Nation at Risk

Attacks on voting rights that threaten our very democracy

The Republican Party’s 50-Year Assault on Voting Rights

Universal Voter Registration Now

As the New York Times recently reported, “In the two years since the Supreme Court struck down critical parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Republicans in several states have moved to shut down early voting,

http://www.vidavibrante.com/2013/03/13/why-latinos-must-weigh-in-on-current-voting-rights-case/
http://www.vidavibrante.com/2013/03/13/why-latinos-must-weigh-in-on-current-voting-rights-case/

require identification at the polls, reduce the number of voting places and times, and cull voter rolls in what they say is an effort to combat fraud,” which itself is a fraudulent position since voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. In contrast to GOP voter suppression efforts, Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are fighting for universal voter registration. And while California and Oregon have taken the lead in passing automatic registration laws, NJ Gov. Chris Christie vetoed similar legislation in his state.

Of course, voter suppression laws affect the poor and minorities the most. So,if you’re interested in expanding voting rights in your state, check out The Case for Automatic, Permanent Voter Registration from The Brennan Center. The report urges adoption of the four components of a permanent registration system, with automatic registration as its central plank. The Center has also published a companion document, Automatic and Permanent Voter Registration: How it Works, which provides in-depth answers explaining how states can use existing technology to implement automatic registration.

Get universal registration going in your state, for we are a Nation at Risk.

They really don’t care about YOU

David Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries, left and Charles Koch, head of Koch Industries in 2007. (Reuters)
David Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries, left and Charles Koch, head of Koch Industries in 2007. (Reuters)

We’ve talked a lot about the oligarch Koch brothers, the right-wing billionaires who not only fund hyper-conservative candidates but also efforts to suppress voting by the poor and minorities. But I didn’t know how this formerly reclusive family got its start until I started reading reviews of Jane Mayer’s new book “Dark Money.” As Charles Kaiser puts it in The Guardian, their father “started his fortune with $500,000 received from Stalin for his assistance constructing 15 oil refineries in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. A couple of years later, his company, Winkler-Koch, helped the Nazis complete their third-largest oil refinery. The facility produced hundreds of thousands of gallons of high-octane fuel for the Luftwaffe, until it was destroyed by Allied bombs in 1944.”  Kaiser goes on to note “how the Kochs and fellow billionaires like Richard Scaife have spent hundreds of millions to ‘move their political ideas from the fringe to the center of American political life.’”

And that, friends, is why we’ve created this web site.  Neither the Kochs, nor their ilk, nor the candidates they support (will it be Trump or Cruz?) care about you. For 50 years the GOP, aided by the Kochs and their friends, has worked to suppress voting and skew financial regulations to take money out of your pocket and put it in theirs.  And it’s worked well so far.  Time we turned the tables, righted the ship, and gave government back to the people. Join us. Fight voter suppression now.

Obama: I Need You to Demand Voting Rights

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening President Obama told Americans they must organize and demand fair elections and voting rights. “I can’t do it alone” he told Americans. The four problems he noted really do put our Nation At Risk:

  1. “We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around.
  2. “We have to reduce the influence of money in our politics, so that a handful of families and hidden interests can’t bankroll our elections – and if our existing approach to campaign finance can’t pass muster in the courts, we need to work together to find a real solution.
  3. “We’ve got to make voting easier, not harder, and modernize it for the way we live now. And over the course of this year, I intend to travel the country to push for reforms that do.
  4. “But I can’t do these things on my own. Changes in our political process – in not just who gets elected but how they get elected – that will only happen when the American people demand it.  It will depend on you.  That’s what’s meant by a government of, by, and for the people.”

Join us today. Take action to ensure that everyone can vote, and let’s take our country back.

FU2016.com

Once again life imitates art. As some Americans were watching the moveable circus that is the Republican debate, a real faux Presidential candidate was launching his campaign on TV.

“America, I’m only getting started,” declared President Frank Underwood in a fake, but deviously timed, TV ad for his reelection campaign. The ad, which promotes the launch date of the fourth season of Netflix’s gripping “House of Cards,” was released with the improbably “frank” hashtag #FU2016 duringTuesday night’s GOP debate.

The ad also revealed the web address for his fake, but rather convincing, campaign website, FU2016.com, which also happens to lead with words that should make up the platforms of all the “real” Republican candidates: Inequality, Dishonesty, and Entitlement.

Obviously, the clever folks at Netflix know a lot about our political process. In fact, the show practically screams that we are “A Nation at Risk!” Let’s get to work.

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Alice and the Mad Hatter

As New York Times columnist and blogger, Paul Krugman, wryly notes: “Somehow there seems to be a pattern in this chart from the editor of PolitiFact, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.” Clearly, one political party in this nation is living in a world more familiar to Alice and the Mad Hatter than the rest of us. It’s a world where up is down, where science is fiction, and where the rules of math and logic no longer apply. If you’re fine with this, not to worry. But if it scares the hell out of you, then it’s time to organize for 2016. We are indeed a nation at risk.

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