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TechnoratiMythmaking and Democracy
History is forever burdened by the propensity of the political class to stir the public into hysteria over this or that threat, even if fabrications -- not fact -- form the basis of the provocation. The Iraq war is the most grievous recent tragedy to fall into the pattern.
Phantoms are forever stalking the public conscience. The hype over gay marriage as a threat to the sanctity of the American family has led voters in 23 states to approve bans on such unions, thus relieving themselves of the psychic burden that gay couples pose to them -- couples who are perceived, apparently, as a greater peril than a miserably sexualized pop culture that many of these same voters undoubtedly devour.
Fear is stoked unabashedly by partisans who gain from exaggerating whatever threat suits their purpose. Since the 2000 Florida election debacle, Republicans have had great success in convincing Americans that "voter fraud" -- in particular, ineligible voters who cast ballots (or try to cast ballots) on Election Day -- is a grave and growing threat to the republic and so requires each voter to present a photo identification in order to exercise what is supposed to be a fundamental right.
It matters not that the most frequent form of voting fraud is carried out through absentee ballots, which generally require no identity check other than verification of a signature. Or that even the Bush Justice Department, despite all efforts, has found no evidence that impersonating a qualified voter is at all commonplace. Or that states for decades managed to verify a voter's identity by comparing that person's signature on Election Day with a signature already on file.
Inflaming the public imagination with such false claims is one thing. Convincing the supposedly learned and dispassionate justices of the Supreme Court is quite another.
Yet this is what the state of Indiana and its partisan allies in the Bush administration have managed to do. In upholding Indiana's strict photo identification law-written by Republicans in the Legislature and passed over the objection of Democrats -- the justices admitted that the state had provided absolutely no evidence that the type of fraud the photos would combat (that is, an illegitimate voter showing up and claiming to be a different, legitimate one) has ever occurred in the state.
"The only kind of voter fraud that (the Indiana ID law) addresses is in-person voter impersonation at polling places. The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history," Justice John Paul Stevens admitted in his controlling opinion.
In fact, Stevens had to stretch so far to find an example that his footnote on the subject centers on Tammany Hall's corruption of the 1868 New York City elections, and references a newspaper account of a single case of impersonation in the disputed 2004 Washington gubernatorial election -- a contest in which 2.8 million votes were cast.
Stevens, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, also found that the law would do exactly what those who object to it claim: It would place a "heavier burden" on the voting rights of those least likely to hold a driver's license or another acceptable photo ID -- the elderly, the poor, the homeless and those with religious objections to being photographed.
In layman's terms, this is the reasoning: Despite the completely bogus claims of voter fraud that allegedly would be combated through the identification requirement, Indiana may nonetheless disenfranchise some legal voters -- notably, those who may tend to vote Democratic.
Voting-rights lawyers are taking solace in the nature of the opinion. It was narrow, they say, signed by only three justices (though in all, six justices voted to uphold the statute) and seems to invite future challenges. "They suggest there needs to be either someone who is likely to be denied a vote, or is denied a vote," says Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, one of the groups that opposed the Indiana law.
Yet at its core, the decision says it is perfectly acceptable for a state to make it harder for some legal voters to cast ballots than others. The high court's breathtaking illogic demeans it. More frighteningly, it diminishes democracy.
--Marie Cocco
© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group
13 Comments so far
Show Alli have interviewed people like Chomsky. I can say we all know that this USA is an Oligarchy that is failing and will melt down with the environmental problems as they are continuing to grow based on a petroleum world economy. Yet, they talk about continuing to rely upon the very energy source killing the world! The shocks will simply increase. Government control of the people is now dictated by the auto centered economy run by the biggest corporations. But sitting this out on the couch in front of the propaganda box is simply not good for my nerves, I despise all media with CNN the worst. At least with Fox you know where it comes, from Australia circa 1952.
Corporate control of everything deals with most of what "Disaster Capitalism" is all about, I spoke with Stephen Luis, Klein's father-in- law, back when socialism might have been an option in Canada and Pierre Trudeau the PM was saying, "he would rather be red than dead". Canada has been bought out by the USA long ago. The tar sands in Alberta and the water are the resources the USA requires and globalization is the means to buy out the rest of the world with the G8 led by America.
So it goes keep watching the box!
RSJ: Excellent posting!
Marie Cocco wrote: "Phantoms are forever stalking the public conscience. The hype over gay marriage as a threat to the sanctity of the American family has led voters in 23 states to approve bans on such unions, thus relieving themselves of the psychic burden that gay couples pose to them — couples who are perceived, apparently, as a greater peril than a miserably sexualized pop culture that many of these same voters undoubtedly devour."
Yet, ironically, the TV show "Queer Eye for a Straight Guy" was very popular in many of those same 23 anti-gay marriage states. What's going on here?
I think it's akin to Naomi Klein's 'Disaster Capitalism' theory -- you might call this a 'National Psychosis' theory. To paraphrase Stephen Colbert, historical fact has a liberal agenda, as does rational argument, so the neocons must alter that by changing history or, more precisely, making Americans doubt what they thought they knew.
