Productive anger Re: Arizona-- MASSIVE LATINO VOTER REGISTRATION AND GOTV!

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

I just spoke to an old precinct captain friend from Scottsdale in Arizona, and he's told me that the registration numbers for Latinos there are up 300% from just a year ago, due to outrage and fury over the outrageous, unconstitutional law passed by the Arizona legislature. Not only Latinos, but Navajos and Pueblo, Filipinos, Turks, Arabs, Laotians, Armenians and other groups disproportionately targeted by this foolish law, are registering massively, beginning their revenge against the GOP fools. Arizona will very soon be a Blue State. Moreover, this is having a spillover effect-- Latinos in neighboring California (helping to thwart Meg Whitman and her pathetic and embarrassing multimillion dollar ego-trip in that campaign), New Mexico and especially Texas, also bordering (and historically and culturally) Latin America, have been registering in much higher numbers than before. We need to do everything we can to boost this process especially in those states, and encourage massive turnout by not only minority voters but also college students, professionals, the unions and working class, and other Democratic constituencies. The Republicans have shot themselves in the foot with this law, and it's time to make them pay!

It's sweet historical justice-- Arizona, after all, was one of the states seized in the Mexican-American War in 1848 (a war fought to extend slavery into the Southwest, since Mexico had banned it well before the United States had). And despite numerous treaties, laws and guarantees that would supposedly safeguard the rights of the indigenous Latinos and native Americans who long preceded settlement by the pro-slavery Anglos who eventually took over the state, those promises were broken one after another. That's one of the reasons that Arizona is in the hands of wingnuts today-- the wingnuts' predecessors have been especially aggressive in their imperialistic BS in Arizona since 1848.

It's time now to turn the tide. Let's get aggressive and do everything we can to boost up the registration numbers and turnout of Democratic voters in the Southwest. Also, make sure to request ballots available in Spanish, Tagalog and other relevant languages-- by well-established federal law, jurisdictions must provide the multilingual ballots when any language community is above 5%, one of the corollaries of the Voting Rights Act. Mid-term elections are almost always a problem for the party in charge of the Presidency, largely because of turnout-- its own supporters grow apathetic and complacent, and don't turn out to vote. We don't have that luxury this time in 2010-- the Republicans have been taken over by their wingnut wing, and they're too dangerous to our country to be allowed anywhere near the halls of power. We have to hit them hard by boosting out turnout levels even higher, and the place to start is in the Southwestern states.

[DCBob]

1. Exaclty what I predicted on WashPost forums yesterday.. I also think it will spread outside AZ..

This issue could be just the thing Democrats needed to light a fire.. Thanks AZ!

[Ishoutandscream2]

38. Yes, it needs to spread far and wide

Today here in north Texas, my son and I went out to eat and got an ice cream cone. Today, I took note of all the people in both restaurants. At the Long John Silvers, I was waited on by someone of Asian descent, and the manager (who I know) is African-American. Two families came in - one of either Indian or Pakistani descent, and an Hispanic family. At the ice cream place, we were waited on by a young Anglo girl, but the customers were mainly African-American and Hispanic.

Why do I say this? Because even in the "suburbs", people of varying ethnicities are far and wide. What happened in Arizona will carry over to other states. The arrogance of the Republican party and their racist teabagger members is unbelievable. They are going to find that this is going to hurt their hold on power more than help it.

[Taverner]

2. OMG - this is beautiful! Wonderful!

HAHAHAHA Arizona - deal with El Aztlan!

[malaise]

3. The plan is to make the police stop them on

Election day. Bet on it.

[calimary]

7. Wouldn't surprise me.

I hope the good guys are planning for this.

[malaise]

22. Florida 2000 is the model

Never forget that

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

25. Sure is, but it'll backfire on the Rethugs this time

They've only managed to galvanize and anger the fastest-growing demographic in the nation.

[sarge43]

16. Then everyone should take proof of citizenship to the polls.

If the cops start that crap, everyone, one at a time, make the cops check their proof. Oh yeah, lots of video cameras.

