Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 2, 2012

16

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday June 2, 2012 


HOWARD Hays As I See It


CONSERVATIVE COURAGE AND OTHER MYTHS
By Cliff Schecter
Courage is a word we often hear bandied about in our modern age, but it is 
as much in vogue as a mullet or Mel Gibson. It can be defined in a variety of 
ways, but they all have something in common: a willingness to sacrifice one’s 
own life, wealth, status or something of great import for the greater good.

While this trait may be lacking in our society as a whole, it is even further 
into remission among our elected political leaders. Which is a shame, 
because we’re in desperate need of it. 

Scholars Thomas Mann, of the centrist Brookings Institution, and 
Norman Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, recently came out and said 
the dysfunction, polarization, and toxicity of our Congress the no longer the fault of both major 
political parties. These days this is the singular accomplishment of the Grand Old Party, who sees 
compromise as weakness, thinks science is for suckers and has turned legislating in Washington into 
one long Gingrich marriage, without the open part, of course.

In fact, it is the singular lack of courage of any major Republican elected officials in calling out 
their own party that has helped get us into our current age of The Real Housewives of Congress. 
It hasn’t always been like this. Back in the 1950s, in a serious act of bravery at the time, Senator 
Margaret Chase Smith authored a Declaration of Conscience with six other Republican Senators, 
chastising Senator Joseph McCarthy for his paranoid delusions about those sneaky Communists 
hiding inside his empty bottles of Bushmills. In later years, many Republicans rebuked the extremist 
(and Koch-daddy founded) John Birch Society, and then-Senator Barry Goldwater himself expressed 
his desire to kick the Reverend Jerry Falwell in a rather rotund part of his exterior when the good 
preacher attacked Ronald Reagan’s choice of Sandra Day O’Connor as Supreme Court Justice. 

This served an important function. An actual Republican Establishment helped reign in the radicals 
and ensure their conservatism was not so influenced by the far-right to embrace the outright 
nihilism of today’s version of the party. These elected officials told their fellow public servants--as 
well as commentators--what was acceptable, making it clear that country came before party, our 
commonality as a people before their campaign contributions.

Today, however, only two groups point this out: pundits and former politicos with nothing left to 
lose. While it was refreshing to hear George Will call Donald Trump a “bloviating ignoramus,” 
which was perhaps a tad too kind, that should be Mitt Romney’s job when Supercuts Trump carpet 
bombs the truth like he has the institution of marriage. Meanwhile, where was Speaker of the House, 
John Boehner, or Senator Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell? 

While many on both sides of the aisle have been lionizing Senator Dick Lugar (when not feeling 
terrible that he lost his primary to a guy who likely needs his food cut into tiny bites for his own 
safety), what about Lugar’s responsibility to call out the Tea-Party trend in his party over the last 
few years? Where was Olympia Snowe, who as a female Senator from Maine built a reputation as 
a Margaret-Chase-Smith-like legislator, but couldn’t be bothered to really attack her own party’s 
extremism until she decided to retire?

Eyal Press, whose recent book, “Beautiful Souls,” is all about those who choose to “break rank” and 
“heed their conscience” during trying times, lamented this lack of courage when we spoke. He shared 
with me that “someone writing an updated version of “Profiles in Courage” would be hard pressed 
to find a character in today’s GOP for such a book. It speaks to the striking lack of willingness to 
speak out, that unfortunately characterizes our politics generally and right wing politics specifically 
in Washington today.”

The President’s birth certificate is questioned, admitted torturer Allen West calls fellow members 
of the House “Communists” and Michele Bachmann runs for President praising the hometown of 
John Wayne Gacy because she just doesn’t know the difference. As Kurt Vonnegut might say if he 
were still with us, so it goes.

 

Cliff Schecter is the President of Libertas, LLC, a progressive public relations firm, and the author of the 2008 
bestseller “The Real McCain.” Email Cliff at cliffschecter@gmail.com.


 “Every citizen of this country who is registered to vote should be guaranteed 
that their vote matters, that . . . their vote has as much weight as the vote of any 
Senator, any Congressperson, any President, any cabinet member, or any CEO of 
any Fortune 500 Corporation.” - Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

 

 “It’s not the votes that count. It’s who counts the votes.” - Josef Stalin

 

 Bill Internicola is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. In the winter of 1944-45 he 
was a 23-year-old in the mountains spanning France, Belgium and Luxembourg 
fighting against the last major German offensive of World War II. For his fellow 
Americans, it was the largest and bloodiest battle of the war. Of the 610,000 of his 
countrymen who participated there were 89,000 casualties, and 19,000 killed. He returned with a 
Bronze Star for Bravery from the Battle of the Bulge.

