General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy didn't Democrats do anything to stop Republican voter suppression in the eight years Obama was
in office?
Cross check wasn't exactly a secret.
Now it's too fucking late until at least 2020. By then the GOP will figure out how to stop a hell of a lot more of us from voting.
JTFrog
(14,274 posts)sfwriter
(3,032 posts)mopinko
(70,090 posts)they got away w suppressing 100 times the margin we needed.
it's disgusting.
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)... against impeding peoples 14th amendment rights.
Now, we he COULD have done is just go for to the right on the issue and start jailing people for even thinking about voter suppression and had the DOJ investigate the shit out of GOP state gov who tried to implement voter suppression...
Outside of going way far right on the issue to swing it back where it was supposed to be what else LEGALLY could he have done?
tia
yurbud
(39,405 posts)purged from voter rolls, especially if she had lived through Jim Crow, and just shame the shit out of the GOP on national TV.
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)... don't give a shit about laws.
You think "bully pulpits" would ever effect someone like Benedict Donald?
No, folk like him and the rest of the GOP don't give a shit about what people say or do... they care about votes ... bout it ... and now they steal them.
Lets talk about PRACTICAL LAW... not intangible influence
yurbud
(39,405 posts)and compel their legislators to act accordingly or be replaced by those who will.
haele
(12,650 posts)If nothing else, they double-downed, fighting the Supreme Court to remove all Voting Rights laws. And they did a good job of that.
They succeeded, because if it doesn't affect him or someone he knows personally, SC Justice Kennedy "can't imagine whatever would go wrong" if protections are removed in the post-racial, post-sexist, everyone's-a-reasonable-adult-and-besides-its-good-for-business bubble he lives in.
The Democratic party was still operating in a 1980's/1990's mode; letting the Blue Dogs and Yellow Dogs fight with the Progressives over ticky-tacky shit under the illusion the Republican party still had independent members; even when the last true moderate Republican - Jim Jeffords - broke from ranks and became Independent because he couldn't handle the blind lockstep talking points Republicans were forced to swallow no matter how they felt about it since 2000.
When Democratic leadership downplayed the danger because "we know these people and they aren't really like that" - even if their votes have consistently shown that no matter how good and considerate a person seems one on one, there is no "free will" in the Republican Party unless that person is willing to be primaried by someone even more crazy-brain-dead - the country ends up where we are now.
The Republican Party is a slot-machine that for the most part pumps out a steaming pile of shit on anyone that doesn't put the max amount of coins in the slot and pulls the lever at the right time for a slim chance at a jackpot. And of course, the Party always makes money off that machine.
Haele
yurbud
(39,405 posts)whites to die out.
We heard the Obama detractors on this board scream about the "bully pulpit" for the last 8 years.
Do you recall what they said every time he gave a speech about anything, i.e using the bully pulpit?
"Talk is cheap," they would sniff.
betsuni
(25,475 posts)I'm gassy now. Thanks, Obama!
ismnotwasm
(41,976 posts)Now I got the sniffles.
Thanks, Obama!
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Last minute as to give the voters no chance to correct their registration. We won a case in Florida and in NC I believe. I know there were others where we did not win.
onenote
(42,700 posts)But there were a number of significant obstacles. For example, in 2008, the SCOTUS upheld Indiana's voter-ID law. And in 2013, the SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Despite these setbacks, challenges to various voter suppression efforts have continued in the courts, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. And various pieces of legislation to address voter suppression have been introduced:
http://billmoyers.com/2015/06/25/congressional-democrats-introduce-ambitious-new-bill-to-restore-the-voting-rights-act/
https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/congressional-democrats-introduce-transformative-automatic-voter-registration-bill
The reason that these efforts didn't go anywhere? Because it was already too late -- the repubs have controlled at least one chamber of congress since 2011.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)onenote
(42,700 posts)including one introduced before he was inaugurated.
https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/voter-registration-legislation-111th-congress
yurbud
(39,405 posts)I wondered why the hell certain questions weren't asked before the Iraq War, and couldn't find any news articles on it, so I went through the congressional record and did find a handful of people who did ask exactly the right questions, not just about whether Saddam had WMD, but if he had them, why would he do something as suicidal as use them.
