Kick Them While They're Down!

Last week a friend of mine emailed me this article, which talks about a strategy the Republicans are planning to employ in Michigan (and I'm sure in other key swing states), where they plan to contest the eligibility of voters who may have lost their homes to foreclosure. The reason they feel they have grounds to contest these voters' eligibility is that if their legal residence is no longer in the district in which they are registered to vote, then they feel they have legal grounds to contest that persons eligibility to vote. Of course, they are primarily targeting areas in which there are high concentrations of Democrats, such as suburbs of Detroit. According to this NYT poll, the state of Michigan is still very much a split state. Talk about kicking someone when they're down or adding insult to injury, this takes the cake! It is nothing short of heartless for a political campaign to employ such "Barracuda" style tactics to win an election. This is the same party that swindled the 2000 and 2004 elections and they are doing their best to do the same in 2008.

I haven't heard of this kind of targeting going in Pennsylvania, but outside of Philadelphia and maybe Pittsburgh, there isn't a high concentration of people of color, especially Blacks, who tend to vote Democratic. A friend of mine in Philly who is an attorney and is volunteering on the Obama campaign said that he received word that they are galvanizing lawyers to be present at polling sites to protect voter rights in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Texas, and North Carolina. All this drama just for folks to vote?! Is our political voting system any better than in other, less politically developed countries where there are all kinds of antics employed by opposing parties so they can secure an election and have power over their countries? While things being done here in the US, may not be as overtly bold like threatening people to vote a certain way, some of the tactics being employed by the Republicans are not far from it.

Unfortunately, because racism continues to be so pervasive in this country, where narrow minded bigots (and not just Republicans), may decide to vote for McCain, because they just don't see a Black man running the country, the Dems may lose the election. How do you go from supporting Hillary Clinton in the primaries, to now supporting McCain for the general election? This makes no logical sense, other than the fact that for some, their own racist notions override their sensibilities. This is the very issue, coupled with the ruthless tactics being employed by the Republican's that could tip the election in their favor.

I happened to be IMing with someone I know in Toronto last night and he mentioned that many people in Canada are talking about this race and that they don't feel the majority of American's are smart enough to elect Obama. In his view, the majority of Canadians want Obama to be our next president as they feel he will be best suited to heal America's relationships with other countries among other things.

The question is, will enough American's be smart enough to see this?