Houston   The lion in winter is still a lion, and John Lewis, a beacon for the civil rights movement in the 1960’s and now a longstanding Congressman from Atlanta, roared in the halls of Congress the other night about voting rights once again.  The simple issue that pushed [...]]]>

Congressman John Lewis Speaking up for Voting Rights

Houston   The lion in winter is still a lion, and John Lewis, a beacon for the civil rights movement in the 1960’s and now a longstanding Congressman from Atlanta, roared in the halls of Congress the other night about voting rights once again.  The simple issue that pushed his button was the hater amendment from another Georgia Congressman Paul Broun trying to deny all funding to the Department of Justice for enforcement of the critical provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.   Broun, caught in the act, by Lewis, smartly apologized and withdrew his amendment, but that was tactical not sincere.  The strategy of voter suppression continues to go unchallenged.

Broun’s amendment was meant to push back the Department of Justice, finally arising from its own slumber, and challenging Georgia and other states’ efforts to implement the Republican strategy of voter suppression through new voter identification methods.  Sadly, not all states are subject to the Voting Rights Act prescriptions, and many from Wisconsin to Kansas that have emerged as the “new South” in denying citizen rights to access the democratic voting process can escape with their strategy untainted.

Lewis’ roar reminds us that we critically need a civil rights movement now about the rights of the disenfranchised among the poor and racial minorities to vote, since they along with the elderly are the key components of the millions likely to lose their ability to vote in November’s election.  While the Obama campaign whined in the front pages of the paper this week that “they got this” on registration and turnout in answer to George Soros, the Democracy Alliance, and other consortiums of the rich stepping up to register and mobilize these voters, the truth is that we need a full court press with all players suited up and on the court.  For my part I hope they are not coming into the game too late, because much of the damage is already done.

Let Lewis lead a new civil rights movement again right now on this issue!

In the absence of major efforts like the independent ones that ACORN led cycle after cycle to register and mobilize voters; we now have overtly partisan outfits like the California Republic Party contractor, Momentum Political Services, reported on this week by the Sacramento Bee, that was hired to overtly add Republican registrants in battleground areas.  Seems they have some huge problems with bad cards, bad addresses, and overtly obvious changes in party registration to Republican.  Voter registration is hard work and the Republican strategy is clear:  suppress the likely Democratic voter base and enhance the Republican voter files.

Without a viable party or campaign strategy at least the rest of us can stand solidly for civil rights and the promise of democracy, even as John Lewis once again has reminded us, the practice of democracy is absent everywhere.

Marching in 1965

Milwaukee   If it has been said that newspapers “write the first draft of history,” perhaps it is panels like Lessons from ACORN organized by Oregon State Professor Marisa Chappell at the national [...]]]>

Professor Carroll speaking as Fred Brooks, Robert Fisher, and Gary Delgao (from right to left) listen to the Lessons from ACORN Panel at OAH

Milwaukee   If it has been said that newspapers “write the first draft of history,” perhaps it is panels like Lessons from ACORN organized by Oregon State Professor Marisa Chappell at the national conference of the Organization of American Historians that starts to outline the second draft.   At the least an excellent panel of very knowledgeable folks had been assembled to take a crack at it.

Fred Brooks from Georgia State argued that there was not yet a full appreciation of the “radical vision of social change” that drove ACORN, citing the Peoples’ Platform and its 309 points as evidence.  He also talked about a great personal story from an action in Atlanta done by 200 at a conference where Coretta Scott King was speaking and the grace with which she wrapped the ACORN demonstrators demands in Martin’s legacy saying that “if Martin were alive he would have been protesting with us,” and the meeting with bankers the action forced.

Robert Fisher of the University of Connecticut and editor of the evaluation of ACORN in The People Shall Rule drew comparisons from a recent conference on community organizing he had attended in France where many argued that community organizing was dangerous because it could be “disruptive of social engineering by the state,” which Fisher thought was the whole point of ACORN’s “conflict over power.”  Fisher made an insightful remark about the efforts of ACORN increasingly in the early years of the 21^st Century to “build bridges” to other organizations and the intriguing promise it had shown in steps to build “a united front” where others had been more sectarian.  Fisher also rejoined later in the panel on my point about working now on an organizing model where the organization “eats what it kills” to also add correctly that ACORN had pioneered in “eating what we won” as well as evidenced by the H&R Block campaigns and many others in the 21^st Century.

Professor Carroll of the Rochester Institute of Technology nailed a critical part of the ACORN history as a “misreading of the role of conflict in making social change” which allowed too many of its critics to advance and too few others to move to protect the organization failing to understand how conflict creates change and challenges power.