It's a standard feature of the right-wing noise machine -- Rush Limbaugh telling his audience they don't have a constitutional right to privacy; Ann Coulter informing her readers that the disgraced Sen. Joe McCarthy was an American hero and a 'little fascism' is a 'good thing'; Bill O'Reilly foaming at the mouth about a bogus War on Christmas that he invented; the resurrection of the shameful Richard Nixon as a statesman; the flatly untrue insistence that the Constitution does not intend separation of church and state, that the US is a Christian nation, and that the president has the right to do as he pleases during an endless 'war' that has never been officially declared by Congress and has as its enemy a noun rather than a country. Along with that, there are regular sidebars promulgating torture, pre-emptive invasions, no due process or habeas corpus for even American citizens accused of terrorism, the subtext that gays, lesbians, liberals, academics, black radicals, illegal immigrants, what-have-you, are conspiring to drag people out of their homes and forcibly make Americans think as they do; and the notorious taking out of context or twisting of quotes to fit the Republican agenda. As a background to all of this is the fear that a small group like Al Qaeda, or some other scary Muslims, actually plan and have the means to take over America and, as one rabid Bushite put it, "convert us all to Islam and plant the crescent flag on top of the White House."
The point isn't to make America believe all of this hooey, only to doubt what they had been taught in school or what is happening before their very eyes, doubt it enough to think that maybe, since Rush, Coulter, Billo or Sean keep repeating it, it might be true. The point is to rob us of calm logical thought, reinforced by the crowded-screen, 'quick cut' soundbite reporting of the Big Media -- notice how distracting the crawl is if you are trying to absorb what someone is saying, and that the only time it's not on the screen is during the ads -- until even some otherwise intelligent people throw up their hands and stop trying to make sense of it.
Eventually this National Psychosis, merged with Disaster Capitalism, creates a malleable populace, exhausted financially and psychically, ready to abandon their principles and laws to any 'Strong Leader' who seems to know what they're doing, even if it's demonstrable that they don't.
It's not that this hasn't been tried before -- Nazi Germany was rife with this kind of whiplash-causing propaganda -- but with improved technology and marketing techniques, better understanding of the human psyche and behavior modification, and the examples of failed regimes past, it's much more successful now.
Naturally, this idiotic Voter ID law, based on fraud that doesn't exist, is right in keeping with our Orwellian right turn into a fear-induced state of trauma and shock, something similar to PTSD, that renders the mind a willing repository for the government's Message of the Day, whether it be War is Peace, Knowledge is Ignorance, Intelligence is Stupidity, Jesus Hated Islam, or McCain is a War Hero Who Would Make a Good President. Many may just shut down from confusion: "Please, do what you want, just leave me my couch and TV."
I see some stirring that America is waking up, now that the economy is crumbling around them, but I wonder if they will still allow themselves to be manipulated by fear and propaganda in the next election, or if it's too late to change course.
Absolutely right, andersdl (May 1st, 2008 1:09 pm), 'manufactured consent' as Chomsky might put it.
Good comment wcdevins (May 1st, 2008 9:29 pm) and I hope you're wrong.
Thanks for the link, Karlof1.
Mythmaking = hysteria? fabrications? phantoms? hype? false claims?
The article and comments-to-date evidence a total absence of understanding regarding Myth and Mythology. Such ignorance is precisely what keeps the reich-wing death-grip alive and strong.
Petras's Military or Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008 must be read for additional context.
The Great Experiment the founding fathers set in motion is over. Less than 250 years, and all the power is back in the hands of the rich; the masses are again chattel. American democracy is dead. It probably never existed, anyway, but the experimenters did leave room for it to grow. Unfortunately it was strangled by the likes of the Bush family, and newcomers to the entitlement parade like Reagan and the Clintons. The power elite has conflated unregulated crony capitalism with Democracy, and we have fallen for it. Congress has never been so beholden to the influence of big money. The supreme court rarely has understood its role as defender of the rights of ordinary citizens, and that has never been more evident than the past 25 years. We've been told it's unconstitutional to ID those who purchase guns, but poll taxes are now constitutional again. It's over people; Cheney and Bush stand atop its corpse.
Thanks for the article, Marie. Your writing and insights are always a pleasure. Keep on fighting if you can. I've about surrendered to the inevitable; if McCain becomes the next undertaker I don't know what I'll do or where I'll go. It ain't safe here, though.
If you don't own property, carry a bible, drive a pick-up with proof of insurance, and have a pistol license...why should you have a right to vote?
Is voting while ignorant a crime?
Perfect.
You can't get a trial to see if the Gov't has violated your fourth amendment rights because you're deemed not to have standing if the Gov't won't agree to disclose against whom it has spied.
But, any State can pass a voter ID law without even having to show any evidence whatsoever that such voter fraud has ever taken place.
I guess it really is just a damn piece of paper ...
And that penis must be attached to a straight male.
Hoa binh
Just got back from the future: Amerika 2020, all voters must show a white penis and a large bank balance before being allowed to vote.
Does this ruling help Dems or Repubs? Scalia is, at least, being consistent in his favoritism.
The Republican Party's success has been driven partly by their policy of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Deregulation started by Reagan that enables media consolidation has resulted in the Republicans being able to monopolize media markets and repeat the same stories to millions of voters. Keep in mind that a lie repeated three times and not challenged becomes a fact. The Republicans have created many "facts" and revised a lot of history during the past quarter century.