Rampant absentee ballot fraud in Miami-Dade has a partner: voter suppression tactics to block primarily Democratic voters. I experienced the latter, directly, in the humiliating exercise of renewing my driver's license in Miami. Recently a worker for the Department of Motor Vehicles required an original social security card among other proofs of identification to renew -- any of which singly could have proven my identity; a passport, for example. My wife experienced the same a month later. We both spent nearly half a day to obtain, in our sixth decade, new social security cards so we could get a driver's license that also serves as proof of identification to vote. (At the social security office in Miami, a Florida driver's license is sufficient to obtain a new card.)
Jim Greer, former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, in a May deposition of his incendiary lawsuit against top Florida GOP officials, noted at least one high level meeting of political consultants and party leaders where voter suppression and blocking African Americans from voting was discussed.
The Greer deposition goes several steps further into providing the atmosphere of political fundraising in Florida's majority party. It is ugly, filled with raw material of a collapse of values by the party of values voters.
For a paltry sum of a few hundred thousand, the Republican Party of Florida might have found a way to pay off Jim Greer; to boot him up to some ceremonial post instead of allowing him to air the party's dirty laundry through a lawsuit.
Instead, the Greer deposition unveils the money game at the top level of political donors. That game is used to serve the pincer movement -- suppressing Democratic votes while delivering victories to candidates who master unprosecuted absentee ballot fraud. In Florida, the Democrats who can rise are those like Florida Key's state senator Ron Saunders who separately cut his deal with Greer and presumably other in the GOP hierarchy. Saunder's Tallahassee bar and restaurant was struggling when he invited the GOP party chair to become his partner.
What really matters to voters is nowhere in sight in the disclosure of the behind-the-scenes machinations that serve broken politics. In the background of the Jim Greer affair are the message framers and consultants who gauge the anger and impulses of the great, unwashed public. Even deeper, the Jeb Bush orthodoxy that is poised and ready to blow away all dissenters and moderates in the GOP. This is how the money is spent and the interest the money serves: the 20 second TV spots, the midnight mailers, and campaign mechanics, including absentee ballot "management" and voter suppression, to fill out the grand plan.
The coda to this dark portrait is broad awareness that big donors in the chase for political power view party apparatus as bastard children. This is true of Democrats as it is, of Republicans. They nonetheless have to be fed, for fear they will turn against their fathers and mothers. If it were up to the Club For Growth, the Chamber of Commerce or America Crossroads, these GOP supporters would run their own candidates, and maybe that is how it will eventually work out, now that the U.S. Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on unlimited campaign contributions. Make no mistake which party this serves: this election cycle the Republican money to political action committees and other variations of independent committees will outspend Democrats on the order of 10-1. For good reason, Democrats fear what is happening today is a pale shadow of what is to come.
For a long time, observers noted that American politics have trended harshly right-ward, much further to the right than the electorate. Political money from corporate interests is the reason why. The United States does have a representative democracy: it is representative of what is broken and designed-to-fail as the highest purpose of businesses that believe the best government is the least government or the government that serves them best.
Jim Greer, former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, in a May deposition of his incendiary lawsuit against top Florida GOP officials, noted at least one high level meeting of political consultants and party leaders where voter suppression and blocking African Americans from voting was discussed.
The Greer deposition goes several steps further into providing the atmosphere of political fundraising in Florida's majority party. It is ugly, filled with raw material of a collapse of values by the party of values voters.
For a paltry sum of a few hundred thousand, the Republican Party of Florida might have found a way to pay off Jim Greer; to boot him up to some ceremonial post instead of allowing him to air the party's dirty laundry through a lawsuit.
Instead, the Greer deposition unveils the money game at the top level of political donors. That game is used to serve the pincer movement -- suppressing Democratic votes while delivering victories to candidates who master unprosecuted absentee ballot fraud. In Florida, the Democrats who can rise are those like Florida Key's state senator Ron Saunders who separately cut his deal with Greer and presumably other in the GOP hierarchy. Saunder's Tallahassee bar and restaurant was struggling when he invited the GOP party chair to become his partner.
What really matters to voters is nowhere in sight in the disclosure of the behind-the-scenes machinations that serve broken politics. In the background of the Jim Greer affair are the message framers and consultants who gauge the anger and impulses of the great, unwashed public. Even deeper, the Jeb Bush orthodoxy that is poised and ready to blow away all dissenters and moderates in the GOP. This is how the money is spent and the interest the money serves: the 20 second TV spots, the midnight mailers, and campaign mechanics, including absentee ballot "management" and voter suppression, to fill out the grand plan.
The coda to this dark portrait is broad awareness that big donors in the chase for political power view party apparatus as bastard children. This is true of Democrats as it is, of Republicans. They nonetheless have to be fed, for fear they will turn against their fathers and mothers. If it were up to the Club For Growth, the Chamber of Commerce or America Crossroads, these GOP supporters would run their own candidates, and maybe that is how it will eventually work out, now that the U.S. Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on unlimited campaign contributions. Make no mistake which party this serves: this election cycle the Republican money to political action committees and other variations of independent committees will outspend Democrats on the order of 10-1. For good reason, Democrats fear what is happening today is a pale shadow of what is to come.
For a long time, observers noted that American politics have trended harshly right-ward, much further to the right than the electorate. Political money from corporate interests is the reason why. The United States does have a representative democracy: it is representative of what is broken and designed-to-fail as the highest purpose of businesses that believe the best government is the least government or the government that serves them best.
5 comments:
When I went to apply for my renewal of drivers license in 2010I was aware of all the changes. However, I was asked had my name ever changed, I said no. Thats when the agent said to me Yes it has,I said no it has not. Next she said since you have married we need to see the official name change through marriage. Well I have been married for 43 years at the time. I had to go and bring my marriage license to the agency to show the official name change. So ladies get your marriage license out.
Outstanding blog. You the man, Gimlet!!! Thank you again for shining the light on relevant details in such a poignant manner.
-LOYAL READER
One of the factors we really need to get rid off is this Governor. He's the most dangerous, most dishonest, most dictatorial BAS___RD we've ever had in that office. Talk about voter suppression and he's leading the pack. I'm glad you got behind the absentee ballot problem, still they haven't investigated some of the biggest offenders: the Diaz de la Portilla brothers! And I wish the hell that Jeb Bush would move away fron this state.
Why would you wish Jeb Bush to move away from this state? Could it be because he has a different opinion than you on almost everything? I don't know you, but with a statement like that, I probably have very different opinions than you do as well.
This is a free country, in case you have forgotten, and anybody can say anything they want.
Quite frankly, it would not hurt me to see Obama vacate the capitol. In fact, I would be very happy to see him go, but we will do it by the vote, not because his opinions are different than mine.
Marriage license was not enough for me ...it had to be a "certified copy"!
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