How Mike Rogers Disenfranchised Thousands Of MSU Students, And Other Things That Irritate Me

Most of us know the story of how Mike Rogers made sure Michigan State students (among other college students) would not be allowed to vote. For those of you who don’t know the story, Jack Lessenberry does a great job explaining: Essay: The Rest of the Story – 10/9/06

Notice also how, once Rogers got elected, he made sure his seat couldn’t be taken from him.

One thing that Lessenberry doesn’t mention is Rogers’ filthy campaign tactics. He had someone on staff for the specific purpose of filing FEC complaints on his opponent, Dianne Byrum.

The funny thing about FEC complaints is that they do not have to be true … there is no punishment for false complaints. However, this is a punishment for not responding to a complaint. So he kept Dianne’s staff a little busy.

[begin quasi-relevant rant]

This is one example why I view politics as an “us v them” issue. This is where I differ from a lot of my liberal friends, who view us Americans as one big happy family …

“If we just educate the voters, then they’ll vote for us.”
“If we can’t articulate what we stand for, then we deserve to lose.”
“We don’t want to piss off the Republicans … we just need to educate them on the benefits of NOT disenfranchising voters.”

(that last one is from a discussion about Ohio 2004)

Bah. That’s crap.

There are three kinds of voters:

1) those who plan to vote like I do
2) those who can be educated or persuaded to vote like I do
3) those who must be defeated

Campaigns are all about moving group 2 to either group 1 or group 3.

The Republicans already understand this. Mike Rogers knew he couldn’t move the students to group 1, so he moved them to group 3 and changed the law that applied to them.

Notice how the GOP has demonized or declared war on certain kinds of Americans … trial lawyers, ‘liberals’ , gay people, immigrants, inner city poor (especially ethnic minorities), single mothers, college students, labor unions, etc. All Democratic voting blocks. Those who cannot be easily disenfranchised have had their livelihoods and personal character attacked. Trial lawyers, for example, are under attack for “frivolous lawsuits.” (don’t even get me started on labor unions.)

(by the way, what jackass really thinks it’s ‘frivolous’ to ruin someone’s life?)

It’s a Republican world right now, and we just live in it. (barely) If we want to change things, we need to stop thinking “the best” of our opposition. We need to think in terms of “what is the worst, meanest, most ridiculous thing I can do to my opponent to scare people away from him.” This may sound difficult, but we have the benefit of having the Republicans for inspiration.

Caveat: I know many fine people who consider themselves Republicans. It’s the policies & conduct of the Republican Party that I hate.

[end quasi-relevant rant]

Jim Marcinkowski for Congress

update: just found this comment on Kos

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