Gary Delgado, former staffer and author of the still classic book about ACORN, Building the Movement, rattled off a number of observations collected in his 40 years of close observation of the organization.  He worried that the “vacuum” created by the organization shuttering its doors in late 2010 had not been filled and proving difficult to fill because there were not other “national” organizations that had “centralized” operations that could be effective and “were not afraid to make enemies.”  The use of direct action and the singular voice for poor people were also now missing.  Delgado found agreement in nailing the fact that the attack on ACORN had been “racialized” and the opposition that mounted around its voter registration work was rooted in ACORN’s effectiveness in registering African-Americans and Latinos to register and vote.  At the same time he noted, perhaps controversially, that times had changed and ACORN was unprepared for the “air war” when attacked and his own view that “boots on the ground are necessary but not sufficient” to protect the organization.

In my remarks I responded to the question posed by Professor Chappell about how organizing strategies at ACORN had changed to address alterations in the way state power worked by detailing our expansion program designed to adapt to the devolution of federal resources and decision making to states.  I also told the stories of our living wage initiatives and victories that greater statewide capacity and infrastructure allowed, citing the statistics in my Citizen Wealth chapters.

The discussion had been engaging and the questions way too brief, but the presentations had resonated with many, so perhaps there will be fruit borne in the future from the seeds planted in Milwaukee.  John Atlas in his Seeds of Change began and ended his remarks noting forcefully the unreliability and inaccuracies of the New York Times and other media outlets in being able to understand or interpret the ACORN story.  There seemed to be consensus in Milwaukee that the first draft from newspapers absolutely needed to go to rewrite!

New Orleans   The interview with Eric Shawn, a Fox News anchor and senior correspondent, went OK as those things go, though of course who knows what they might edit and how little they might use by the time [...]]]>

Set up and interview on voting rights and access with Fox News Eric Shawn for upcoming special

New Orleans   The interview with Eric Shawn, a Fox News anchor and senior correspondent, went OK as those things go, though of course who knows what they might edit and how little they might use by the time the special report comes out in a couple of months.

It is interesting to me that we spent so much time on the issue of mandatory voting and registration.  I’m not sure why those concepts seem so radical in the context of protecting and advancing democracy?

There are 25 or more countries around the world that have compulsory voting.  10 of the 30 countries in the European Union (Greece, Luxembourg, Italy, and Belgium for example) have such procedures so this is not some kind of imposed developing world situation.  10 countries enforce mandatory voting with real penalties like proof of voting in order to renew passports or drivers licenses.  These countries include Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Peru for example.  In fact more than half of the countries where ACORN International organizes have mandatory voting, which may be one of the reasons I have become more comfortable with the procedures not only in theory, but also in practice.  Where it is not seriously enforced it still achieves a democratic gain in participation because it is exists as a compelling social and cultural support.  Studies indicate participation goes up between 6 and 17% in such countries.

In Italy where it is not seriously enforced the penalties include putting you lower on the list for government sponsored daycare.  Nonetheless when I was there, the whole notion of universal registration and mandatory voting was simply seen as commonplace.  It took a lot of explanation for my friends there to understand how voting could be suppressed by ID requirements, because they were used to everyone having a governmental ID as a matter of course.  In the USA the Supreme Court has ruled that the IDs, if required, have to be free, but in places like Wisconsin you have to ask for a free ID before they will volunteer that they will provide one for you.  In several other states you have to sign an affidavit that you cannot afford the ID. 

We have other mandatory requirements for citizenship like paying taxes, jury duty, school attendance, and even in the past, military service.  Why not automatic registration and lower access to voting to ensure confidence and participation in a democracy?

Other good reasons include the assurance that a winning candidate actually represents a real majority of the citizens, rather than just becoming the last person standing.  For our constituency of low-and-moderate income voters, it would ensure more participation and full representation, long a cherished goal.  All of these measures would eliminate any problems with third party or partisan registration efforts, so the problem of suppression and inaccuracies disappears as well.  Opponents sometimes argue that it would restrict their freedom of speech to have to vote, but they could vote a blank ballot or spoil their ballot which many compulsory voting countries allow.

The system in the United States is totally broken.  Why not a fix that actually increases democracy rather than the current proposals and programs which reduce it?

There are still open wounds from too many sources that [...]]]> Little Rock    Visiting with friends and comrades in Little Rock, it wasn’t long before the discussion went to the obvious:  how could there be meaningful civic engagement of low-and-moderate income families in the 2012 elections without a huge voter registration effort among the poor?

There are still open wounds from too many sources that focus on the huge, massive and vicious attack on ACORN’s efforts in the 2008 election.  Two and a half years later it’s finally clear that what the right and the Republicans mainly stirred up about these efforts was just sound and fury signifying nothing.  On the blogs there’s a bunch of whooping and hollering about something in Vegas, but that seems to have been more of a “throw in the towel” and get it over after the powers that were pulled the plug on ACORN itself and declared bankruptcy on Election Day 2010.  What do I know?

