that they don't care whether or not their dirty tactics are known - they win elections. So of course they are back to try it again. They will be back for every election unless and until we devise a means to stop them in their tracks.
And stopping them is what we must do. It trumps all other considerations.
They will not stop if we ask nicely. They will not stop if we tell them we're right and they are wrong. They will not stop if we show them the law, and point out that they are breaking the law. They will only stop when they have to stop. They will only stop when we make them stop.
So I say the Democrats ought to build a fire line. We should roll up our sleeves and generate our own Republican caging lists. We should show up on election day with our lists, and be prepared to challenge voters. We should hold that threat and force the GOP operatives to pack up their lists and go home.
Oh wait! You say that makes us no better than the scumbags who we are trying to beat? That maybe this is just what the Republicans want, a chance to muddy the waters and say that 'Democrats do it too!'
Even though we don't. And won't.
I think we're all too scared of being accused of caging, or any type of malfeasance, that we're too pusillanimous to fight back hard. We think that our purity will lead the day. It hasn't. We think that every time we decline an opportunity to return these salvos that our collective reputation is raised a notch in the eyes of the voters. It isn't.
We need to stop being worried about spin and perception and start focusing on how to make this fight fair.