Stop fascism! Abolish secret voting!

A woman named Sara Rich is helping Michael Moore in his “slacker” campaign.

In a question-and-answer period, Eugene family therapist Sara Rich told Moore that her daughter, Suzanne, is a military police officer in Iraq who has managed to share a bootleg copy of “Fahrenheit 9/11” with her entire platoon.
“Thank you and your daughter for her service,” Moore replied, “and we’re going to get her home as soon as possible.”

What the piece does not mention is that Ms. Rich is more than a family therapist; she chairs Eugene’s Human Rights Commission, where she’s something of a homeless advocate, so I doubt her involvement with Moore’s “slacker” campaign is accidental:

Ms. Johnson reminded commissioners that the process was complaint-driven, and that the department did not respond unless there was a complaint from a citizen.
In response to a question from Ms. Grendler regarding whether the initial contact person could work rotating shifts, Lieutenant Kerns said he had no information on that. He noted that the person in question was an employee of St. Vincent de Paul.
In response to a question from Mr. Laue regarding whether the action was being taken on the streets only, Lieutenant Kerns said there was also enforcement in the parks.
Dr. Katul called for a report on the number of citations issued.
Mr. Kutchai said no one was being cited without it being made clear to them that what they were doing was illegal. He stressed that the actions were not a surprise to anyone.
Ms. Rich said she had a hard time with telling people with low economic status that they could not be on the street because it was illegal. She stressed that the people had no money, resources or other places to go. She said the homeless were members of the community that were asking for help. She stressed the importance of a safe community where people felt safe and respected.
Ms. Grendler thanked Ms. Rich for her comments and expressed her agreement. She noted that the homeless camping ban in Eugene had put people in that kind of situation. She said the issue would continue to be explosive until there was a moratorium on the homeless camping ban and the City decided to work on the issue. She expressed her difficulty in listening to Mr. Kutchai because the homeless in the community had no option to do other than what they were doing.
Ms. Newbre expressed her dismay that people with nowhere else to go were being penalized for that fact. She said the idea of confiscating vehicles for that ?offense? was unconscionable. She stressed her strong opposition to taking away the little shelter a homeless person had.
Mr. Kutchai agreed that the comments being made were indeed valid concerns, but that in some cases, people did have a choice, which included being homeless.

Yawn. (I used to sit through meetings like that, and believe me, they’re boring. No wonder most people hate politics!)
Let me emphasize that there’s nothing wrong with being a homeless advocate. I have known a lot of really good homeless people, and over the years I have taken in and helped shelter more than I can remember. My objection to Moore’s brand of activism is that it is heavy-handed, condescending in the extreme, and smacks of dishonesty.
Homeless have the same right to vote as anyone else. What bothers me is that they are being taken for granted by people like Moore, who assume they’ll vote as they’re told (which means always Democrat and never Republican). I do not doubt that most homeless and human rights activists make the same assumption. I’ve seen evidence which convinced me that homeless are human beings capable of independent thought, and here’s more evidence from a homeless advocacy group which confirms that:

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, voter registration drives show that about 60 percent of homeless people identify themselves as Democrats, 20 percent as Republicans and 20 percent as independents.

In addition, only 53% of the homeless bother to register, and only about a third of that number ever vote. Which means only about one-sixth of the homeless actually vote.
Yet twenty percent register Republican.
This brings up a practical side to this which is being forgotten. Imagine, being a homeless person and actually registering to vote. Based on my own experience in Berkeley city politics, the activists who register the homeless are almost always from the left wing of the Democratic Party. When you register, you have to state a party affiliation. Homeless people have what’s called “street smarts,” and I think it would take balls for a homeless person to tell one of those activists he’s a Republican. I’d be willing to bet most of them just go with the flow and say “Democrat.”
Actual voting, however, is secret.
The homeless are smart enough to know that. Lots of them are also smart enough to think about things like personal protection and gun control. They remember all kinds of things like the seige at Waco.
Does anyone remember what happened when they allowed secret voting in Nicaragua?
Hmmmmm…….
Perhaps the left should take a lesson from Nicaragua. One party fascists (much like Glenn Reynolds, who probably loves secret voting) used the slogan “Your vote is secret!” to confuse people into voting for their party against the people’s own interests. Secret voting is therefore another fascist method which should be prohibited. Supervised voting makes much more sense.
“The people” should have nothing to hide!
Come to think about it, what about all those people who refuse to put signs in their yard? Are they hiding something?


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One response to “Stop fascism! Abolish secret voting!”

  1. Steven Malcolm Anderson (Cato the Elder) the Lesbian-worshipping gun-loving selfish aesthete Avatar

    Secret voting sounds like concealed carry, and other fascist plots. As Santorum pointed out, if people insist on a right to privacy, it means they’re doing something deviant.