Rachel Maddow (left) nailed it last night in her extended comment about the trials and travails of early voters (mostly Dems) in S. Florida - waiting in lines for sometimes up to 8 hours!
“Why do you Americans have such a corrupt and ramshackle voting system? The rest of the developed world has various seamless and virtually corruption-free voting authorities at arms-length from the politicians. Is it so hard that the exceptional and chosen people can't get it right?” - John N., Brisbane, Australia (comment in NY Times today)
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Rachel Maddow on her special last night hit every note where the continued travesty of voter suppression in Florida is concerned, and included camera phone videos taken by the forlorn voters standing in line - especially in Miami's Dade County - in some cases up to EIGHT hours. THINK about that! That is an entire WORK day! You need water, food to survive standing in line that length of time. For the less physically able - the disabled, pregnant women and thousands of seniors, it becomes a 'bridge too far' - an impossible step to take. So they cede their place in line after they're physically unable to take it any longer.
How the hell can this be right? Well, maybe in a banana republic, but the US of A? The technologically supreme nation that fancies itself the envy of the world? Well, not so much in the realm of voting and actual execution of democracy!
Nonetheless, assorted knotheads and knaves continue to make sport about it or fail to call it out for what it is: high level political chicanery that seeks to deliver "leverage" to Romney (recall conservative Paul Weyrich's 1985 remark that the Right gains leverage whenever voting is limited). Case in point, Moron Joe, excuse me, 'Morning Joe', this a.m. who joked to Eugene Robinson (assistant Editor at the Washington Post) that "What do you expect in Florida? I mean, we got crocodiles climbing out of canals in people's back yards. Strange things happen there!"
Bullshit! And btw, Moron Joe, Florida has ALLIGATORS in the canals, not crocs! But this is a simple, stupid diversion, since Florida has had 12 fucking years to fix its political-electoral system since the Bush -Gore debacle in 2000. And oh, btw, to show Florida CAN get it done, look back to 2008 when then governor (and civilized Repub) Charlie Crist DID allow early voting! All systems went smoothly - few glitches if any, but hey, Obama (called by some idiot Floridian repukes 'Obummer') won the state. Crist then became an instant pariah among the 'pukes because well, he broke from the standard 'fuck 'em up' electoral template. Fast forward then to Rick Scott's implausible gubernatorial ascension, and things returned to 'normal' for Florida voting - in other words, fucked up. (See previous blog).
Meanwhile, Rachel ably took down the widespread canard and deformed meme that the oft-ridiculed state "can't get its act together." And it's a victim of "gross incompetence" and a continued "inability to run a simple election."
Rachel, to her credit, wasn't buying any of this horse shit. She noted on her blog:
"The early-voting debacle in the Sunshine State is deliberate. To treat this as the unfortunate result of ineptitude is to miss the point -- Florida Republicans designed the system to work this way.
Today, meanwhile, Rachel likely hasn't yet seen the irritating piece in the NY Times ('On Cable News Networks, A Battle of Bitterness') e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/us/politics/on-cable-news-networks-a-battle-of-bitterness.html?hp&_r=0 scrawled by an overpaid nincompoop named Jeremy W. Peters, who blabs:
"Rachel Maddow breathlessly decodes the logic behind the push to overhaul state voting laws: 'The idea is to shrink the electorate so a smaller number of people get to decide what happens to all of us.”
Actually, you blithering, false balance- false objectivity promoting stooge - Rachel had that exactly correct! The use of significant early voting abolition in Florida and the use of black box computer "patches" (uncertified) in Ohio is exactly designed to reduce the electorate - at least the Democratic side. If you don't know that you need to turn in all your journalist credentials! It's hacks like you that have turned modern journalism into a comic charade and why all your newspapers are going under.
For Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and GOP policymakers in the state, this is a feature, not a bug. Republicans cut the number of early-voting days in half, on purpose. They prevented early voting on the Sunday before the election, on purpose. Scott, unlike the previous two Republican governors, ignored calls to expand voting hours, on purpose.
GOP policymakers want long lines; they want to make it very difficult for voters to participate in their own democracy; they want Americans to get discouraged and walk away. As one Republican state lawmaker argued after the 2010 election, "I want the people in the State of Florida to want to vote as bad as that person in Africa who is willing to walk 200 miles for that opportunity he's never had before in his life. This should not be easy."
See that? The GOP in FLA want long lines! It's as simple as that. The longer the lines, the more the patience of voters (mainly Dems) is tried, and the more likely they will become exhausted and give up - ceding missed Obama votes, which means Romney has a much smaller mountain to scale. This is why if Florida's tally is close tomorrow night, and Romney ekes out a win, you will likely be able to lay the blame on deliberate voter suppression in the form of Rick Scott cutting early voting days in half, compared to what they were in 2008.
Meanwhile, Dan Smith, a political science professor at the
To see what's going on in Florida, in one of the less congested areas, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6enDuTp86Q
See also what it's like to have a NINE hour wait below:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/03/1155089/-Photo-of-My-9-Hour-Wait-to-Vote-in-Florida
Again, this time it's planned, and don't anyone believe or think otherwise!
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