No election of our lifetimes is likely to be more important than this one. Is the American electorate so unhinged with venom that it could actually send a demagogic, misogynist, racist, Islamophobic narcissist to the White House who admires Vladimir Putin and thinks we should pull out of NATO and allow nuclear proliferation to more countries? Quite a few people are enamored of this ignoramus just because he talks tough and is quick with an insult. Both Democratic candidates are committed people who have serious solutions to the nation's issues. When you get right down to it, that's the choice facing Americans this year. And if you aren't registered to vote you are part of the problem.
You have until Monday, May 23 to register so you can participate in California's June 7 primary election. My advice, of course, is to register Democratic and vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Primaries are being held for U.S. Senator, Congress, State Assembly and Senate offices too, as well as county party governing boards, the Central Committees. There's also Proposition 50, which would let the State Legislature suspend a member without pay by a two-thirds vote for good cause, as when three legislators were indicted last year. I recommend a yes vote on this measure. Currently the legislature can only expel a member, which may not be justified until a conviction is secured, or suspend with pay, which isn't tough enough in cases of egregious misconduct.
At any rate, it's more important than ever that you register and vote. It's easy. Go to the Secretary of State's web site and register today. Here's a link to it. Here's a link to the voter registration page on the Secretary of State's site. You have all day Monday until 11:59 p.m. to register. Don't delay. Let your voice be heard rather than wishing you'd done something after it's too late!
Showing posts with label Voting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Voting. Show all posts
Friday, May 20, 2016
Monday, April 15, 2013
What Liberals Believe About Community and Putting People First
The sixth and concluding part in a series about the liberal perspective on human rights.
The Affordable Care Act is a fine example of values reinforcing practicality. Liberals believe it is immoral to deny human beings a basic necessity like health care. Obamacare saves not only lives but also money compared to the previous system. Liberals supported even more effective measures, such as giving the government stronger authority to use its massive purchasing power to negotiate lower drug costs from manufacturers, and by having a “public option” insurance plan as an alternative to those provided by for-profit companies to put some real competition into the mix. Unfortunately, Representatives beholden to the insurance industry managed to defeat those provisions, but the Act even still is a major step forward for the American people, some 32 million of whom will be added to the rolls of the insured through its provisions.
These principles underlie the many other liberal positions on human rights. For community and “people first” reasons, liberals look at education as a human right, not a privilege. They believe small rural communities deserve clean water supplies as much as large urban ones do. It’s why they support the Violence Against Women Act, fight so hard against human trafficking and predatory clergy, make a big deal out of bullying, and call out demeaning and derogatory speech. Some conservatives decry this as unwarranted “political correctness,” as though insulting people is a positive good that needs to be protected. Liberals remember that the basis of political correctness is empathy for the feelings of other human beings. You don’t use racial slurs and epithets. You don’t go to the synagogue and tell jokes about the Holocaust. It’s a form of bullying and fails the test of treating others the way one would like to be treated.
The same goes for voting as a human right. It is the foundational right upon which democracy itself stands or falls. Liberals are consistently for making it as easy as possible, such as by encouraging voting by mail and making early voting widely available. Conservatives, on the other hand, continue to raise obstacles and make it more difficult, following their age-old practice of trying to restrict voting to “the better sort of (wealthier) people.” It is nothing but a sham designed to exclude liberal voters from the polls. The first priority should be to facilitate people exercising their right to vote. A secondary concern is to guard against fraud, which the actual facts show to be extremely rare. If they are truly worried about this, I have often thought the way to go about it is to require the state to provide people with an ID card, at its trouble and expense, not the citizen’s. Most people just use their state-issued driver’s license, but those without a driver’s license tend to be older folks who no longer drive (and who can be counted on to vote in support of Social Security and Medicare) and poorer people who have no car. These are precisely the people for whom going through a lot of expense and trouble like taking time off from work, finding a bus or hiring a cab is a real impediment to exercising their right to cast a vote.
Liberal opposition to the awful 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is also about human rights and putting people first. The idea of declaring an entity like a corporation a “person” and allowing it to electioneer with unlimited and anonymous funding is a perilous step indeed. This ruling on a razor-thin 5-4 vote by the Court’s conservative majority overturned forty years of sensible limitations imposed and agreed upon by both parties in the wake of the outrageous Watergate corruption scandals of the 1970s. Liberals oppose this egregious miscarriage of justice and support overturning this decision. The people of Montana, Colorado, and the councils of dozens of cities across the country have voted against it.
A sense of community is a core liberal value. It is based on the idea that, as President Barack Obama is
fond of saying, “We are not a red America and a blue America; we are one United
States of America.” Bill Clinton likes to say, “We believe that ‘we’re all in
this together’ is a better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’” Or, as Martin Luther King put it, “We may
have all come on different ships but we’re in the same boat now.”
