How far are you willing to go

[YankeyMCC]

to ensure Democratic candidates win elections?

A thread in LBN got me wondering what the prevailing attitude is here in DU. I don't think I have the skill to convince many people via a webboard like DU of my position on this question so this poll is just an unscientific means for me to get an idea of the prevailing position on this question is here at DU.

The question is about voter suppression. How far are you willing to go along the lines of suppressing the vote of the right, of people who voted for Bush in the last two elections?

[Minnesota Libra]

1. As much as I would like to suppress any/all neocon/fundie votes I.........

.....am much more worried about the long term interests of my country. So I will rise above the "don't get mad, get even" mentality by edumakating them there neocon/fundie types and even go with them to the poles if need be.

[Asgaya Dihi]

2. Trust is earned

I replied "I will not support any measure illegal or legal that keeps anyone, even people I very much disagree with away from the polls."

The Democrats made a huge mistake after Reagan I think, the DLC wasn't the savior of the Democratic party, it was the death of it. Too many compromises in too many ways. It's cost you a lot of votes over the years, mine included in the past. I'll try to explain without stepping on any toes.

I'm in my 40's now, when I was a kid I had trouble with the system and lost a few years of my life to it that I blamed on social workers and so the Dem's, looked like their system to me. That's not rational in hindsight I know, but between that and the Libertarian cry of freedom I tended more toward conservative coming out of lockups myself.

It didn't take me too long to become disillusioned with the right, not a lot there but greed once you get past the surface, but the sad part is that's what I saw on the left too. I didn't go Dem because all I saw was people talking about helping the poor and doing the best they could in the meantime to lock them up. Ann Richards screamed in Texas that if you commit a crime we've got a place for you, if we run out of room we'll build more prisons. Bill Clinton presided over several consecutive years of record numbers of marijuana arrests, then ends his terms with the line that maybe it should be legalized. Nice thought, but a little late. This is where those policies ended up, mandatory minimums passed as eagerly by liberal California and leaders like Clinton as anywhere else. We should have checked the results at some point. www.prisonsucks.com

I spent most of my life figuring that the nation was run by crooks, period, so no party got any favors from me for years. It wasn't till I saw that the Dem's actually had an active Progressive side that I became interested. Till then the Libertarians still looked more hopeful if they could be separated from business some.

Never compromise your values, never. It isn't a matter of them winning because they are conservative, it's a matter of them winning because people believed they at least were real ones. If there had been another choice an awful lot of us might have grabbed it. Playing their game just made one side as bad as the next in too many ways.

[Deja Q]

4. You're kidding, I though we're supposed to blindly follow.

:sarcasm:

Trust and respect are earned. Once betrayed, it is not fair to ask the person used to have scratch your back who has now stabbed you in yours for help. :dunce:

I don't blindly offer allegience. I work with a community or I live for solely my own survival. It's the same subconscious rule EVERYBODY lives under. And the day more remember we're all part of a community is when more people will stand as a community; and each person within it truly is of value.

And I'll agree it's highly preferable to be in a community where one feels respected. Which is why we work for one.

[ChiciB1]

3. I Vote For Resposibility... I WILL NOT Stoop To Their Level!

I just wish we could get some REAL Election Reform!!!

[mikelewis]

5. Democracy only works if it is practiced by all...

I would rather live in a country ran by an idiot the people wanted than a great leader they didn't. If a President was rightfully elected (which BUSH WAS NOT!!!) then Democracy is served and the country is better for it. Either you believe in Democracy or you don't. I do and I support the right to vote in a free and fair election regardless of your beliefs or biases.

[sweetheart]

6. other

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

[Breeze54]

7. What about redistricting?

Haven't the repigs done that to their advantage?

http://www.census.gov/rdo/www/
Kicking-off the 2010 Census Redistricting Data Program

The Redistricting Data Office is visiting every state capital to kick-off the 2010 Census Redistricting Data Program
and share information about 2010 Census planning.
We are meeting with the Offices of the Governor, Secretary of State, legislative leaders,
election officials, and those with an interest in redistricting and census data.
If you'd like more information, call the Redistricting Data Office at [phone].



http://www.census.gov/rdo/www/voting%20rights.htm
Voting Rights Determination File

A data file (based on Census 2000 data) produced to support
the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1992, Determinations Under Section 203.

* Review the Federal Register Notice Vol. 67, No. 144 PDF

* Download the data via FTP