Stickybuffalo.com

Another in a series of posts which I basically wrote and finished except for putting them in WordPress or actually, y’know, posting them, and then forgot about as weeks became months. In this instance, I look at efforts to protect the universal franchise from GOP-backed voter ID requirements, and conclude that this is probably a worthy cause, and probably also a hopeless one.

I read an item another item about voter ID requirements recently; I don’t have the link but it basically followed the form of most such stories. Republicans want more-demanding identification requirements for voting, Democrats object that this will disenfranchise low-income and minority voters, Republicans claim “fraud” and Democrats claim “voter suppression.” And reading through the comments on this latest story basically reinforced a belief I’ve had for a while, so I might as well get on record with it here: fighting against ID requirements for voting is a losing battle, fellow liberals/progressives/Ds.

Sorry, but it is. I appreciate all of the arguments about why such requirements amount to voter suppression, and I’m skeptical of how much a threat repeat-voting really represents (as well as skeptical of Republicans’ real commitment to one-person one-vote equality), but the fact is that arguing that voters shouldn’t need ID will and does look like a defense of voter fraud to most people. The existence of Americans without driver’s licenses, bank accounts, etc., is just not real to the great majority of the country, and while logically this just underscores the importance of protecting these marginalized people’s voting rights, logic is a losing notion, here. As is the case with many issues, “gut” instinct holds sway; most people don’t know and can’t imagine anyone without a driver’s license, therefore they will not believe that such people exist.

(more…)

I’ve had this loose sense for some years, now, that America (perhaps more than nearly any other society) is becoming a victim of its own success. In more ways than one in fact, probably, but in this case I refer to the long decades of enjoying the fruits of market capitalism. I’ve arrived at this notion that the free-enterprise system has proven both so effective and so relatively easy a means of making so many things better that we’ve now gone generations without really confronting any major problem through any other way.

The last exceptions were probably the civil rights movement and the feminist revolution, and both of those were pretty much complete by the time I was born. And I’m 33.

Outside of those upheavals, the solutions to which I think required effort outside of capitalist free-enterprise but not particularly any direct conflict with it, the vast majority of America has been able to take for granted a pretty comfortable living through a combination of shopping, and a sort of “maintenance” approach to collective society. Basically, vote, at least once in a while, and beyond that just trust that the resultant government may act out amateur drama but will keep the streets paved, the water drinkable, etc., and not screw anything up too disastrously.

Which is understandably a very tempting situation to settle into, I believe, not least from my perspective; I find politics interesting but I don’t want to march or knock on doors or get pepper-sprayed or engage directly with people who disagree with me or, for that matter, people who share my views either, really. I like vote-by-mail! By contrast it’s difficult and unpleasant, hashing out situations where we can’t all simply have our own individual preference without our decision significantly affecting anyone else. Shopping is much more fun.

(more…)

Okay, let’s establish one basic, rock-solid point as the 2012 presidential campaign can now begin in (calendar-based) earnest.

Further empowering Republicans will not help. Period. Any commentary on contemporary American politics which ignores, fudges or contradicts this reliably-proven fact is simply engaged in imaginary make-believe, and should be disregarded completely.

This is not hyperbolic bias or partisan propaganda, this is a realistic description of the one entirely-safe given among all the variables of our society’s political options. This is certainly not spite-driven wishful thinking on my part; I don’t like the implications of this reality and wish that it were otherwise, but wishing won’t make it so.

And this is not an assertion that we, therefore, have no alternative but re-electing Barack Obama, nor is it an assertion that doing so would, by itself, automatically help with any of our nation’s challenges either. Those points are debatable, at best. The idea that America can achieve any kind of progress on its varied grievances by further empowering the Republican party of 2012, however, is just plain delusional.

The only possible exception is of very specific and exclusive relevance, limited to the modern Republican party’s very small real constituency of corporate barons and well-connected profiteers. They may experience significant benefits from giving more power to Republicans, though even that’s questionable at this point; in any event punditry or “analysis” which discusses the prospect of further empowering Republicans outside of an explicit context of this limited constituency will be nothing but noisy, unreal disinformation. (more…)