Another voice for Reps. Ellison’s & Pocan’s Voting Rights Amendment. Mr. Charles P. Pierce:
Frankly, it’s about damn time for this, and it’s long past time for the entire Democratic party, its fractious universe of progressive auxiliaries, and the president of the United States to get behind it and give it one mighty shove. It might also be the last chance they have to do anything about what’s going on out in the states.
The brief amendment would stipulate that “every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.” It would also give Congress “the power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.” After investigating the issue, Pocan said he and Ellison decided this type of amendment was the best way to combat measures to restrict voting access. “Essentially, what it would do is it would put the burden on any of these states that try to make laws that are more restrictive that they would have to prove that they’re not disenfranchising a voter. Rather than, currently, where a voter has to prove they’ve somehow been wronged by a state measure,” said Pocan.
My money says that the Supreme Court is poised next month to gut the Voting Rights Act… If the Court goes he way I think it will, this amendment may be the only vehicle left in order to secure voting rights for which people quite literally died, and during the lifetimes of most of the people who are reading this blog. There is no issue more important than this one because there is no issue that does not depend vitally on this one.
eric
i am in lurve.
http://www.makenmusic.com/blog_v2/just-arrived-tomanderson-classic-in-desert-burst-drool-worthy/?fb_source=pubv1
must. fight. urge. focus. on. daughter’s. college. fund.
Seanly
But if you enshrine the right to vote as an amendment then people may exercise that right. That’s not the point of all those ALEC laws!
David Koch
Wingnut heads explode in 3…
2….
1!!
Tonal (visible) Crow
I’ve got to agree with Bev Harris over at BBV on this one: the implementation clause is too broad. It could be used by a Republican Congress to force everyone to vote on electronic voting machines under the guise of protecting the right to vote of people who have difficulty filling in paper ballots. Indeed, Congress tried to do just this with HAVA in 2002, and we’ve been unwinding the dire consequences to election integrity ever since.
TG Chicago
Did I miss a Kay post about UNO Charter Schools in Chicago? She’s been great on the monetized schools stuff lately, and this is a story that deserves attention.
Rick Massimo
But – but – the conservatives are always telling us that its the Second Amendment that guarantees our freedoms. This voting stuff sounds complicated and messy and dangerous. Shouldn’t we just shoot out our differences?
Jack the Second
@Tonal (visible) Crow: Or, just because you have a right to vote doesn’t mean you have the right to have your vote counted.
Tonal (visible) Crow
@Jack the Second:
That’s how Republicans would parse it.
Kay
@TG Chicago:
I follow it but I haven’t written about it yet cause I was waiting for the state audit. I saw the school corp hired a “retired judge” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) for some ridiculous fee to conduct a private audit but I want the state one.
Is there something new today?
El Cid
This will be translated as an attempt to give election control to the ACORN Caliphate.
pokeyblow
Maybe Obama can get behind this, now that he’s finished writing his hagiography of Tom Coburn.
Trollhattan
Do Kentucky Dems have somebody viable to run against The Turtle? Mebbe.
Meet SOS Alison Lundergan Grimes. I do not know how they fit all that on a bumper sticker.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/28/18558817-tuesdays-campaign-round-up?lite
Mike in NC
SCOTUS needs to keep up its end of the national Republican voter suppression effort.
Trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Zombie Robert Bork insists.
Baud
I said yesterday I supported the push for the amendment, but I’m not a fan of this sort of “Battle of Armageddon” mentality. That’ll end up just leaving everyone frustrated in the end.
The Other Chuck
@Tonal (visible) Crow: If HAVA demonstrated anything, it’s that they don’t need the cover of a constitutional amendment to steal the vote, and generally speaking they’ll do what they do whether or not there’s a specifically granted right. With the right at least, there would be an available remedy.
rikyrah
@TG Chicago:
You mean how they used the monies to build the schools as their own little slush fund?
I don’t think she covered it, but I wish she would.
MikeJ
@Trollhattan: I like the dactyl-trochee-iamb rhythm of her name.
geg6
I had a good news/bad news kind of day.
Bad news first, our campus chancellor has been diagnosed with ALS. He’s a very good chancellor and we all like him very much. For a guy who’s an engineer, he has really learned to loosen up and be a better administrator than almost any other that I’ve ever seen. I’m so sad for him and his family, especially his wife, who is also a lovely woman.
The good news is that I’ve been promoted to an assistant director for admissions and student aid and am getting a decent raise and moving into a whole new pay scale. Damn, I didn’t see this one coming and I’m really happy.
PeakVT
@Tonal (visible) Crow: The second clause is basically a standard implementation clause. The one from the 24th reads: Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. The word “implement” is new, but I don’t see how it changes the meaning of the clause.
eric
@geg6: sweet ass good news for you! congrats!