The impulse to put people and their needs first is a
liberal imperative. Dr. King said,
“Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you
are what you ought to be. This is the
interrelated structure of reality.” The
liberal heart cannot stand idly by in the face of human suffering, want and
need. Franklin Roosevelt electrified the
nation in the depths of the Great Depression by promising to do something about poverty and
unemployment. In his Inaugural Address
he avowed, “This nation asks for action, and action now!” He promised to give it to them, making the
people’s government their partner in recovery in a New Deal that would directly
create the jobs they needed. He inspired
confidence with his ringing exclamation against his predecessor and those minds
shackled by ideology and inertia, those too timid to act, when he assured the
American people, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Afterward, these bold words were backed up by
programs that put millions of Americans to work and ended the Great Depression.
Liberals do not believe the responsibilities of the
people’s government end with defending the frontiers, arresting lawbreakers and
enforcing contracts. To ignore solvable
problems and preventable human suffering is intolerable to liberals, because to
them human needs come first. An ideology
based on what size government ought to be is nonsense to a liberal. It ought to be whatever size it needs to be
to fix those problems the people need fixed and cannot fix so well in their
individual capacities. When the flood waters rise, the fire spreads or the
epidemic grows people need help, not ideologies. Liberals want to make sure that help is
there.
Where do these impulses come from? Liberals are attracted to the insight of the
English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who wrote, “The greatest happiness of the
greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.” In the spiritual realm, Jesus of Nazareth
commanded, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Muhammad echoed this in Islam. The Qu’ran states, "No one of you
believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." The wellspring of all these statements is
empathy, the ability to place one’s self in another’s shoes and want what is
best for that person. All politicians
pay lip service to this quality. How
else could they get people to vote for them?
But to real liberals it is not something that has to be affected; it is
part of their core. The Affordable Care Act is a fine example of values reinforcing practicality. Liberals believe it is immoral to deny human beings a basic necessity like health care. Obamacare saves not only lives but also money compared to the previous system. Liberals supported even more effective measures, such as giving the government stronger authority to use its massive purchasing power to negotiate lower drug costs from manufacturers, and by having a “public option” insurance plan as an alternative to those provided by for-profit companies to put some real competition into the mix. Unfortunately, Representatives beholden to the insurance industry managed to defeat those provisions, but the Act even still is a major step forward for the American people, some 32 million of whom will be added to the rolls of the insured through its provisions.
These principles underlie the many other liberal positions on human rights. For community and “people first” reasons, liberals look at education as a human right, not a privilege. They believe small rural communities deserve clean water supplies as much as large urban ones do. It’s why they support the Violence Against Women Act, fight so hard against human trafficking and predatory clergy, make a big deal out of bullying, and call out demeaning and derogatory speech. Some conservatives decry this as unwarranted “political correctness,” as though insulting people is a positive good that needs to be protected. Liberals remember that the basis of political correctness is empathy for the feelings of other human beings. You don’t use racial slurs and epithets. You don’t go to the synagogue and tell jokes about the Holocaust. It’s a form of bullying and fails the test of treating others the way one would like to be treated.
The same goes for voting as a human right. It is the foundational right upon which democracy itself stands or falls. Liberals are consistently for making it as easy as possible, such as by encouraging voting by mail and making early voting widely available. Conservatives, on the other hand, continue to raise obstacles and make it more difficult, following their age-old practice of trying to restrict voting to “the better sort of (wealthier) people.” It is nothing but a sham designed to exclude liberal voters from the polls. The first priority should be to facilitate people exercising their right to vote. A secondary concern is to guard against fraud, which the actual facts show to be extremely rare. If they are truly worried about this, I have often thought the way to go about it is to require the state to provide people with an ID card, at its trouble and expense, not the citizen’s. Most people just use their state-issued driver’s license, but those without a driver’s license tend to be older folks who no longer drive (and who can be counted on to vote in support of Social Security and Medicare) and poorer people who have no car. These are precisely the people for whom going through a lot of expense and trouble like taking time off from work, finding a bus or hiring a cab is a real impediment to exercising their right to cast a vote.
Liberal opposition to the awful 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is also about human rights and putting people first. The idea of declaring an entity like a corporation a “person” and allowing it to electioneer with unlimited and anonymous funding is a perilous step indeed. This ruling on a razor-thin 5-4 vote by the Court’s conservative majority overturned forty years of sensible limitations imposed and agreed upon by both parties in the wake of the outrageous Watergate corruption scandals of the 1970s. Liberals oppose this egregious miscarriage of justice and support overturning this decision. The people of Montana, Colorado, and the councils of dozens of cities across the country have voted against it.
