Campbell Robertson of The New York Times went to McComb, Mississippi. You will be shocked to learn that blacks there generally think Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is still needed, while whites generally think things will be just fine and dandy without it.
Robertson also gives us some statistics on the state:
With a black population of 37 percent, by far the largest in the country, Mississippi did not have a black representative in Congress until 1986. As recently as 1990, only 22 out of the 204 members of the Mississippi State Legislature were black. While no black statewide official has been elected, there are now a black congressman and 49 black state lawmakers.So even when the Voting Rights Act had been in effect for 25 years, a state that's 37% black had a legislature that was just 11% black. Even now, the legislature is only 24% black. Neither of the two U.S. senators is black, though one of the four House members is.
And this is with the full Voting Rights Act in effect. We now pretty much know that won't be the case in any future American election.
So don't hold your breath waiting for that great Hispanic wave to turn Texas blue, or even purple. Demography is not destiny where angry, determined, dug-in white conservatives rule.
A lot of people don't vote, who could vote. Has nothing to do with out and out attacks on voters. Most Americans are apolitical and distrust local political figures and even the idea of political action. If they sweep away the VRA (this time around) it can be brought back in the form of a more universal legislation when we take back the House. And we will.
ReplyDeleteWish I shared your confidence that the good guys are going to win soon. I see politics trending in just the opposite direction.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Steve.
ReplyDeleteIt'll get worse before it gets better - IF, it gets better, since once in power, Conservatives will do whatever they can to stay in power.
I definitely don't see politics trending in the opposite direction. Obama got elected TWICE. They have turned their political machine over to new management and are using it in ways that have never been seen before in national politics. The Republicans are eating themselves alive, and eating their seed corn as well. Gay marriage is about to become the de facto law of the land--California went from opposed to 2 to 1 in favor of it. And the ordinary Republican voter and teabagger is ageing, dying, and not being replaced. Demographics are destiny here as elsewhere. Sure, it may take another ten to twenty years but this iteration of corporate racist reactionary republicanism is going to go down to the ashheap of history. In fact it may take less time once the Koch Brothers and the Rich asshole donors decide that Karl Rove et al can't reliably deliver voters to the ballot box. No point struggling to rig the vote if you need to do your work at a different level of the system through other forms of bribery, intimidation, and coercion.
ReplyDeleteSorry if that seems obscure--"they have turned" means Obama has turned OFA into a new kind of organization.I have NEVER given money like I gave to the Obama campaign and certainly never, ever, gave money in between election cycles to help any politician work on getting my message out. I know I'm not alone in being part of a permanent engagement, permanent war.
ReplyDeleteWe look at 2012 and assume Republicans can't learn from their mistakes, ever. Why? They have more money than God. They can literally buy a clue. They can buy billions of dollars' worth of clues. We assume they'll screw up forever the way they did in '12 at their peril. I'm not saying a huge reversal will happen, but we really shouldn't get smug and assume it can't possibly happen.
ReplyDeleteAhh... That explains why God has cash-flow problem.
DeleteBefore 2012, there was 2010, when the Democrats lost the House over some bullsh*t by Teabaggers about "Death Panels," and other crap about Democrats wanting to kill Medicare - from the Republicans and Conservatives, who are the ones who really want to kill ALL "Earned Benefits" programs.
ReplyDeleteThe term was created by Sarah Palin, and the Teabagger bowel-movement was orchestrated by the Koch brothers, and other rich MFers.
We'll what happens in 2014. But in 2016, it may be the last gasp for Conservatives, who'll have to rally their base when, presumably, the Democrats will have a White Presidential candidate.
Every electronic voting machine I known was designed, produced and distributed by companies whose (white, of course) management contributes to the republican party.
ReplyDeleteThe 2000 Florida debacle over punch card voting was perfectly planned by the rovian republican party to create a national market for the institution of corruptible electoral system and, at the same time, enrich republican-run big business.
Mississippi had two black US Representatives until the redistricting following the 2000 census. The state lost a district, and the boundary redrawing was done such that there were now three "white" and one "black" district. So, uh, things have actually gotten worse vis-a-vis House representation in the last decade and a half.
ReplyDeleteWrong statistic. What would be relevant, though not necessarily in any straightforward way, would be voter participation by race.
ReplyDelete