Kay
I would say Democrats and liberals should pursue this because a part of their base care deeply about it.
Also, as a practical matter, voting rights talk/education is an easy and natural fit with canvassing on an issue/candidate, so it’s not wasted time even if it ultimately fails. When we were passing petitions to put repeal of SB 5 on the ballot, OFA passed petition to roll back voting rights restrictions. We were able to show people a direct connection between what they want (repeal of SB 5) and voting rights (“you need the whole coalition to be able to vote or you will lose”).
In the past some Democratic voters have resisted the idea that these restrictions matter. They needed a direct connection.
Voting rights became good politics for Democrats in 2012. Republicans were defending and denying. I’m not surprised Democrats want to keep it front and center.
Trollhattan
@Baud:
Presuming (hah!) it ever made it out of the House, can anybody tally 38 states that would ratify a voting rights amendment? I can’t, but I sure can come up with more than 12 that won’t.
JPL
@geg6: Good news indeed and congrats. How are the pups?
gene108
I like the idea, but I’d prefer a longer and more detailed Amendment.
I don’t see how this would counter voter ID laws, lack of access in poorer areas, etc., because you would need a court to agree that these place an undue burden on people’s right to exercise their right to vote.
The Supreme Court already heard Indiana’s case many years ago and said voter ID laws aren’t an undue burden that prevent people from voting.
As long as conservatives control the court system, I don’t see this Constitutional amendment having the desired effect.
EDIT: The 15th Amendment pretty clearly states you can’t keep blacks from voting, but it took almost one hundred years for Congress to effectively enforce it and the Courts to back up Congress. People in the 19th Century didn’t want blacks to vote, so they were O.K. with literacy tests, for example, that didn’t specifically identify race as a criteria to be used to keep blacks from voting. A Constitutional amendment will only be as effective as what the rest of government decides to abide by.
Trollhattan
@MikeJ:
Don’t think for a second I didn’t have to use the google to understand your veddy clevah response. (Took all the wrong classes, I did.)
Baud
@Trollhattan:
Like I said, I support keeping the fight front and center. I just want us to keep our heads about us that enacting the proposed amendment is not the be-all-and-end-all of successfully pushing back against voter suppression laws.
NotMax
Already commented in earlier thread about why this is such a wan idea (and the wording an even worse disaster) earlier.
If there must be the dog and pony show of an amendment, take a cue from the 2nd:
A participatory electorate being necessary to the creation and continuance of a Free State, the right to vote shall not be infringed.
MikeJ
@Trollhattan: Boom ba ba / Boom ba / ba Boom
Kay
@rikyrah:
Send me something substantive. I’ve decided I hate your newspaper. It’s weirdly …vague. It’s like you have to read between the lines or something.
“What are they HINTING at here, I wonder?” Are they afeared of the mayor, or what? :)
El Cid
@PeakVT: Section 3: No, you dumbass Teabircher fucks, “implementation” is not meant to be interpreted in some dumbass asshole way so that you undercut the spirit and letter of the law, you fucking fucks.
Baud
@NotMax:
I agree the wording can be improved. The main point of the amendment, as far as I see, is actually the second clause, which would give Congress greater power to enact federal legislation to protect voting rights in all elections. Of course, you still need to have a decent Congress for it to work.
PeakVT
@gene108: How about this (more here):
Tonal (visible) Crow
@PeakVT:
“Implement” must mean something beyond “enforce”, no? But even without “implement”, I don’t trust Republicans with it. Further, the very idea of opening the Constitution to amendments in this political environment is fraught with peril. I can easily see Republicans demanding a “PATRIOT Amendment” in return for enacting a watered-down version of the voting rights amendment — and I can see Democrats accepting the deal, too.
It’d be better, I think, to go for a super-VRA, with findings about how interference with voting rights impacts interstate commerce, infringes rights under the 14th and 15th Amendments, etc. That’d give the super-VRA a firmer foundation than the existing statute.
Higgs Boson's Mate
I looked for the full text of the proposed amendment and couldn’t find it. The excerpted versions seem to restore the right to vote to convicted felons. I think that I must be missing something.
Baud
@PeakVT:
The preservation of the felony exception will be a big problem for liberals to overcome.
Kay
@gene108:
Because 90% of it is awareness and education. The whole thing got 10x easier when newspapers started doing outraged editorials.
The whole game in voting rights is to stay OUT of court. We don’t need better or more lawyers. We need voters who are more aware, less cowed, less confused, and a little presumptively pissed off. A big national fuss would help with that.
Yatsuno
@geg6: Talk about a mixed news day! But you and John should feel free to treat yourselves!
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Yay for the good news!
(And boo hiss for the bad news, that sucks.)
