‘Have you no sense of decency, sir?’ GOP operatives shamelessly compare themselves to those who marched and died for the Voting Rights Act

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tedski at Rum, Romanism and Rebellion has two posts on local GOP operatives John Munger, an attorney who should know better, and Bruce Ash, a provocateur who takes sick pleasure in making outrageous statements, who are engaging in shameful disrespect for the memory of those brave souls who marched for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act and who were jailed, beaten, attacked by dogs, and even killed for their nonviolent protest for their basic civil rights as American citizens.

(Photo: Bill Hudson's image of Parker High School student Walter Gadsden being attacked by dogs was published in The New York Times on May 4, 1963).

These privileged white crackers assert without any justification that Tucsonans are being "disenfranchised" of their right to vote by the all mail-balloting in the Tucson City Council election, even though every registered voter receives a ballot, and there are ballot replacement centers at which voters can still cast their vote on election day if they so choose. This actually resulted in record voter turnout in the primary election, even though there were only two contested primary races.

As Jack Welch said to Sen. Joe McCarthy: "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

First, provocateur Bruce Ash, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion › From Our Overwrought Metaphors and Ridiculous Fear Tactics Desk:

Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash, in some ads he plans to run on local radio stations:

Think back to a time when our country was racked with political turmoil because voters were dis enfranchised through the south.

Those scenes of chaos are vivid. Democrat official and Police Chief Bull Connor’s fire hoses and angry dogs attacking peaceful demonstrators.

What do Tucson, Arizona today and Selma, Alabama in the 1960′s have in common?? The tyranny of the many imposed by the democrat majority.

The Tucson election in 2011 is infected with the same disease that once plagued the democrat Jim Crow South. The democrat majority in Tucson have fixed city elections. If you are are a Republican or an Independent you have been dis-enfranchised in Tucson council elections because you can’t vote for your own ward’s council member. Hence one party rule in Tucson for over 40 years.

We are living with the sickening results.

Now the dem city council has imposed ALL MAIL IN ballots to seal their scheme to send their union goons to “pick up the ballots”, a process that destroys the secret ballot which finally destroyed the old big city machines.

Are you sick of the mess in Tucson?

Then VOTE your ballot!!

Republican and Independent voters……Make your decision and VOTE to end the tyranny of the democrats who have ruined our home town. End the corruption of one party rule. We ARE still FREE men and women.

Next up is the equally offensive John Munger, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion › I Think We Have a Talking Point:

Munger’s silliness is after the jump:

What do Post-Civil War Selma, Alabama, and current Tucson, Arizona, have in common? In Post-Civil War Selma, the Democrat Party manipulated its electoral system to discriminate against Blacks, and to eliminate any significant chance they might be elected to local office. They did this by holding all elections City-wide, instead of by Wards, so that the SAME City-wide majority would elect ALL CANDIDATES. Election by Wards might have permitted local Black favorites in various Wards to be elected, but the majority of White racists did not want that to happen. They wanted all White officials. So they manipulated their system so that the SAME White majority would elect ALL candidates. THUS, NO MINORITY CANDIDATES.

This was a Tyranny Of The Majority. No rights whatever for minorities.

While the Federal government outlawed this system in the deep South in the Voting Rights Act, that law was written (probably with the help of local Dem leader Mo Udall) so it did not apply to Tucson, WHICH HAD THE SAME DISCRIMINATORY LAWS.

Yep. Tucson still has the old Jim Crow electoral laws which discriminate against minorities by requiring EVERY candidate to be elected by the SAME OLD CITY-WIDE MAJORITY. No Ward elections that might allow independent voices to be heard in good old Tucson. Of course, this system is not used to discriminate only against racial minorities today—it is mostly used to eliminate any chance that REPUBLICANS might be elected. The old Dem cabal wouldn’t want any independent voices to arise from the Wards, so Wards are not permitted to elect their own candidates. Nope, all Ward candidates are elected by—you got it—the same old City-wide Dem Majority.

Pretty cool, eh? And when the State legislature passed a law making this corrupt system illegal, the Dem machine (i.e., the City) jumped into action and filed suit to stop it. Wouldn’t want fair elections in Tucson. No, suh! Don’t want those Republicans gettin’ uppity.

If you love being part of the the old Jim Crow South, you should love Tucson. The Good Ole Dem Machine continues to thrive here using that good old Tyranny of their Majority. Baja Arizona? Be very ashamed!!

Just how deranged are these provocateurs? Tucson has had a Republican mayor for the past 12 years, and there was an effective Republican majority on the Tucson City Council as recently as 1999 to 2005 with Republicans Fred Rondstadt, Kathleen Dunbar, Mayor Walkup and independent Carol West. (Previously, Republican Lew Murphy served as Mayor of Tucson for 16 years).

In 2009, Republican Steve Kozachik was elected to the Tucson City Council despite the fact that Nina Trasoff trounced him in Ward 6, which she represented (if we had ward-only elections as these provocateurs assert they want, Trasoff would still represent Ward 6 on the Tucson City Council). Shirley Scott (Ward 4) and Rodney Glassman – yes, Rodney Glassman (Ward 2) - won their wards in the last election four years ago.

John Munger knows that Tucson's City Charter election system has been reviewed several times by the Department of Justice since 1965 and has never been rejected by the DOJ for being "Jim Crow" discrimination. And he also knows that "Paton's Law," attempting to impose ward-only elections and nonpartisan races on Tucson despite this being a Charter City was struck down by the Court of Appeals as overreaching by the legislature. The citizens of Tucson get to decide how they elect their representatives.