To sum up, whatever the issue, you can always count
on liberals to support communities and put the needs of people first. Liberals value human rights, including
equality, fairness, personal autonomy, security and community for their own
sake. The underlying principles behind
this stance are a firm belief in those rights, compassionate empathy, a
practical approach and the courage to pursue justice in the face of selfish and
self-interested power. As Martin Luther
King taught us, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a
"thing"-oriented society to a "person"-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives
and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant
triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable (of) being
conquered.”
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Voter Resources
Where does a citizen go to find pertinent information on candidates and issues at election time? All too often, the answer is nowhere. For many people soundbite or negative commercials and a little word of mouth from other dubiously informed people are the major determinants in their decision-making.
There are, however, some good resources for those who want to dig a little deeper. I like to find out how candidates stand on a number of issues, and if they have a record on actual bills. I really want to find out if they and their campaigns have a history of telling the truth. I also want to find out who is supporting them financially. The money trail is even more important on ballot propositions, many of which are put up by special interests in the guise of being for the general good. Here is a list of valuable sites. I want to thank Maria Gaston for much of this research.
Project Vote Smart does research on thousands of political candidates and officials. It has a great record for nonpartisanship. It asks the candidates to take its National Political Awareness Test each election on the issues they will probably be dealing with if elected. It is tops on the list. Go to www.vote-smart.org or click the link.
To find out whose money is backing what and whom at the state level, a great site is kept up by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. It's called followthemoney.org. You can find it at www.followthemoney.org
Do you want to find out who is giving you the straight scoop and who is shoveling the bull? An excellent site for this is FactCheck.org. They especially stay on top of major races and controversies around the country and spare no one from their impartial scrutiny. Click on the link or look into it at www.factcheck.org.
For the real policy wonk you can go to Thomas (as in Jefferson), the Library of Congress site dedicated to publishing all the records of Congress, including not only their votes but also their statements on bills being considered. You can access this at //thomas.loc.gov/home.
As the paper of record in the nation's capital, the Washington Post is unequalled in its day to day coverage of what is going on there. It also has links to voluminous resources such as voting and poll data bases. You may need to register with the paper online, but it's free and they do not send advertising to you. See what WaPo Politics has to offer at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
You can find out what the parties are concentrating on at their own websites, too. The Republicans display their wares and a dim view of the Democrats at the Republican National Committee site, www.gop.org/. The Democratic National Committee has its own site at www.democrats.org/. The minor parties such as the Libertarians and Greens all have their own sites, too.
Happy hunting, and remember at election time, stay informed!
There are, however, some good resources for those who want to dig a little deeper. I like to find out how candidates stand on a number of issues, and if they have a record on actual bills. I really want to find out if they and their campaigns have a history of telling the truth. I also want to find out who is supporting them financially. The money trail is even more important on ballot propositions, many of which are put up by special interests in the guise of being for the general good. Here is a list of valuable sites. I want to thank Maria Gaston for much of this research.
Project Vote Smart does research on thousands of political candidates and officials. It has a great record for nonpartisanship. It asks the candidates to take its National Political Awareness Test each election on the issues they will probably be dealing with if elected. It is tops on the list. Go to www.vote-smart.org or click the link.
To find out whose money is backing what and whom at the state level, a great site is kept up by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. It's called followthemoney.org. You can find it at www.followthemoney.org
Do you want to find out who is giving you the straight scoop and who is shoveling the bull? An excellent site for this is FactCheck.org. They especially stay on top of major races and controversies around the country and spare no one from their impartial scrutiny. Click on the link or look into it at www.factcheck.org.
For the real policy wonk you can go to Thomas (as in Jefferson), the Library of Congress site dedicated to publishing all the records of Congress, including not only their votes but also their statements on bills being considered. You can access this at //thomas.loc.gov/home.
As the paper of record in the nation's capital, the Washington Post is unequalled in its day to day coverage of what is going on there. It also has links to voluminous resources such as voting and poll data bases. You may need to register with the paper online, but it's free and they do not send advertising to you. See what WaPo Politics has to offer at www.washingtonpost.com/politics.
You can find out what the parties are concentrating on at their own websites, too. The Republicans display their wares and a dim view of the Democrats at the Republican National Committee site, www.gop.org/. The Democratic National Committee has its own site at www.democrats.org/. The minor parties such as the Libertarians and Greens all have their own sites, too.
Happy hunting, and remember at election time, stay informed!
