Black Vote Suppression in Baltimore
As Joshua Marshall reports, someone is trying to suppress the African American vote in Baltimore. On November 4th, the following flyer was distributed in African American precincts in Baltimore.
10 Responses to “Black Vote Suppression in Baltimore”
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November 9th, 2002 at 2:04 pm
from http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/865uojtx.asp :
it was the Republican, Bob Ehrlich, who picked an African-American running mate (Michael Steele). And over the course of the race, it has been the Democrats who have engaged in racial slurs, passing out Oreo cookies at debates.
Additionally, a “prominent Democratic strategist” told one reporter that the flier has famed Democratic dirt-thrower “Bob Shrum’s fingerprints all over it.”
November 9th, 2002 at 11:53 pm
from http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/865uojtx.asp :
There’s nothing there; care to try again?
it was the Republican, Bob Ehrlich, who picked an African-American running mate (Michael Steele).
Interesting that you turn a genuinely bipartisan issue — voter suppression — into a need to defend the Republicans. I didn’t say a word about it having been the Republicans who were responsible for this. I have no idea who did it. I have a guess about who benefits from it, but that’s a separate issue.
And over the course of the race, it has been the Democrats who have engaged in racial slurs, passing out Oreo cookies at debates.
Can you point to new reports which establish that this happened? I’m very skeptical.
Additionally, a “prominent Democratic strategist” told one reporter that the flier has famed Democratic dirt-thrower “Bob Shrum’s fingerprints all over it.”
What’s your point? No matter who did it, it’s deeply problematic, if you care at all about things like democratic rights.
November 11th, 2002 at 5:05 pm
It’s not deeply problematic at all. An individual exercised his right to free speech by putting up some flyers - and somewhat humorous ones, in my view. How does that constitute “vote suppression”?
November 12th, 2002 at 12:18 am
First off the voters should have been informed enough to know the date of the election besides they produce plenty of Ads leading up to a election were they state the correct voting date. People who fell for this one were probally uninformed voters in the first place.
November 12th, 2002 at 2:10 pm
Here’s the link to the first article.
re: Oreos
re: who benefits from it. There were just four flyers found, and those flyers were brought to public attention by, wait for it, Terry McAuliffe. So, it looks like, whoever actually printed out and put up the flyers, the Dems were trying to profit from it. What better way to get out the black (and white) Dem vote than to create the impression that the Repubs were trying to scare away blacks?
While there are many possible explanations for who might have created the flyers, it’s obvious who was trying to benefit from them.
November 12th, 2002 at 2:34 pm
Here’s the link to the first article.
Interesting that you plagarized most of your first response from the Weekly Standard (which I don’t consider a news organization, for what it’s worth).
re: Oreos
Weekly Standard says the Democrats passed out Oreos; the University of Maryland paper says that audience members threw Oreos at an event sponsored by the NAACP. I suppose you can collapse the NAACP into the Democratic Party, but I don’t see the point of it.
re: who benefits from it. There were just four flyers found, and those flyers were brought to public attention by, wait for it, Terry McAuliffe. So, it looks like, whoever actually printed out and put up the flyers, the Dems were trying to profit from it.
You still miss my point: Democrats or Republicans, suppression of the black vote (or there being the general impression after the fact that black voters were suppressed) plays into the hands of all those who wish to keep African Americans as a group in a subordinate position.
I could care less which head of the one American political party engineered this trick. As I think I made clear already.
What better way to get out the black (and white) Dem vote than to create the impression that the Repubs were trying to scare away blacks?
Heh — there are dozens of better ways. None of which either party really wants to explore, since the point is to maintain the status quo in which almost no one votes.
While there are many possible explanations for who might have created the flyers, it’s obvious who was trying to benefit from them.
Tell that to Judge Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the SC, who spent his early political career trying to suppress black voters, on behalf, if I remember correctly, of Barry Goldwater’s campaign.
If you’re trying to make me out to be a defender of the Democrats, you’ve come to the wrong place. (In other words, both parties benefit from suppression of black voters or from the widespread perception of same; though they benefit differently and the game is to win at the margins.)
November 12th, 2002 at 10:34 pm
First of all, you might want to consider whether publishing a false accusation regarding plagiarism is a wise policy. I suggest you retract that statement.
If you will look at my first posting on this thread, you will notice the phrase “from “, followed by a URL, followed by the phrase ” :”. That indicates that what follows is a quote. The colon is not part of the URL, it’s a part of the grammatical structure of the sentence. What follows the colon is exactly what one would expect from such a structure: a direct, complete, unaltered quote from The Weekly Standard.
In any case, they state (and I quote) “it has been the Democrats who have engaged in racial slurs, passing out Oreo cookies…”
This article states:
Democrats have called him a “token” — last year, Senate Majority Leader Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. called him “an Uncle Tom” — and supporters of the Democratic candidate for governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, mocked him by bringing Oreo cookies to a debate last month, Ehrlich said.
Kweisi Mfume, at the NAACP debate, to his credit asked the crowd to avoid negative behaviors. Where, for instance, is a statement from KKT condemning this Oreo-throwing? Where are those articles where she asks her supporters to put the box of cookies back on the shelf?
I think just about anyone would say that the Democrats were passing out Oreos. Not Terry M., not the DNC, not Bill Clinton. Just some set of Democrats, as was stated in the WS article.
The question of the flyer is very specific: who did it. The answer to that question is not to be found by discussing Judge Rehnquist, Barry Goldwater or anyone who is not a suspect in the current case.
November 12th, 2002 at 11:00 pm
First of all, you might want to consider whether publishing a false accusation regarding plagiarism is a wise policy. I suggest you retract that statement.
Yes, it now is clear that you didn’t plagarize. But the quote was confusing; the URL was dead, as I pointed out, and typically one places quotation marks around quotes, unless the quote is extended, in which case it’s typical to indent it. Your quote was neither indented nor marked with quotation marks.
But the plagarism comment was probably over the top anyway.
Kweisi Mfume, at the NAACP debate, to his credit asked the crowd to avoid negative behaviors. Where, for instance, is a statement from KKT condemning this Oreo-throwing? Where are those articles where she asks her supporters to put the box of cookies back on the shelf?
I neither know nor care much. It’s obnoxious behavior, but relatively tame compared to what politicians and parties often do.
The question of the flyer is very specific: who did it.
Well, that’s *one* question. Another question is who benefits. Too bad you can’t dicatate which questions people ask.
The answer to that question is not to be found by discussing Judge Rehnquist, Barry Goldwater or anyone who is not a suspect in the current case.
Yeah, it is an embarassing history of racial harassment. I’d want to avoid it, too.
November 17th, 2002 at 2:32 am
Rurik,
If I paste flyers saying “Kill Rurik and his family” all over downtown, am I also exercising my right to freedom of speech?
What about spreading false information about conservative political candidates? Is that constitutionally protected speech?
-non
January 4th, 2004 at 9:54 pm
Old trick. This is just some old flyer from south carolina in the 70’s. Get a life. Why don’t you work to feed the hungery or train people for jobs. This site is pure BS.