What I do know is that the lack of independent, large scale voter registration efforts among low-and-moderate income in battleground states critically impacted the 2010 election.  In various reports the falloff of registration efforts compared cycle-to-cycle meant there were 100,000 to 300,000 less voters in places like Ohio, Missouri, Florida and elsewhere.  You tell me that all of these “lost” votes didn’t make a difference in the Congressional and Senate swings in 2010?  Furthermore, you tell me that the 2012 loss of the million or so new and corrected registration forms from ACORN in 2008 will not also impact the likely devastation of the coming Congressional races.

Obama is on his own now.  He drives his own truck for his re-election.  People who hope that Organizing for America, the DNC, or the Obama campaign itself are going to be able to carry all of the weight for voter registration are either dreaming or on good drugs.  Obama’s job #1 is his re-election, not civic engagement and participation for goodness sakes.  OFA is his arm.  The joint fundraising between the campaign and the DNC and his people running the DNC means that the priorities are clear, they are on the same page, and speaking with one voice, but that does NOT translate into a massive voter registration effort among low-and-moderate income families.

I remember ACORN’s debate at the board level in 2007 about whether or not to take the hits involved in voter registration drives.  There is no way to run a perfect registration program.  There will be errors of omission or commission when real people are dealing with millions of pieces of paper.  Furthermore, state laws require that all those pieces of paper once they have a signature on them must be submitted to the authorities.  I guarantee you that will always mean that some wit or practical joker out there will have a hearty laugh and some right winger will go apoplectic about Mickey Mouse, but they simply need to get over it, and we clearly need to figure out a way to get people registered.

Given the inevitable attack from the right, most organizations, unions, and others are chary about thinking about voter registration, but that doesn’t mean that the job doesn’t need to be done, done well, and done big time!  I had a friend who was a long-time political consultant.  He told me once that after every election cycle, he used take a hammer to his computer, drive it out, and take it to the dump.  In the “take no prisoners” “dog eat dog” world of modern politics, the same lesson should be applied to voter registration:  create an organizational formation that is designed specifically to register voters for this cycle and then go out of business after the election; make the formation a “stand alone” vehicle sprung to life by a collaborative of like minded people and organizations committed to the civic participation and democratic practice of American citizens regardless of income and race so that no one organization or individual would have to take the abuse of the conservative assault; and, then add water and stir every two years.

Why not?  It has to happen!

Phoenix Registration Down, Lower Income Votes Out

Phoenix We did the first direct action with Arizona Advocates & Actions yesterday as 20 Bank of America mortgage holders demanded that their modifications finally be fast tracked at the BofA Service Center in Phoenix yesterday.  That’s the good news!

The rest sucks, as we look around the [...]]]>

Phoenix Registration Down, Lower Income Votes Out

Phoenix We did the first direct action with Arizona Advocates & Actions yesterday as 20 Bank of America mortgage holders demanded that their modifications finally be fast tracked at the BofA Service Center in Phoenix yesterday.  That’s the good news!

The rest sucks, as we look around the country heading into the midterm elections.

A front page New York Times poll notes amazingly that lower income voters, families making less than $50,000 per year in an unheard of expression of alienation from the party in power, which happens to be the Democrats, has now moved to leaning towards the Republicans by a 5% positive from what was a 25% positive to the Democrats only 2 years ago.  Yes, it is the “economy stupid” in

James Carville’s inimitable words, and the Obama Administration’s continued footsie with Wall Street, inability to move the needle on jobs, and mishandling of everything with foreclosures has pushed lower income working families to desperation and abandonment of the Democrats.  The White House cynics will say, “well, they don’t vote that much anyway,” but low-and-moderate income votes, had there been a real GOTV effort, could also have made the difference in many close contests.

The day before, Ian Urbina, in a Times article seems at this late date (by a decade at least) realized that in the run-up to elections the Republicans always play the “voter fraud card” to dampen down the voting strength of newly registered and infrequent voters.  Even without ACORN, and surprisingly ACORN still is a robust target for the right even in Halloween ghost costumes since it’s dead a doornail, there is a desperate claim of fraud in the land.   Read this tragic couple of paragraphs about “democracy lost:”

“Even so, the fear of stolen votes remains, as does the fear of missing votes – particularly in light of a decrease, compared with 2006, in voter registration applications in swing states.

About 43 percent fewer new voters have registered in Wisconsin this year than in 2006, while in Indiana, the decrease has been about 35 percent.  Significant drops have also been seen in Ohio (25 percent), North Carolina (28 percent), Florida (27 percent), and Maryland (21 percent), according to state election data collected by the Brennan Center.