As every American knows, or should know, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 he did so with the full knowledge that "we have lost the South for a generation." Between 1964 and 1980 the Dixiecrats of the Jim Crow South migrated to the GOP and became its "solid red" base voters. When Democrats kicked the crackers out, it was the Republican Party that invited them in as part of Barry Goldwater's and Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy" of race-baiting, which remains a foundational element of Republican Party election strategy to this day. (More on this below).

Republicans should be embarrassed and ashamed by the lunatic ravings of these provocateurs and shame them for dishonoring the memory of those brave souls who marched for and died for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. They are shamelessly attempting to coopt these historical icons of the Civil Rights Movement with their revisionist history for their own partisan ends. (Photo: © Charles Moore).

Just as does Republican Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who frequently asserts that he was at the March for Jobs and Justice in Washington, DC in August 1963 to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his "I have a Dream" speech (without offering any evidence to substantiate his claim). Horne recently filed a lawsuit seeking to challenge the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act, one of the pillars of the Civil Rights Movement. Tom Horne and the Felonious Five threaten the Voting Rights Act. Actions and evil motives speak louder than hollow words of praise for the Civil Rights Movement from Republicans.

It is the GOP that has long engaged in systematic voter suppression for decades. The GOP is still under the supervision of the federal courts under consent decrees. The GOP War on Voting – Blog For Arizona:

I have explained several times over the years that the Republican Party has for decades engaged in unlawful voter suppression for which it remains under the supervision of the federal courts under a series of consent decrees. For example, A primer on GOP voter suppression: voter caging:

The Republican Party has for many years engaged in unlawful voter suppression. The case of DNC v. RNC resulted in a 1982 consent decree in which the RNC agreed not to engage in voter caging and intimidation activities or to target minority voters. Consent Decree (1982).

Despite the consent decree, the RNC began using similar tactics in Louisiana in 1986. Under the guise of fraud prevention, the RNC facilitated voter caging programs and other tactics. The DNC filed a contempt motion to reopen the case and enjoin the RNC from conducting the Louisiana programs. Once again, the RNC voluntarily agreed to a consent decree rather than fight the claims in court. The result was a 1986 decree [PDF] in which the RNC agreed not to do any ballot security programs anywhere in the country without prior court approval. See Consent Decree (1987).

* * *

After the 2008 election, the Republican National Committee asked the federal court to vacate or substantially modify the consent decree. The court agreed  only to modify the consent decree. Debevoise Opinion (2009); Debevoise Order (2009). The consent decree remains in effect.

If you want to review additional pleadings, see DNC v. RNC Consent Decree | Brennan Center for Justice.

GOP-controlled state legislatures across the country have enacted laws for systematic voter suppression  this year. Many of these GOP legislative efforts to suppress the vote are now being litigated in court. Rolling Stone magazine recently took an in-depth look at The GOP War on Voting in a must-read report:

As the nation gears up for the 2012 presidential election, Republican officials have launched an unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008. Just as Dixiecrats once used poll taxes and literacy tests to bar black Southerners from voting, a new crop of GOP governors and state legislators has passed a series of seemingly disconnected measures that could prevent millions of students, minorities, immigrants, ex-convicts and the elderly from casting ballots. "What has happened this year is the most significant setback to voting rights in this country in a century," says Judith Browne-Dianis, who monitors barriers to voting as co-director of the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization based in Washington, D.C.

Republicans have long tried to drive Democratic voters away from the polls. "I don't want everybody to vote," the influential conservative activist Paul Weyrich told a gathering of evangelical leaders in 1980. "As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." But since the 2010 election, thanks to a conservative advocacy group founded by Weyrich, the GOP's effort to disrupt voting rights has been more widespread and effective than ever. In a systematic campaign orchestrated by the American Legislative Exchange Council – and funded in part by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankrolled the Tea Party – 38 states introduced legislation this year designed to impede voters at every step of the electoral process.

All told, a dozen states have approved new obstacles to voting. Kansas and Alabama now require would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before registering. Florida and Texas made it harder for groups like the League of Women Voters to register new voters. Maine repealed Election Day voter registration, which had been on the books since 1973. Five states – Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia – cut short their early voting periods. Florida and Iowa barred all ex-felons from the polls, disenfranchising thousands of previously eligible voters. And six states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures – Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin – will require voters to produce a government-issued ID before casting ballots. More than 10 percent of U.S. citizens lack such identification, and the numbers are even higher among constituencies that traditionally lean Democratic – including 18 percent of young voters and 25 percent of African-Americans.

Taken together, such measures could significantly dampen the Democratic turnout next year – perhaps enough to shift the outcome in favor of the GOP. "One of the most pervasive political movements going on outside Washington today is the disciplined, passionate, determined effort of Republican governors and legislators to keep most of you from voting next time," Bill Clinton told a group of student activists in July. "Why is all of this going on? This is not rocket science. They are trying to make the 2012 electorate look more like the 2010 electorate than the 2008 electorate" – a reference to the dominance of the Tea Party last year, compared to the millions of students and minorities who turned out for Obama. "There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today."

Continue reading The GOP War on Voting | Rolling Stone.

Bruce Ash and John Munger are shameless provocateurs who have no credibility and receive public attention only because of their positions within the Republican Party. Is this really the pair of asshats that Republicans want speaking for them on their behalf as public spokesmen for the GOP? Are you not embarrassed and ashamed by their outrageous actions and complete lack of decency? Can you not do better than this? Please try.