Reply #57: Ah - no concern for the real damage - and thus deemed "the right thing

[salin]

to do".

Disenfranchisement of Black voters... done systematically and intentnionally... not a problem.

Making it enough of a public issue to force correction... not a need.

Lack of much of America's awareness of recent American history - where it took more than 100 years after the civil war to ensure that African Americans had the right to vote - often that right had to be forced on states by the federal government.

The Black Caucus action wasn't about thinking that they could reverse the election of Gore.

It was about losing a right that had only been enforced for less than 40 years.

End result - people only remember and are shocked by the hanging chad images - thus there was will for fixing the "voting machine problem" (paving the way for the BBV issue.) But there is no collective memory of intentional voter disenfranchisement - that systematically targeted minorities... thus the country didn't "hear" the results that the state of florida did not have to restore those voters to the polls by the 2002 midterm elections (too hard for the state to do.... who cares that some legal citizens who have done nothing wrong were by law prevented from voting for several election cycles...) Which has further translated into no public awareness of the newest news from Florida... new purges on the way... with NO mention nor verification that those who lost their right to vote have had it restored.

Will the senate silence, which prevented this from becoming a more clearly media covered issue, allow for the loss of Florida in 2004 (by keeping tens of thousands off the voting rolls - even though those are legal voters?)... Worse - if this does happen in Florida - with no real consequences... will it provide a "path" for other states to follow - in terms of limiting voter rights?