 

 Mr. Internicola is now 91 years old and living in Florida, and for the past 14 years has voted in 
Florida elections.

 

 That may change. He recently received a letter stating, “The Broward County Supervisor of 
Elections’ Office has received information from the State of Florida that you are not a United States 
citizen . . .” Mr. Internicola is given 30 days to “request a hearing with the Supervisor of Elections, 
for the purpose of providing proof that you are a United States citizen.” Failure to comply within 
the time limit “may result in the removal of your name from the voter registration rolls. You will 
no longer be eligible to vote . . .”

 

 Maureen Russo is a 60-year-old native of Akron, Ohio who’s really into dogs. For the last forty 
years she’s operated a dog boarding and grooming business with her husband in Ft. Lauderdale. 
And, for the last forty years, she’s voted in the polling place at the church around the corner from 
their home.

 

 Three weeks ago, she received a letter stating the State of Florida had information she wasn’t born 
in this country. She had 30 days to request a hearing; otherwise, she would no longer be allowed to 
vote. Ms. Russo immediately answered with a registered letter and copy of her passport. As of May 
25, she’s received no response.

 

 We remember “hanging chads” and “butterfly ballots” from the Florida 2000 debacle. What 
turned that election, though, were the “scrub lists”. For the first time, the task of identifying ineligible 
voters was contracted-out to a private firm - in a no-bid contract with Atlanta-based ChoicePoint, 
an outfit with strong Republican ties. It was an outfit that refused to divulge its methodology 
for compiling the lists, and had been accused of selling confidential government information on 
individuals to private firms.

 

 Some county officials relied on the lists without question to determine voter eligibility. Others 
saw them as so riddled with error they were completely ignored. (The election supervisor for 
Madison County scrapped the lists after finding herself wrongly identified as an ex-felon ineligible 
to vote.) Some sent out advisory letters to those on the list – with the burden of proof on the 
individual to show why they shouldn’t be on it, rather than on the State to show why they were. 
Others waited until Election Day to inform those who showed up at the polling place they wouldn’t 
be able to cast a ballot.

 

 The make-up of the lists was largely black and Hispanic. A white person who showed up and 
complained he’d been wrongly identified as a black ineligible voter with a similar name would be 
given a ballot. A black person who showed up with the identical complaint would be turned away.

 

 An estimated 15% of the names on the “scrub lists” were in error, with 7,000 Floridians wrongly 
denied their right to vote – 13 times the reported margin of victory of Texas Gov. George W. Bush 
over Vice President Al Gore.

 

 Whatever the complaints, it worked – and, with an assist from the United States Supreme Court, 
Bush became president. With some predicting another close election, Florida’s current governor, 
Republican Rick Scott, hopes it will work again.

 

 Gov. Scott, who made his fortune as head of a hospital chain implicated in the largest Medicare 
fraud case in U.S. history, ordered Secretary of State Kurt Browning to prepare new “scrub lists” 
of ineligible voters for the upcoming elections. Browning complained the resultant list of 182,000 
names was based on unreliable information, and refused to release it. Gov. Scott went ahead 
anyway, and Browning resigned.

 

 In Miami-Dade County, 1,638 letters were sent similar to those received by Mr. Internicola and 
Ms. Russo. 385 recipients have since established their citizenship and eligibility, an error rate of 
24%. In Polk County, 9 of the 21 on the list have been shown to be eligible, an error rate of 43%. 
Those who’ve moved or never got the letter, or those who simply don’t respond within 30 days, are 
removed from the voter rolls.

 

 An analysis by The Miami Herald finds, “Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters 
are the most likely to be targeted”, while “whites and Republicans are the least likely to face the 
threat of removal.”

 

 Rep. Ted Deutsch (D-FL) calls for the “immediate suspension” of this purging based on “a 
list of names with questionable validity – created with absolutely no oversight”, warning it will 
“further undermine Floridians’ confidence in the integrity of our elections.” Regarding WWII vet 
Bill Internicola, Iraq vet Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org says, “When someone who put their life on the 
line to protect the right to vote from fascists and empires is denied the right to vote, and is purged 
from voting rolls, there is something horribly, horribly wrong. Anyone who would stand behind an 
action that threatens the right to vote of a WWII vet is someone I would call un-American.”

 

 As I see it, there’s something horribly wrong, and un-American, with any party that bases its 
election strategy on making it harder for people to vote.