[hvn_nbr_2]

26. Part of the election day plan needs to be to make every police stop take a long time.

Every minute or hour that cops spend harassing one voter means a minute or hour that that same cop can't be intimidating other voters. Does Arizona have more cops than Hispanic voters?

I can't believe that this discussion is even happening in this country. I want MY fuckin' country back, the country of Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Roosevelt.

[Duer 157099]

4. Fucking eh! This is great, but WHAT TOOK SO FUCKING LONG??

This is just more of the "it doesn't affect me so why should I bother?" mentality that got them in this predicament in the first place!

If Arizona truly is a blue state when the whole population actually votes, then it will just prove that their prior apathy is what allowed this shit storm to progress to where it is.

But even so, good news

/rant

:thumbsup:

[thelordofhell]

30. +1,000

It's voter apathy that got us in this ridiculous situation. I've tried to register people for years but heard, "Eh, it's alright.". Now it's time to see if THIS wake up call, galvanizes the populace. But to be fair, we did have a Democratic Governor, but she took a better job (and hopefully will be the 2nd Arizona woman to become a Supreme Court Justice).

[Fire1]

5. OUT FUCKIN STANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! K&R

[calimary]

6. Yep, their tunnel-vision isn't allowing any of them to consider long-range demographics.

Won't be too terribly long before the whites in Arizona are the minority, if indeed they aren't there already. I do not know the statistics here. But that's a huge and rapidly growing demographic group - the Hispanic demographic. It should be OURS. It sure won't be skewing toward the republi-CONS or CONservatives in great numbers.

We need to exploit that. Turn their "South-Western Strategy" into their party's extinction.

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

9. Damn right about that

The Republicans have been monumentally stupid to so fundamentally offend the very people-- Latinos and native Americans-- who are the historic populations of Arizona before 1848, and (apparently within 5-10 years) will once again be the majority. Arizona schools are already about 60% Latino and indigeno, and the urban centers and of course the college towns are increasingly Democratic-leaning as well. The Rethugs never were too bright, but now they're hurtling toward self-destruction, and I'll be glad to lend them a hand in it.

[calimary]

15. I'll be helping that, too, as much as I can! Btw - Welcome to DU!

LOVE your screen name!

:fistbump:

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

27. Thanks!

Glad to be here!

[nolabear]

8. Now THIS is the way our government should work. VOTE them out!

I hope people who never voted before dedicate this to everyone who's ever been marginalized, profiled or discriminated against.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

17. I second that!

Lets get the voters out and throw out Republicans. I can't see how they think this will help them get back in national power. Do they think they will get any minority votes after this?

[onestepforward]

10. ahhh... music to my heart! K&R!

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. This brings me to a "chicken/egg" type of question.

(And no, I'm not talking about the Nevada wackjob health care plan here.)

Did the increased racism cause the higher registration numbers?

Or did Brewer & Arpaio (and the rest of their Klan) step up the racist game as part of a plan to negate these votes? Just like they would do in Florida.

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

19. Arpaio and Brewer are trying to "pull a Florida," but it's backfiring

Arpaio in particular has been trying to institute roadblocks to legitimate voter registration by Latinos, via various forms of harassment essentially-- but he's angered so many people with his excessive actions that he's had the opposite effect.

I can't find the link at the moment, but Arpaio's goonsquad at one point arrested a group of Latinos for supposed immigration and other violations in Maricopa County, and internal memos suggested that it was precisely their last names and Latino appearance that made them targets (when an officer heard them speaking Spanish). But as it turned out, the Latinos in this case were descended from families who had been in what's now Maricopa for 200 years-- well before the pro-slavery Anglos seized control of the Arizona government and restored slavery to the state (and Jim Crow after 1865). Not only citizens, but long preceding Arpaio and his fellow zealots in Arizona. It's apparently one among the litany of other laws that Sheriff Arpaio has himself broken, and which will likely soon be getting the sheriff himself in serious trouble with the law.

[sarge43]

12. Welcome to DU, Muddy and one hellva idea.

It's positive, productive and would hit the bigots where it hurts. :thumbsup:

[yellerpup]

13. Good plan.

This ridiculous law is infuriating.

