As if any of you needed another election thread, but since we’re all at home on the eve of election night quietly banging our fingers on the keyboard anyway…
This weekend, when I was listening to This American Life on the radio, they told the story of a voter registration guide backed by Republicans where people would first pose as pollers. If people stated that they were going to vote for Bush, they would be asked if they were registered, given a form, etc. If they said Kerry, it was, “thank you for your input and have a nice day.” I was pretty pissed off to hear about this.
Today, at dinner I met with a woman that is volunteering for MoveOn.org’s get-out-the-vote drive. Instead of registrations, they are organizing car-pools, getting people information on their polling place, and generally encouraging people to vote. But they are asking the same question; and if it isn’t for Kerry then it’s, “thank you for your input and have a nice day.”
And that, my friends, is a shitty thing for MoveOn.org to be doing.
MoveOn has an agenda, and is not shy about it. They want to get GWB out of the White House, and the best way to do that is to get his opponent elected. They’re trying to find people who would vote for Kerry and get them to the polls. They’re not trying to change anyone’s mind, just to make sure that the people who will vote the way they want get to the polls.
Why is this shitty? Because they’re not encouraging people who disagree with them to vote? They’re not trying to prevent people from voting. That is definitely shitty. But finding out if you think like me, then helping clear any obstacles if you do, that seems fine to me.
I encourage all Americans to vote. But I am devoting extra effort to encouraging those who agree with me.
If this effort by MoveOn is shitty, then so is the “72-hour push” being put on by the Republican party in Minnesota, which has carefully trimmed Kerry supporters from its lists of people who are getting “don’t forget to vote” calls – which also include the exhortation to “bring your friends and family, and make sure they vote for President Bush!”
Moveon.org doesn’t want more people to vote…they want more people to vote for Kerry, just like the Republican get-out-the-vote drives want to get more people to vote for Bush.
You think either side in this election cares about democracy? It’s the way it’s always been, both sides care about winning.
I guess it depends on whether your aim is to promote a generalized notion of democracy by getting people to participate in the political process, or whether you’re just stumping for a particular candidate. I don’t think that either is necessarily superior. Plain old encouragement to vote is good, and campaigning for a particular candidate is perfectly legitimate.
What i find somewhat disingenuous is when a particular group claims to be conducting a “Get out the vote” campaign, when what they are actually doing is nothing more than canvassing for a particular candidate or party. If you’re a partisan campaigner, at least have the integrity to say so.
You certainly do have an obligation to give her a ride. Bright and early Wednesday morning, you get into that car and take her down to the polling place.
How is this any different than just buying the votes?
Give someone a ride to the polls, maybe a cup of coffee. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? But it’s the same in principle as a man standing just outside the legal distance limit for polling places, who offers $10 for a vote in favor of a particular candidate. It’s illegal one way and accepted another way.
I think the OP meant to say that he would prefer “our” side to play cleaner or more honestly… but that is a luxury that isn’t possible since the other side won’t slow down to play clean.
MoveOn does not pretend to be a non-partisan group. They are actively campaigning for Kerry and make no secret of it. When a partisan group says they are “getting out the vote” they mean “getting out the vote on behalf of our candidate.” There’s no reason to assume it means “getting out the vote regardless of the voter’s party affiliation.” That’s the government’s job. If MoveOn were going to be neutral, they’d qualify for tax-exempt status, for one thing.
So, you think that what that Republican did with the voter registrations is cool? His group never hid their affiliations any more so than MoveOn.org.
Yeah, I did expect “our side” to have a touch of class about the way it “got out the vote.” Giving rides to people that don’t have cars is one thing, even if the majority of these voters are for Kerry. Only giving them to Kerry supporters is another entirely.
I guess after Kerry wins tomorrow we can go ahead and start locking up American citizens for all sorts of unsupported accusations of un-American activity, because, hey, the Pubbies did it too, right? Jesus christ, I’m not voting for Bush because I thought the Dem’s had slightly more integrity; they had a candidate that had real experience in a war-zone instead of some dumb-fuck Chickenhawk. Oh well, I can go on hating politicians and the shallow little one-minded fucks that love to give the old Heil to their party as long as that party can keep winning on Wednesday-Fucking-Morning.
And yeah, I’d give a neighbor a ride to a poll, even if they wanted to vote for Bush.