Some segments of our political system have decided it would be helpful to argue that the black guy got elected through massive voter fraud that wherein poor and minority voters illegally registered and then came out to steal the election.

People who don't exist are neither poor nor minority. Who is saying the fake people Acorn is registering are poor or minority?
Talk about making racist assumptions, Ezra.

Heh...

John McCain also spoke at the NAACP, but he didn't work for them.

Obams says he didn't work for ACORN, but headed a voter drive for ProjectVote. Funny how both organizaions share the exact same address in Little Rock AR where ACORN started.

2101 S. Main St Little Rock, AR 72206

Kaybeel... if you read through his commentary again, slowly, you'll find that no such "racist assumptions" are being made by Ezra--he's riffing on the shopworn propaganda being peddled by the right. ACORN voluntarily self-reported the voter registrations that did not pass muster. However, certain Republican operatives are emphasizing ACORN's focus on minorities and the poor in order to strike fear into those who have the most to lose from these poor and minority constituents from exercising their right to vote.
The readers of these right-wing columns are taking the bait hook, line and sinker. See, for example, these comments:

Quote:
"If these Christian ACORN organizers want to help the poor go in and help clean up the neighborhoods, assist the elderly, organize parents groups to do the same. This could help the poor or minority instead of sabotaging the Constitutional voting process and carryijng water for the Democratic party!"
The above comment was "Submitted by BillL on October 9, 2008 - 12:48pm" in response to "It’s time to shut down ACORN, work against voter fraud" by Ross Balano, Midwest Voices Columnist 2008. Here is the link:

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/2375

Interestingly, Balano does not mention the "poor or minority" [sic] in his column. Instead he uses dog-whistle insinuations about how "mak[ing] sure as many people as possible actually do vote" leads to "disenfranchis[ing]" him and other "valid votes." As the comment above shows, his readers get the message loud and clear.

See also Michelle Malkin's usual spew:

"The ACORN/Obama Voter Registration ‘Thug Thizzle’"

In this column, Malkin paints volunteers working with "low-income people and minorities in battleground states" as "militant partisan outfits purporting to engage in nonpartisan civic activists."

Malkin defines her phrase "thug thizzle" only in the closing sentences of her piece, to render it all the more exotic and alien to her readership. I listen to a lot of rap and have never heard the term. Here she attempts an awkward rhetorical move:
""Thug thizzle" is street slang for performing your trademark move. Obama and ACORN have practiced their thug thizzle together for years: organizing an ever-expanding community of ineligible and marginal voters to expand the Democratic power base. Rules be damned." I don't know what dictionary Michelle consulted to define this; apparently her source is a poor "homeless man" whom she takes as a representative of Obama's supporters (and she is hearing the quote second-hand, from a biased source with motive to make it up, since homeless people are so conveniently difficult to trace):

"Holliday interviewed another homeless man targeted by the registration drive who exulted that he was voting for Obama because "I want him to do his thang. You know, do his thug thizzle.""

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin100808.php3.

It's black and urban, so it must be scary, right? A mind is a terrible thing to waste, as is a media platform.

Confidential to El Viajero--scary how these groups band together to pool resources as they urge people to exercise their right to vote, isn't it? Teh horrorz, teh horrorz!

It's black and urban, so it must be scary, right?

No.
That's your angle, and Ezra's.

Anyone can exercise their right to vote. No one needs ACORN or any other pressure group to bully them into it or encourage them to break the law by registering fraudulently.

Of course, they may not get the free cigarettes without them.

Of course, if they vote the wrong way, slumlord Viajero might kick them onto the streets.

kaybeel--Read even more slowly this time, slick on my links, and get back to me with substantive commentary. Then we can have a conversation. If you come up with persuasive evidence, I am wiling to consider it. However, too much I've seen from the McCain campaign is about suppressing rather than supporting democracy. One of the things that gradually alienated me from my decade-long support of McCain is that all too often there is little substance behind the all-too-prolific hatemongering invective of his campaign.
By the way, El Viajero--the lack of proper civics instruction is part of why people do not feel that their vote makes a difference. My high school cancelled previously mandatory civics courses due to insufficient funds. I can't help but suspect that the Republican starvation diet for education has as a welcome byproduct the effect of perpetuating the ignorance of the citizenry. It's called trained helplessness. Those brought up to feel that they have control over their lives and surroundings are much more likely to vote. My mom knows a single mom working 3 jobs and running a daycare who cannot take off work to vote because she cannot afford to do so. I do agree with you that personal responsibility is important, and that those who are empowered with knowledge and means and do not vote are numbskulls. Once I biked 3 miles in the rain to vote in an election with only one race on the ballot, for the school board. I was one of fewer than ten people to vote from my neighborhood. To not vote, I thought, would be akin to spitting in the face of those who so struggled for such rights.

Signed,

Church-goin' (every single Sunday), family-valuin' Christian NO LONGER supporting McCain