[Dr Morbius]

14. I'd like for everyone to contact their state and federal representatives.

Let them know that if they vote for a law like this they'll be needing a new job after the next election.

[calimary]

18. Let's make ms jan brewer the new face of racism! She'll be the new george wallace!

And don't forget - she's a republi-CON. This stuff comes from the SO-CALLED "right" - which is anything BUT right about any issue, amymore!

It's sweet, though, to think ahead a few years when the numbers officially switch, and the Latino demographic takes over. And it's registered DEMOCRATIC. Let's turn nixon's old "Southern Strategy" inside-out and on its ass!

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

20. Absolutely

The contrast between Napolitano and Brewer couldn't be more striking-- Napolitano standing up for the people and vetoing this law before, Brewer cravenly capitulating. The Republicans' Southern Strategy (and their "Southwest Strategy" equivalent) arrogantly presumed they could just continue walking roughshod over the indigenous peoples of those regions, as well as over the African-Americans who worked so hard to build this country but were never paid a dime for their efforts as slaves. The GOP obviously thought they could continue oppressing the people as their pro-slavery predecessors had done since the mid-1800s. They were wrong, and now they're gonna pay.

[calimary]

32. They also didn't anticipate that the demographics would change the way they have.

The assumption - JUST LIKE WITH LIBERALS - was that things that were such-n-such a way at such-n-such a time would always remain that same way. They didn't. Liberals didn't gain any further ground or see the country continue to progress. CONs didn't anticipate that the oppressed and subjugated African-American community OR the Latino community would stay static - and not grow. Both communities inevitably stand to outnumber the aging anglo community. The CONs didn't anticipate that. They figured they'd just always be in the majority, and not age and die. They assumed blacks in the South would always "know their place," and now, probably similar attitudes prevail against Hispanics. And times CHANGE.

[Kingofalldems]

21. K and R-----> Freepers --->You stepped in it big time now

Wow.:shrug: Complete idiots.

[Hekate]

23. Time to KICK some bigoted elephant butt. GOTV!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

24. Sweet

Love the animation!

[Volaris]

28. If getting clobbered in AZ and the rest of the Southwest

this November (if that happens, and I'm looking forward to it, I think now it will) dosent teach the sane Republicans in this country to throw out the loons from their right flank, nothing will.=)

[Bitwit1234]

29. The republicans always kick themselves in the a** don't they.

seems like all their schemes and lies come back to haunt them. Good for the Hispanics. I hope they register so many that every single solitary republican in Arizona looses their seat. AND it is going to help like hell in November in the rest of the states wait and see.

Now if only the Hispanics in Florida who are being herded to vote for a latino Rubio, get the message he will go down the tubes where he belongs.

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

31. Excellent point-- this is very damaging to the Rubio campaign!

Although Rubio's flirted with the Teabaggers, he's tried to portray himself as a moderate on immigration issues, reaching out to the Cuban and general Latino community like Mel Martinez and other Cuban Republicans in Florida. But the Arizona monstrosity helps to demonstrate the company that he's keeping in the GOP, driving Latinos away when they realize who his true "friends" are. And Rubio's already neck-deep in trouble with ethics inquiries and other investigations.

[shedevil69taz]

33. Does the Arizona law

remind anyone else of laws passed in Germany in the late 30's? I hope I'm not the only one.

[bluesmail]

34. I wonder if this is the reason for the so-called fenced in free speech zones

Wonder how many are in AZ? The Nazi's never were defeated. Operation Paperclip pretty much spilt the beans (Reinhardt Gehlan) Lots of strange occurances in 1947. Not the least would be Roswell.

[rustydog]

35. Again, as stated in your other similar post...No news media coverage

of an enormous increase in hispanic voter registration. No coverage of the enormous influx of hispanics into Arizona to register.....What is your source except for an anonymous "old precinct captain".

[rustydog]

36. Still awaiting your response, your source for this other than the

yet-to-be identified "Precinct Captain".

[alstephenson]

37. And PLEASE give to the Arizona Democratic Party!!!

www.azdem.org

:dem:

Thanks!

[Ishoutandscream2]

39. Thanks, Muddy, for your wonderful news and post

And a fine welcome from all of us. Glad you are here!!