The Wall Street Journal is beginning to slither its way to the top of my shit list. Today, they’ve conclusively proven two things: they’re unafraid to present uninformed opinions, and they love bashing American Indians.
I can’t link to the damned article, because I’m not gonna subscribe to that rag even if I were to inherit the fucking paper from a long lost uncle. I will, however, summarize and provide a few select quotes.
In an editorial in today’s (11/14/02) Wall Street Journal entitled, “The Oglala Sioux’s Senator,” the WSJ asserts that something very fishy went down in the South Dakota race between Senator Tim Johnson and Rep. John Thune for the junior Senate slot. The last results to be reported in the election were from Shannon County, and they were almost exclusively in favor of Senator Johnson. Those results proved to be the deciding factor in the election.
Then they go on to interview a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard who did some Internet research and came to a stunning conclusion: “this trifecta of late results, high turnout and unusually strong support for the Democratic nominee should, if nothing else, arouse suspicion.”
Well, you’re here for the Straight Dope and I happen to have it. You want to know what sort of disingenuous scoundrels those editorialists at the WSJ are? Consider this quote again:
Pretty impressive, eh? But if you look at this article from the Washington Post, you will find that voter turnout at Pine Ridge generally hovered at or below thirty percent, while the rest of SoDak has one of the highest average turnouts in the nation–71% this past election. The dramatic 89% increase on the Rez can also be stated in slightly more mundane terms: 49% total voter turnout.
Shannon County reported its votes last for a pretty simple reason: it has the shittiest roads, the shittiest phone network, and some of the shittiest weather in the entire nation. Coupled with the comparatively large turnout, it was a difficult task, and took all night.
Is a 49% voter turnout incredible? Anywhere else it wouldn’t be, but let me tell you a little bit about how it was done. It was done with the work of hundreds of volunteers, who spent months encouraging people to register, and then going from door to door on election day begging people to vote, organizing car pools, and the like. Yes, one person was busted for forging absentee ballot applications, but South Dakota’s (Republican) Attorney General said, “I don’t see any evidence that anybody stole an election from anybody else.”
I myself volunteered to go to Pine Ridge–without pay, because I have no leave accrued in my new job, but was told to stay here. Everyone in Indian Affairs knew how important this election was, and how close South Dakota was. The election on Pine Ridge was observed by dozens of lawyers on each side.
So, why did nearly everyone in Pine Ridge go Democrat? I’ve got another answer for you, Wall Street Journal:
Because the Republicans fucked us, you assholes!
In the past two years, the Republicans have tried to extinguish rights to their own money which was stolen by the federal goverment. They yanked the land-into-trust regulations that allow Indian tribes to try to recover their lost and stolen land, in order to allow state and local governments to water the regulations down further. They’re exploiting sacred lands all over the country. They’ve cut health, law enforcement, and infrastructure funding.
And moreover, when John Thune’s Republican House of Representatives failed to pass an energy and water appropriations bill this year, it effectively stoped construction on a critical project to deliver potable water to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Bathing in cold, septic water hauled in on the back of a truck probably gave voters some reflective moments.
What have the Republicans done for American Indians lately? Fucked 'em without a kiss, that’s what. Think that might have had something to do with it, you miserable scum!