Why do people vote for a party that is taking away the right to vote?

[riqster]

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/why-vote-for-a-party-that-is-taking-away-the-right-to-vote/

"That would be the “Republican” party, of course. They are, as they have been for many years, trying to suppress the vote, in order to limit the franchise to people like themselves, thereby cutting anyone is not male, rich, and white (and of late, a right wingnut) out of the action. From the article:

Pivotal swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused fierce partisan brawls.

The bills, laws and administrative rules — some of them tried before — shake up fundamental components of state election systems, including the days and times polls are open and the locations where people vote.

Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin this winter pushed through measures limiting the time polls are open, in particular cutting into weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election.

Notice this: it is an admittedly targeted set of blatantly unconstitutional laws that are designed to rig the game against those who might vote for the Democrats. The supposed reasons have been changing from “voter fraud” (which almost never happens) to “uniformity” ( demolished here ), but the measures remain the same.

One might think that when a problem changes, the solution would likewise change. And one would be right. The fact that the actions taken to remove our voting rights aren’t changing is all the proof you need that we are being screwed.

This writer sees a different problem, and thus a different solution: the problem is scumbucket politicians taking away our rights. The solution is to throw them into prison, and keep our rights intact.

Oh, and people should stop voting for the party that wants to take away their right to cast that ballot."

Source info at the link, as ever.

[catbyte]

1. Because they think it's only going to happen to "those people", not to them.

[Laxman]

2. Exactly-As Long As Its Not..

THEIR right to vote its ok. Those other people-they're probably frauds.

[Scuba]

4. Bingo. Here in Wisconsin, Scott Walker's backers know what a cheating scoundrel he is ....

... and they admire him for it. They've been taught for decades that "those people" are stealing your hard-earned money. Walker's policies that punish "those people" are the ones best loved by his backers.

[uponit7771]

18. +1

[Liberal_Dog]

23. You Got It. nt

[JNelson6563]

30. This is exactly right as well as blatantly obvious.

I am disappointed (but not surprised) to find how incredibly racist this country still is.

Julie

[el_bryanto]

3. Well they think the wrong people are voting

They tend to be law and order types who are already suspicious of the working class, not to mention Blacks and Latinos. They are more than willing to believe that those sorts of people just don't deserve to vote.

Some more libertarian types also feel that if you can't jump through the hoops that society sets up you shouldn't be allowed to vote anyway. If you can't take time off from work to go and set your voting status, than you don't really care about voting, right? I mean if you can't actually get the time or the wherewithal to arrange to vote, how can society trust you to sift through the confusing issues that face our nation.

Bryant

[riqster]

10. Sounds about right.

[11 Bravo]

5. For the same reason that there are female, gay, and African-American Republicans.

And I'll be damned if I can figure out what that reason is.

[FSogol]

6. People are complicated and don't always make sense. n/t

[riqster]

9. I'd say "rarely" make sense.

[FSogol]

11. I think Stanley Kubrik's film, "Full Metal Jacket" said it best:

Pogue Colonel: Marine, what is that button on your body armor?

Private Joker: A peace symbol, sir.

Pogue Colonel: Where'd you get it?

Private Joker: I don't remember, sir.

Pogue Colonel: What is that you've got written on your helmet?

Private Joker: "Born to Kill", sir.

Pogue Colonel: You write "Born to Kill" on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?

Private Joker: No, sir.

Pogue Colonel: You'd better get your head and your ass wired together, or I will take a giant shit on you.

Private Joker: Yes, sir.

Pogue Colonel: Now answer my question or you'll be standing tall before the man.

Private Joker: I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.

Pogue Colonel: The what?

Private Joker: The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.

Pogue Colonel: Whose side are you on, son?

Private Joker: Our side, sir.

Pogue Colonel: Don't you love your country?

Private Joker: Yes, sir.

Pogue Colonel: Then how about getting with the program? Why don't you jump on the team and come on in for the big win?

Private Joker: Yes, sir.

Pogue Colonel: Son, all I've ever asked of my marines is that they obey my orders as they would the word of God. We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out. It's a hardball world, son. We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over.

Private Joker: Aye-aye, sir.

[riqster]

13. A great moment from a great film.

The scene of them singing the Mouseketeer theme was worthy of the ticket price in itself.

[kelliekat44]

7. You know, your OP title would make a great bumper sticker. nt

[riqster]

8. Feel free.

[gollygee]

12. If group B collectively has less of a vote

then group A collectively has more of a vote. They vote for it because it benefits them.

