August 1, 2007
by Robert W. Barker

Jim Crow is not dead, it simply changed into a Republican war hawk and became Bush government policy; as underhanded anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian economic methods are continuing in use today, despite the pro-democracy laws of the USA.

We the people of America have always promoted democracy and populist voices, and we share a belief that active, participating citizens make a stronger democracy.

Therefore, we believe giving a person a stake in this democratic process builds better citizens, and increases the connections to democratic ideas -- America grows from the process.

It baffles those of us that believe in this paradigm to see our own so-called democratic government use anti-democratic methods for political gain.

We have all heard the stories of the last two federal elections of political maneuvers in the South {especially Florida} to purge the African American votes by intimidation and disqualification trough fraud explained later as mistakes.

Phone calls asking questions, probing for voter registration errors, and police visits to discuss voting registrations and the purging of voter rolls in poor ethnic and black areas have had little response. Fear and intimidation are the result, and many African Americans in these places got the message and stayed home on Election Day after this "official harassment."

The 60 thousand so called felons the Republican Governor Jeb Bush had sponged from the voting rolls is an example of false disqualification's. After the 2000 elections the information used to disqualify registered voters was examined and found to be erroneous on nearly eighty percent of some list, therefore thousands of eligible voters did not vote for false reasons.

This purge also occurred in predominantly poor black Hispanic and Democratic Party dominated demographic areas, quite a coincidence is it not?

In Georgia a voter identification was established and few outlets to register were located in black areas many had to go miles away to register for the ID, so fewer blacks received this necessary ID.

These and many other anti democratic methods are utilized to slaughter certain segments of the popular vote.

Now we hear that the laws passed years ago {94} that requires all welfare and assistance offices to give voter registration information to clients has been dropped and even discouraged by the Bush administration.

During the Clinton years this policy was held and the law abided by, providing more voters and citizens with a stake in democracy and they theoretically become better citizens.

Most of these potential voters are people that usually vote for the Democratic Party, so the political maneuver {performed predominantly by Republicans} weakens the electoral impact of this section of the constituency.

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All this anti democratic law bending was discovered from a federally funded voter registration study that proves manipulations in opposition to democratic measures.

The study further concluded that the Department of Justice and various States are to blame, as democracy suffers again.

This administration that ostensibly promotes democracy in Iraq is killing it at home. The Bush State Department is aggressively seeking further purges of voter rolls in many states.

The State Departments Justice Voting Rights supervises elections is pressuring at least ten states to "PURGE" voter rolls and remove ineligible voters previous to the 08 elections.

State Department Voting Section has subverted the intended function and mandate of their office. The stated goal of the State Department of Voting Section is to "Increase the number of registered citizens who register to vote in Federal elections." Instead they are doing the opposite and purging rolls, and gerrymandering federal districts for a stronger Republican impact. Once again in this administration, an excellent thing is ruined and turned into political evil.

"I think it's pretty clear the Justice Department is pursing a partisan agenda to get states to purge voters while ignoring requirements to get states to register voters," a quote from Michael Slater, deputy director of Project Vote, a national nonprofit specializing in voter registration drives targeting low- and moderate-income families.

Disenfranchised people have less pride, collect more welfare and rarely become contributing citizens, whereas franchised citizens have a steak in our country and bring an active dynamic democracy needs. While the Neo Cons scream about welfare and entitlements they create a welfare mentality through acts of disenfranchisement. This dichotomy is evident in many aspects of the Bush policy, including his Iraq war policy no matter what the 73% of Americans or congress say, Bush says we stay.

What happened to the involved citizens and the paradigm of inclusion and democratic ideas we once stood for? Did it die in 2000 when Bush was selected by the supreme court over the real winner Al Gore? Or is our collective apathy, our fixation with pop culture American idol type distractions, or perhaps its our ignorance and disdain of anything that smacks of politics?

The Corporate Media never touches on such vile and anti democratic measures undertaken by the Republican corporatism, and most people never knew the democratic inclusion paradigm morphed into a fascist and narrow focus.

Democracy means inclusion not exclusion and the more included the stronger the State, yet our current leadership is marching towards oligarchy at quick military cadence. Voting may be limited to rich landowning men only, if Bush and Cheney have their way, we may all live in ignorant autocratic bliss.

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Robert W. Barker [send him email] is a writer, professional photographer and travel aficionado from Eureka Ca. His work is carried on many web sites around the globe, a first novel recently copyrighted in the library of Congress, is soon to be published.