Is it a matter of pols just hoping the press will cover something, or sending out press releases and no one biting on it or what?
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Many of which Democrats won. However, Republican-dominated legislatures successfully dragged their feet because while a court can issue all kinds of rulings, it's still up to the parties involved to comply with those rulings in a timely manner. Republicans can, for example, enact HB2 in North Carolina in a matter of hours, but they can't be bothered with following a court order in the same calendar year.
Gothmog
(145,168 posts)The DOJ was a major player in the Texas voter id law suit including paying for many of the key expert witnesses. The DOJ filed an amazing brief on the intentional discrimination issue that will be argued in January.
AG Holder and President Obama rebuilt the the DOJ civil rights division and voting rights division after W destroyed these sections. It too W 8 years and nearly being sued to degraded the voting rights section and hopefully Trump will not be successful in gutting these efforts before 2020.
I volunteer in the voting rights area and I cannot think of anything that the DOJ or President Obama could have done to fight the GOP voter suppression
RegexReader
(416 posts)a voter ID law would stop them from inserting phantom ballots into the system. If every vote counted equals the number of voters signed in at the district, it would be impossible for phantom ballots being generated.
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)attempts to stop NC's new voter requirements only to have the Supreme Court rule that southern states didn't need DOJ approval to make changes to voter requirements anymore...
And the day after the ruling, TEXAS announced a laundry list of rules for voters meet in order to vote?
I'm the only one who remembers this?
Deuce
(959 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,370 posts)Holder did a lot. The OP is lame:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/eric-holders-fight-voting-rights
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)QC
(26,371 posts)ananda
(28,858 posts)Only I would start with Florida 2000 and
ask why Democrats haven't been more
determined and persistent in their activism
for voter rights.
In other words, it's a complete mystery to me.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)KatyBR
(183 posts)Same reason we can't get recounts in these states.
bermudat
(1,329 posts)when the CEO of Diebold promised a Republican win?
Got to give it to the repugnantcans, they are up front
with their cheating.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)wiggs
(7,812 posts)control. John Conyers had basement hearings on vote integrity and delivered thousands of signatures asking the republicans to do something about it.
To the OP point...dems afterward did nothing when they had the power.
Tiggeroshii
(11,088 posts)After that, the states could basically do anything they want to suppress voting on a completely legal basis. Cross Check was legal. And it was well established by the courts, that it was.
This was the first election we've seen since the 60s without the voting rights act in tact.
This was all the aftermath of that decision.
LisaM
(27,806 posts)They've had some successes, but are dealing with a war on multiple fronts, not to mention that when the Voting Rights Act was overturned, everything changed.
This really is a problem Obama and Holder tried to solve.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/eric-holders-fight-voting-rights
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/eric-holder-vows-to-aggressively-challenge-voter-id-laws/2012/07/10/gJQApOASbW_story.html?utm_term=.eeb1a5b433a8
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/eric-holder-tpm-interview-voting-rights
suston96
(4,175 posts)Because most state legislatures and municipalities were/are in the control of Republicans.
That will continue for a long while.
The only thing left may be an "orange revolution".
Google "orange revolution" to refresh your memory regarding that incredible event in the Ukraine a few short years ago.
doc03
(35,328 posts)the Republicans took over statehouses and made the rules.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)mathematic
(1,439 posts)Low info ideologues strike again.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,425 posts)Sometimes you're just plain outnumbered, and there's nothing you can do about it.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)that don't like people to vote and run crappy elections are run by Republicans. Keep electing the same people, keep getting the same thing. The US Congress is the last place I would want to standardize elections. That's how we got computerized, paperless voting. If I was concerned that my vote wouldn't be counted I would contact my state government....before the next election. Not after.