Monday, September 8, 2008
You Have Power
The election race is tight again. There are about 44-45% for McCain and 44-45% for Obama. That leaves 10-12% undecided. With millions of dollars and millions of voters in play, people typically feel they really can't have much of an impact as individuals. And while that is probably true, those individuals acting in the aggregate can have an enormous impact. Here's a plea for getting involved.
There are always a lot of people unregistered. According to the census bureau, in the last presidential election in 2004, 28% of the people weren't registered as you can see here. There are also always a lot of people who are registered but don't vote. Even in the most high-interest presidential elections that's usually more than 40%. In 2004 again, the same Census Bureau report finds that 63% of the voting age population actually did turn out. And that was the most since 1992.
So, what am I getting at? Well, in the past three weeks I've registered five people to vote. All I had to do was go to the county office, get some forms and have them available. You know, it turns out a lot of people, particularly younger ones, have never been asked to register. They just need someone to invite them to and make it convenient and friendly. I recommended they all register for vote by mail, too. This they all did. That makes it more likely they actually will vote. I've heard that Oregon, which is all VBM, gets turnouts of 86%.
So suppose you are a McCain or Obama fan. The 44% of the people who are for your guy is really only 44% of the likely voters, in other words, 44% of the 63%. Of the total population that works out to about 28% for each candidate and 8% likely to vote but undecided. That leaves a whopping 36% who aren't likely to vote. That's more people than are for either major party candidate! There are a lot of potential voters out there for your guy. In raw numbers that means there are currently 70 million people for McCain, 70 million for Obama, 20 million who will pretty surely vote who are still trying to make up their minds, and 90 million who probably aren't going to vote.
Now suppose just 1% of your candidate's supporters go out and do what I did. That would mean 700,000 people would go out and sign up five family, friends, co-workers, people at the coffee shop, or what have you. That would mean an extra THREE AND A HALF MILLION VOTES for your guy. A close election turns into a clear win with just that much minimum effort by 1% of his supporters.
And I'm not talking about going door to door or setting up a table outside a store and sitting there all day. I'm just talking about maybe wearing a button for your favorite. It's a conversation starter among people who like your guy. You get around to asking if they're registered, you have a few forms in you car, purse, briefcase, tool box or what have you, and bingo. You can even feel like you're getting really involved by taking down their phone number and calling them when the absentees are mailed out, saying, "Hi, remember me?" and reminding them to fill out the ballot and send it in.
I've signed up five in three weeks, and there are still eight weeks to go. What do you think you might be able to do? Want to feel like you're making a difference? Go ahead and give it a try. If you're like me you'll be glad you did.
There are always a lot of people unregistered. According to the census bureau, in the last presidential election in 2004, 28% of the people weren't registered as you can see here. There are also always a lot of people who are registered but don't vote. Even in the most high-interest presidential elections that's usually more than 40%. In 2004 again, the same Census Bureau report finds that 63% of the voting age population actually did turn out. And that was the most since 1992.
So, what am I getting at? Well, in the past three weeks I've registered five people to vote. All I had to do was go to the county office, get some forms and have them available. You know, it turns out a lot of people, particularly younger ones, have never been asked to register. They just need someone to invite them to and make it convenient and friendly. I recommended they all register for vote by mail, too. This they all did. That makes it more likely they actually will vote. I've heard that Oregon, which is all VBM, gets turnouts of 86%.
So suppose you are a McCain or Obama fan. The 44% of the people who are for your guy is really only 44% of the likely voters, in other words, 44% of the 63%. Of the total population that works out to about 28% for each candidate and 8% likely to vote but undecided. That leaves a whopping 36% who aren't likely to vote. That's more people than are for either major party candidate! There are a lot of potential voters out there for your guy. In raw numbers that means there are currently 70 million people for McCain, 70 million for Obama, 20 million who will pretty surely vote who are still trying to make up their minds, and 90 million who probably aren't going to vote.
Now suppose just 1% of your candidate's supporters go out and do what I did. That would mean 700,000 people would go out and sign up five family, friends, co-workers, people at the coffee shop, or what have you. That would mean an extra THREE AND A HALF MILLION VOTES for your guy. A close election turns into a clear win with just that much minimum effort by 1% of his supporters.
And I'm not talking about going door to door or setting up a table outside a store and sitting there all day. I'm just talking about maybe wearing a button for your favorite. It's a conversation starter among people who like your guy. You get around to asking if they're registered, you have a few forms in you car, purse, briefcase, tool box or what have you, and bingo. You can even feel like you're getting really involved by taking down their phone number and calling them when the absentees are mailed out, saying, "Hi, remember me?" and reminding them to fill out the ballot and send it in.
I've signed up five in three weeks, and there are still eight weeks to go. What do you think you might be able to do? Want to feel like you're making a difference? Go ahead and give it a try. If you're like me you'll be glad you did.
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