Voting experts say several factors explain the trend.

Voter enthusiasm is low now, and fewer groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, are engaged in drives to sign people up.  ACORN collected about 550,000 voter-registration applications across the country in 2006, mostly from low-income and minority Americans, and 1.3 million in 2008.

But in March, the organization closed down…”

Needless to say the states listed by Urbina were also states where ACORN had been actively engaged in registration.  He also cites the foreclosure crises and the fact that many states have suppressed registration with new laws making it more difficult, have also hammered the numbers.   The economy and voter suppression will retard low-and-moderate income voting, but who would have guessed that this would have been news to the President and the White House.

Next time something like ACORN is allowed to be thrown under the bus by its friends and allies from the President on down, it probably makes sense for someone on the street corner to tell ‘em to get out of the street themselves, since they will inevitably get run over as well.

An irresistible headline jumps up on [...]]]> Helena Coming back on the grid for a day, you go through your email, answer the urgent calls, see what’s tweeting, hit the Facebook, and scan through the headlines in the New York Times and other papers to see what’s up.  The last is the least rewarding task sometimes.

An irresistible headline jumps up on an editorial:  “A Welfare Check and a Voting Card.”  That’s a verse in my song, so I jump to that.  Big mistake!

The good news is that the Obama Administration after delays dating virtually back to the passage of the National Voter Registration Action (NVRA) in 1993 is clearly issuing regulations to the states and making mandatory the so-called “motor voter” provisions that would require registration access and assistance for recipients of welfare and food stamps by government workers who work with these eligible families.  That indeed is cause for celebration by all who are committed to democracy, full participation of the poor in what I have called “maximum eligible participation,” and, frankly, just plain following the law.

The Times editorialist was both wrongheaded and mean-spirited.

In the second sentence comes the first backhanded slap:  “…but it could also reduce the impact of advocacy organizations whose role in registering voters caused such a furor in 2008.”   WTF?  Buddy, you want to reduce the impact of groups committed to full democratic participation by all Americans, then stand up with the Times for automatic registration or even better mandatory voting, don’t blame those of us committed to democracy for the fact that the government didn’t do what the law both allowed and required.  Jerk-ball!

But, it gets worse.  Later the editorialist offers this gem:  “But it is worth remembering that the recession has brought millions of new people to food stamp and other welfare offices in the last two years, many of whom may not be traditional Democrats. In addition, government offices are much more likely to provide reliable registrations than Acorn (sic ACORN) or other advocacy groups that were widely accused of fraudulent sign-ups in the last cycle. Welfare offices generally have extensive methods of verifying identities in order to provide benefits, and it is illegal to provide false records there.

Let me try and understand the perverted logic here.  Perhaps the writer would hope that you believe that the recession has had the salutary benefit in our democracy of pushing a more deserving class of the poor into government offices s/he would have us believe, and in fact it might not be a partisan group, as if the poor are somehow political and politically active.  If the editorialist read their own paper they might have gotten the news that many of those pushed back were the marginally employed who had been pushed into lower wage employment by the draconian pushbacks in welfare and food stamps over the last decade and the total disinterest in government in security full participation from people eligible for any of these entitlement programs.

And, hey, correct me if I’m wrong, but where do you get off a cheap shot, low blow rehash of the Republican National Committee press briefings to simply take a cut with the “likely to prove reliable registrations than ACORN or other advocacy groups that were widely accused of fraudulent sign-ups in the last cycle.”  Prove any of that anywhere, pal, or are you just drinking the partisan Kool-Aid, where a smear is as good as it gets.  Luckily for this joker, Times editorialist in their anonymous bunker never have to face any accountability for their smears, innuendo, and misstatements.

Finally in a last act of total hypocrisy the writer tries for an upbeat note by using the example of Ohio and Missouri in recent years where suits by what he calls “advocacy groups” forced the law to be obeyed and hundreds of thousands came on the rolls.  Please chicken hearted writer, don’t actually say that these “good” advocacy groups were included in the first order both ACORN and Project Vote, since you have just bitch slapped both of them all the way through this piffle.

At the end we agree though:  “The more people who have access to the ballot, the better the country will be.”  The difference is that I really believe in this – as do these constantly maligned advocacy groups – and our friend with his nose in the air was really holing his nose all the way as he typed out this piece.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to now be getting ready to head south and stop for two days at the famous (within a small circle of friends) Sleepy Time Duck Camp miles off the highway, way off the internet grid, overlooking a view of the Red Rock Lakes in the Centennial Mountains, the only north-south range in the Rockies at the border of Montana and Idaho.  12 hours up in the “real world” and I’m ready for the much more real world looking eye to eye with a bull moose or fat brown trout again before slapping leather home again.