Let’s talk about poverty and under representation

The following is Merriam-Webster’s definition of Democracy:
1 a : government by the people; especially: rule of the majority. b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

Now here is the definition of Oligarchy:
1 : government by the few
2 : a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes

Which defines the current U.S. system of government? Sadly (but not surprisingly) it’s the poor who fall by the wayside when a handful of corporations and pocket-lining oilmen and war profiteers make the laws. The conservative agenda has always (in my memory) been about taking away from the poor and giving to the wealthy. Taking away money by revoking entitlements or taking away power in the form of increasingly harsh offenses for non-violent offenses and voter suppression. Just today, the 6th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a ruling in a case brought by Republicans who argued that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s methods of verifying new voter registrations is insufficient. Voter registration information in Ohio is double checked through the Ohio DMV and Social Security records. The appeals court, in essence, said that Ohio DMV and Social Security records cannot be trusted. Things like this are going on across the country in an attempt to invalidate the voice of new and existing Democratic voters, whose candidates we know typically fight for the rights of the poor.

Another egregious tactic is the Republican effort to smear ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN is a community-based organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, health care, and other social issues. The organization added voter registration to their efforts in 2004 and is subsequently being accused of submitting tens of thousands of false voter registration forms and discarding forms of people who indicated they are Republican. Several investigations across the country have found these allegations, outside of a few isolated incidents with individual staff, to not be true. You also may remember David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney of New Mexico who was fired for refusing to pursue voter fraud against Democrats when his investigation showed there was no evidence to support the allegations. That's right, the investigation was of ACORN.

My advice to help those stricken by poverty in this election season is to 1) donate to your local food pantry, and 2) call your friends in battleground states and encourage them to become poll workers. I fear (and am sure) that we will again see disproportionately few voting machines in poorer voting districts and those less educated on election law being turned away for invalid reasons. Today is Blog Action Day 2008 (see link below). Take a minute to join the chorus of those who see the war against the poor and who want to turn the tide.