Bruce Ash, John Munger and Jim Crow voter suppression

by David Safier

Everyone else has chimed in about the despicable comparison of voting in Tucson to the pre-Civil Rights south by Bruce Ash and John Munger — first Tedski at R-Cubed, then AZ Blue Meanie here, and today the Star editorial. Now it's my turn.

By chance, I just came across the image below.

It's a 1939 AP photo. Here is the caption.

A dummy is hanging from a lamp post in an attempt to intimidate African-Americans and keep them away from the voting polls in the municipal primary election in Miami, Fla., May 1, 1939. The sign on the dummy reads, "This nigger voted."

Today's nationwide voter suppression efforts by the Republican party aren't nearly so overt as they were that earlier era, but their intent — to win elections by depriving citizens of their right to vote — hasn't changed.

You want echoes of Jim Crow? Look at the voter suppression moves promoted by Bruce Ash, John Munger, Russell Pearce and their crowd.

"YES I KNOW" NOTE: Yes, I know it was southern Democrats doing this heinous stuff back then, not Republicans. They were the Dixiecrats who fled the party when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and were welcomed into the Republican fold with open arms.