[riqster]

14. That assumes they are all white male neocons

There are women, people of color, and LGBT Americans who vote Reep.

[gollygee]

15. I was thinking of white people

not specifically men though I know they vote Republican more than white women. But white people as a group don't complain enough about repression of the vote of people of color because it makes their own votes weigh more.

(Not those of us specifically who are white and see this and speak out against it, but white people more generally.)

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Sure, but the vast majority of blacks, as well as majorities of women & LGBT people

vote Democratic. They lose a few Republican votes, but prevent a lot of Democratic votes.

[riqster]

17. S'truth.

But also remember the poor white voters whose ballot access is likewise restricted. And remember that lots of them vote Reep.

THAT, if you like, is cray-cray.

[Jackpine Radical]

20. I would imagine that the Republicans (& ALEC) have done some cost-benefit analysis

regarding the potential consequences of their policies and found that on the whole, their exclusionary policies work to their benefit. I don't have the statistics handy to test this myself, but perhaps the rage-fed religious fervor of the edentulate white illiterati helps them overcome the barriers to voting.

[riqster]

25. Point for a polite way of saying "toothless".

[Sunlei]

19. wish there was someway to get the republican hands off our right to vote.

Someway to totally remove all the states/local gov. from their control of vote terms.

[Jackpine Radical]

22. That might transfer the locus of the problem.

I should think, though, that one could develop computer algorithms that maximize the competitiveness of the districts in a given state.

I've toyed with the idea of electing Congressional Representatives at-large like we do Senators, but that also creates problems. I suppose one could arrange the candidates in party slates and vote for the entire slate or something, but that would lead to some serious problems too.

[Sunlei]

27. maybe someway to get mail-in ballots into the hands of all dem voters.

and reminders when to mail, as republicans have even made state/local mail-in ballots tricky.

Some states/districts allow republicans to collect mail-in ballots & then take them or mail them in on the proper dates. I always thought some mail-in ballots, perhaps hundreds/thousands in large districts could be republican fraud. They win in some districts by only a few hundred votes.

[truebrit71]

21. ..or the party that is actively working to keep them under foot...

...I just don't get it....never have...is the visceral appeal of 'god, guns and gays' really that strong that you would vote against your best interests time after time after time....?

It seriously is like chickens voting for Col. Sanders....

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Never underestimate the power of spite in human dealings.

I just stumbled on this link on one of my listservs this morning:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/science/spite-is-good-spite-works.html?from=homepage

Spite Is Good. Spite Works.
Serge Bloch

By NATALIE ANGIER
March 31, 2014

Reporting in February in the journal Psychological Assessment, Dr. Marcus and his colleagues presented the preliminary results from their new “spitefulness scale,” a 17-item survey they created to assess individual differences in spitefulness, just as existing personality tests measure traits like agreeableness and extroversion.

A total of 946 college students and 297 adults were asked to rate how firmly they agreed with sentiments like “If my neighbor complained about the appearance of my front yard, I would be tempted to make it look worse just to annoy him or her” or “If I opposed the election of an official, I would happily see the person fail even if that failure hurt my community” or “I would be willing to take a punch if it meant someone I did not like would receive two punches.”

…

From the survey and related experiments, the researchers determined that men were generally more spiteful than women and young adults more spiteful than older ones, and that spitefulness generally cohabited with traits like callousness, Machiavellianism and poor self-esteem — but not with agreeableness, conscientiousness or a tendency to feel guilt.

Dr. Marcus also identified circumstances that can provoke spiteful outbursts from otherwise temperate people: partisan politics, for example. (“If the other candidate wins, I hope the economy crashes.”) Or bitter divorces, like the husband who threw his savings into a trash bin, Dr. Marcus said, to avoid sharing any money with his ex-wife.

[riqster]

28. "No one ever went broke by overestimating the stupidity of the American public".

True then, true today.

[truebrit71]

29. I guess...I just can't get my head around that kind of bull-headed ignorance though...

...mind-blowing...

[riqster]

31. Oh, tell me.

I resisted the truth of Mencken's Maxim for a long time before I gave in and accepted the reality.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

26. GOP wins when fewer people vote. It's that simple.

Paul Michael Weyrich (October 7, 1942 – December 18, 2008)[1][2][3][4] was an American religious conservative political activist and commentator, most notable as a figurehead of the New Right. He co-founded the conservative think tanks, the Heritage Foundation,[5] the Free Congress Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He coined the term "moral majority", the name of the political action group Moral Majority that he co-founded in 1979 with Jerry Falwell. He switched from the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church to that of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and was ordained protodeacon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weyrich