Yet Another Reason Why I Stopped Reading RedState
The buffoonery that passes for analysis perpetrated by Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com, continues unabated. I am particularly enamored by his email alerts, which serve the dual purpose of keeping me abreast of the issues that RedState.Com sees as the most critical of the day, and highlighting their ridiculously partisan hackery. As an aside: To the commentor (Daveg?) that once questioned my inclusion of RedState and Captain’s Quarters in my daily read list while excluding several big name paleo conservative sites because I thought they were too wacked out: You were right, I was wrong. Your sites are still wacked, but Ed Morrissey now works for Malkin, and Erick Erickson is as bad as Eric Dondero for pure internet distortion. Today we are alerted to a most urgent need: help monitor vote fraud:
Sorry for the email intrusion, but I wanted to recommend that you monitor http://votefraudsquad.com/ for news about voter fraud around the country.
The website is affiliated with the Voter Integrity Project, which is a non-partisan project to help the American voter report and expose incidences of vote fraud and vote suppression. This is an issue that crosses party lines and we should all be concerned about it.
To learn more, please go here.
Sincerely yours,
Erick Erickson
Editor, RedState.com
OK, my leanings this election cycle are hardly secret, but full disclosure on this specific subject: I believe that the vote fraud discussions of late are themselves a form of fraud designed as just another scare tactic in our often vicious political environment, and that The Right willfully conflates voter registration error and voter registration fraud with actual vote fraud, while ignoring vote suppression. I say this, but recognize that reasonable people may disagree as to the extent and nature of the various forms of vote fraud and suppression. With this predisposition, I strongly suspected that Erick’s email was just another part of this latest Republican talking point/bugbear, but how could I really argue against an independent organization that will simply help monitor an ostensibly important issue that, as Erickson points out, crosses party lines? And he did include the words “vote suppression” so I gave it a chance. Click.
“The Voter Fraud Squad is a non-partisan group blog that aims to provide information related to voter fraud across the country.”
I immediately noticed that they prominently display the words “vote suppression” on their web site, suggesting that they are not just worried about those dasterdly liberal Democrat ACORN election stealers, they are equally worried about suppression of votes, an activity more commonly associated with The Right. So let’s test this claim of bipartisan objectivity. The site is helpfully organized with categories, shall we compare the content of a few?
ACORN Eight highly condemnatory articles about ACORN.
FBI one article about, you guessed it, ACORN
Featured Posts One article on the Voter Integrity Project, one article on…. ACORN
Misc One article on a Republican arrested as part of the California YRM scandal. Yeah, bi-partisanship proved!1eleventy!
Video One article about a handicapped man forced to vote for Obama, one article about…ACORN
Voter Fraud Five articles about ACORN, one about the Voter Integrity Project, one lamenting same day registration.
Voter Suppression An article about…ACORN. Wait, what?
This is pretty much case closed on the bi-partisan “crosses party lines” claims of both The Vote Fraud Squad and Erick Erickson, but there is other evidence available. What’s the fastest way to determine the political ideology of any blog? Blogroll:
A Rendezvous With Destiny Front page: 6 posts, all pro-McCain, or more accurately, strrongly anti-Obama. Sample quote: (Obama) is a great speaker. So was Hitler.
cayankee More rational than the above, but still firmly anti-Obama
Count Us Out Rabidly anti-Obama site, one of those that gleefully bought into Michelle Obama African Press International tapes scam.
Election Journal Though overinflating the vote fraud stuff, at quick glance seems like a reasonable area specific site.
Election Law Blog Quick glance: Looks like a balanced site aiming for objectivity in their specific area.
Excuse Me For Kickin Distinctly pro-McCain / anti-Obama site, video heavy. Blogroll is a whos who of the far right.
Gateway Pundit the far right edge of the neo-con fear map. No Obama rumor too crazy to print.
Jackqueline Cady Describes Little Green Footballs as “another good blog I found” Enough said.
pecanpii Hardcore anti-Obama site
RightsideVA This will surprise you: a Virginia Conservative.
Texas Hill Blog Another hard core anti-Obama site, also fell for the Michelle Obama API tape scam.
The Minority Report Pro McCain, conservative blog.
The Union Label Blog Anti Labor Union site, sample post title: Labor Leaders Cannot Wait to Cripple Businesses, With Obama’s Help
The Union News Anti Labor Union site, spends a lot of time bashing Obama/Dems, very free with the word “Fascism” used in the Goldbergian sense. Listed twice on the blog roll for double good luck.
Third Base Politics Big McCain supporter, loves the ACORN stuff.
Wizbang Blog Stongly anti-Obama / pro-McCain. Also believes all the polls are wrong, the race is dead even.
So our non-partisan, party crossing, completely neutral, objectively unbiased vote fraud (and suppression!) monitoring site has a blog roll that ranges from conservative to far right neo-conservative, with some newsy election specific sites thrown in for good effect. Their articles are overwhelmingly about ACORN. And we are expected to take their claim to bi-partisanship, and Erick Erickson’s confirmation of it, at face value?
I could not agree more, though I suppose I’ve been beating around the bush about it.
What’s sad is that voting integrity is such a noble goal. I really hate that now my first associations to “voting machine fraud” claims are either hysterical partisans or Jim Condit Jr.-esque anti-Zionist conspiracy theorists. Particularly because I am a true believer in the need for paper trails and the inherent necessity of distrusting anything less than a perfectly transparent (or as close as one can get) voting system.
And anytime I hear of “gaming the vote” and “vote fraud”, I scratch the surface and find pretty naked right-wing attempts at either suppressing the vote or making perfectly noble GOTV and civics-oriented groups pay dearly for trying to engage people in the democratic process and adhering strictly to the law in doing so. Even more cynical because it’s quite often geared at poor and minority voter enfranchisement attempts.
That’s not to say liberals don’t engage in it too, but by and large, I guess when it gets right down to it, I’d rather more enfranchisement (even running a greater risk of fraud), not less (and running the risk of actively trying to cleave legitimate voters from the desire to vote and engage in the democratic process). And as I said in another thread, it has become a common baseline premise in strategist circles that more voting is good for Democrats, less voting is bad for Republicans, which is true, but still a pretty vile thing to try to game by way of squeezing out an advantage for your side. Given those two premises, it’s not much wonder why I am automatically not just skeptical but actively pushing back most GOP forays into this matter.
Comment by Brad — 10/22/2008 @ 6:36 pm
The whole “Better that nine guilty men go free than one innocent man convicted.” philosophy keeps popping into my head when I hear about voter registration fraud. I’d much rather accept a larger risk of fraud and ensure every eligible voter in the United States be able to cast their vote than to aggresively purge the voter rolls. There has got to be a better way to control the process.
Voter fraud is too serious an issue to be trotted out as a political ploy. It has come to the point that I am more likely to roll my eyes then to lend it any credence. Everyone knows what happened to the boy who cried wolf. (No Palin inference intended.)
Comment by Liz — 10/22/2008 @ 8:44 pm
ACORN does have a record of registration fraud, and that’s worth looking at.
I myself am a big fan of low voter turnout. I tend to think that elections ought to be decided by those passionate enough about the candidates and issues to go through the process of registration, rather than by people who have to be cajoled into it.
The process is not so difficult that it ought to be necessary to mount massive drives to get people to actually register. Given that said drives are explicitly partisan in intent, it is perfectly reasonable to apply scrutiny to the results.
Comment by Rojas — 10/22/2008 @ 9:04 pm