But geg6 rocks!!
Baud
@geg6:
Congrats!
Lolis
@geg6:
Congratulations! A promotion, especially unexpected ones, are always a treat.
PeakVT
@Baud: Well, I don’t have a problem taking away the right to vote from felons. I just think it should be returned automatically, without exception, when they are done serving their sentences.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ:
Ivan Skavitsky Skavar. Abdul the Bulbul Emeer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53FBi5rH2w&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Cygil
They need “and of good character” or “absent felony convictions” in there, to make it palletable to many states. And it won’t pass in any case. But this is good theater and precisely what the democrats should have been doing for four years.
MikeJ
@SiubhanDuinne:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/abdul-abulbul-amir/
Tonal (visible) Crow
@Cygil:
“Of good character” would certainly be used by Republicans to deny LGBT people the right to vote, if not all non-Republicans. It would be a perilous choice. “Absent felony convictions” is better, but the text needs also to allow for — maybe even to provide for — restoration of voting rights for felons who’ve served their sentences.
You have something of a point there. We should be keeping Republicans on their heels with a flood of actions, just like they do to us.
JWL
I was schooled last night about the procedures to effect such an amendment to the Constitution (believing, as I did, it would require a Constitutional Convention). It was ignorance of black hole magnitude on my part, but there’s nothing ever wrong in being served a slice of humble pie.
More to the point, it’s a battle essential to our freedoms, our liberties. That is to say, it must be waged.
And, in my humble opinion, it’s eminently winnable.
Tonal (visible) Crow
@JWL:
You need >= 2/3rds of each House of Congress, plus >= 3/4ths of the states. I dunno how you get either in the current political environment. I also dunno how you avoid a horse-trade for something awful, like, say, a “PATRIOT Amendment” that enshrines warrantless spying, drones everywhere, and permanent war.
Kay
@Cygil:
Rick Santorum once promoted restoring voting rights to felons with federal legislation. It wasn’t that long ago. Romney (disgustingly) attacked him on it in OH, which is why Dewine in OH switched and endorsded Santirum over Romney, because Dewine had also backed restoration of rights when DEWINE was a Senator.
It was like a brief fad among religious conservatives, “we forgive felons”
I don’t know what happened to that. They were ministering in prisons and such for a week and a half or so.
Hungry Joe
When I posted the other day about a guy who keyed my car, then climbed atop it and stomped the roof because he thought I parked too close (there was a witness, fortunately), a number of you asked for updates. So, Update 1:
A San Diego Police Dept. detective is already on the case. He said I can (1) press charges, which could play out forever, or (2) have him tell the guy that I won’t press charges — they’re possibly felony — if he agrees pay for all repairs. I opted for (2); really want to nail this guy in order to dissuade him from doing this to somebody else, but the detective assured me that he’ll put the fear of Whomever into him. If he agrees to pay, we’d meet at police department HQ, and he’ll pay me in cash, cashier’s check, money order, or maybe puka shells. I figure he’s the type of lunatic who’d slash my tires (or worse) someday, but he’d never have to know my name. I’d wear a fake beard but it probably wouldn’t fit over my beard.
If he doesn’t agree, it goes the D.A.
MikeJ
@Hungry Joe: It would be nice if this turned into a moment of reflection and self discovery for the asshat. I won’t hold my breath though.
cathyx
@Hungry Joe: Wear the beard, then shave it off afterwards and dye your hair.
Svensker
@geg6:
Congrats to you! Yay! And sorry to hear your other news. I lost a friend to ALS last year and it is not fun.
JWL
@Tonal (visible) Crow: I will only answer that the political status quo cannot be sustained by the republican party. Indeed, looked at from that point of view, their orchestrated efforts to suppress the vote is testament to that reality. The GOP is what it is.
“.. But you can’t fool all the people, all the time”.
ruemara
Well. This has been an interesting day. I’ve just been informed that I am losing my job come July, will be switched over from a fully funded position that has no fiscal relevance to General Fund and is a position that is in alignment with my skills and experience where I provide over and above what is expected, to a brand new position that no one knows how I will fit into the new department, will be relying on our taxed General Fund dollars and is also a short term position for the next fiscal year. Whereupon I will be out on my keister. Since I’ve been job hunting for several years now for a perm full time and gotten exactly nowhere, I’m assuming that my existence is no longer needed on this plane. There is no savings generated by this reorg, as they will now need to subcontract at a higher cost with less flexibility than I provide with less overall skill and broad ranging ability to meet random drives by the higher ups. But someone has the outsource mania and thinks that will solve everything. I’m tempted to be frank with those in that group, but I’m also cognizant of my immediate bosses and the tender situation it puts them in. Of course moving me from poverty to destitute in a year is a much tenderer situation. How are so many idiots and sociopaths in office and management?
Litlebritdifrnt
Would Sooner or someone else address this issue for me please, i.e. the VA disability backlog. When someone retires (after 20 or 30 years) they are advised to immediately apply for disability why? Cause every % of disability they get makes that % untaxable, and the dirty little secret every % designated disability is $ that he doesn’t have to pay to the ex-wife. Every single person who leaves the military (no matter how many years served) is told to apply for VA disability no matter how slight the injury (example female who worked at our office had 10% of the knee after 4 years in netting her $95.00 per month) This is why there is a backlog, not cause guys who had their legs blown off are clogging up the system.
raven
@Hungry Joe: If it concerns you so much (I’m not saying it shouldn’t) don’t agree to meet him in person. Whose idea is that, the cops? What is gained?
raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: Advised by who?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Tonal (visible) Crow:
Passing the amendment looks even tougher because the amendment must be ratified and that job has in all but one instance (the 21st amendment), been done by state legislatures.Considering that the Republicans control 27 state legislatures I wouldn’t look for the VRA to pass anytime soon.
Svensker
@Hungry Joe:
Srsly? That is scary. Perhaps anger management classes for the guy, as well…?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Hungry Joe: You should go Rushdie: blond wig, fake tits.
MikeJ
@Just Some Fuckhead: You’re assuming that’s not what he looks like undisguised.
Violet
@Hungry Joe: That situation sounds shady. Do you have a lawyer friend who might know something about that set up? I hope it works out okay. Stay safe.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Litlebritdifrnt: Yup, my step-daughter left the Air Force 2 years ago. She was pleasantly surprised to get 40% disability.
muddy
If this were tv, the “witness” would be the person who really did the vandalism.
geg6
@JPL:
Thanks!
And the pups are awesome. Koda is getting huge, but still has a lot of puppy-ish ways. And the smartest and sweetest personality. Otis is still a bit crotchety with her now and again, but they also work schemes together to get treats. So all is copacetic with them.
ETA: And thanks to everyone else for the good wishes! I really am a bit gobsmacked by this promotion because I didn’t even know it was an option, let alone that I would put myself forward for it. There’s never been anyone on my campus with this job title.
TG Chicago
@Kay: Hi, Kay — thanks for the response. Here’s the latest:
http://www.suntimes.com/20389466-761/uno-boss-rangel-i-have-failed.html
So his version of “taking responsibility” involves doing less work for the same amount of money.
Thanks again for your coverage of the school monetization scheme.
indycat32
since this is an open thread: I’m planning on visiting the Biltmore Estates (mainly to see the gardens) next month. Anyone familiar with Asheville, visited the Biltmore?? Can’t decide whether to go with a package or book hotel and buy admission to the Estate separately. Any recommendations/advice?
Matt McIrvin
I think felons should be able to vote in prison, because it removes the incentive of disenfranchisement for defining lots of ridiculous felonies. However, this is clearly an extremely unpopular position in the US. Guaranteeing restoration of voting rights on conclusion of a sentence, though, might have more support.
Kay
@TG Chicago:
The whole thing is just really interesting. The public school people are so ridiculously, ludicrously outgunned. All Republican politicians half of Democratic politicians, all of our best billionaires and the tech industry versus like 200,000 individuals and (some) teachers unions. That’s appealing all by itself! Sign me up!
Setiously, though, I think Chicago will be the turning point when we look back. I hope. They fought so hard to keep those schools and they had a real, genuine coalition.
I hope it will turn out to be an incredibly stupid move to just roll over them. In hindsight :)
muddy
@indycat32: I used to live nearby and got the yearly pass for the grounds. I went on the house tour only once, about 25 years ago. They were just getting the winery started then.
There’s a terrific underground spa at the Grove Park Inn, of course pricey as these things tend to be. You don’t have to stay at the hotel to use it, but it costs extra.
Driving south from Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway the laurels ought to be in bloom in the mountains, they are later than the rhododendrons.
Dolly Llama
Man, David Frum’s lackey laying it out there:
Confederate Traitors Don’t Deserve the Honors.
The commenters discussing that, my friends, is entertaining as hell.
KS in MA
@indycat32: I’ve never been to the Biltmore Estate, sorry– but, be sure to see “Being There” before you go. It will make you smile during your whole tour!
Viva BrisVegas
@Rick Massimo:
Then the new amendment should be couched in terms that they will understand:
“An open Democracy, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to vote, shall not be infringed.”
By conservative logic, that will guarantee the right to vote anywhere, anytime and in any way.
Tonal (visible) Crow
@Matt McIrvin:
A very good point. Along the same lines, we should (ironically) make it a felony to operate a private prison, because private prisons have every incentive to lobby for the creation of new “crimes” to increase their profits.