The ACORN Dead End
Matt Quirk argues that the right-wing’s deployment of race-baiting tactics is backfiring and, more important, that conservatives embrace of scare stories about election fraud are going to lead them nowhere:
Failing that, not to worry. The rot has taken root on the right, and it’ll take years to debride. Crackpots are blaming the recession on greedy minorities who tried to buy houses and the Democrats who forced lenders to help them. Obama’s massive get-out-the-vote operation is already transforming, in the Republican echo-chamber, into a carefully orchestrated plot by ACORN and its black ex-con foot soldiers to steal the election. Democrats can look forward to four to eight years of resentment, bitterness, and conspiracy-theorizing among the GOP base. The “not my President” frothing and floundering will be back on the right, after spending eight years on the left. Just as the Republicans lost their 1994 momentum because of a weird hang-up with Clinton’s busy wang, the right will only suffer from ugly personal politics. The more time Republicans waste by scapegoating, instead of rethinking what they stand for and sweeping up the pieces of their party, the longer Democrats will hang on to power.
That seems about right. The fact that the Republican Party is really unpopular at the moment is a much bigger problem for the right than is the prospect of Tony Romo trying to vote in Nevada. It would make sense to focus on the more serious problem.
37 Responses to “The ACORN Dead End”
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October 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
“Just as the Republicans lost their 1994 momentum because of a weird hang-up with Clinton’s busy wang, the right will only suffer from ugly personal politics.”
Uh, those ugly personal politics got George W. Bush elected in 2000, where he was in position to take advantage of 9/11 to do whatever the hell he and Republicans wanted. That fact that President Bush and his administration so spectacularly bleeped up that opportunity is another matter, but just imagine if they’d been less obsessed with Iraq and used that post-9/11 popularity and sense of purpose to push every half-assed, right wing domestic policy idea they could.
Mike
October 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Ah, but Republicans have already lost and they know it. This isn’t about what people will believe on the morning after election day; it’s about what they believe after fours years of repetition. John Hinderaker gave up the game today:
October 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
So? Dems basically said the same thing from 2000-2008. Maybe Republicans can make a funny movie about it before the next election.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I’m inclined to agree that those arguments are going nowhere with the non-wingnut public, but they’re going quite far with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, so there’s a very real possibility that real damage will be done.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I dont think you get i. The ACORN issue is not just about the “Not my president” issue, it about legitimizing an Obama presidency but more importantly it is both a short and long con. A short corn in that, all the conservatives leaders will not have to self examine, they will not question tax cuts when it shines and tax cuts when it rains, neither will they question hating government too much to let it be run by competent people. It will simply be that ACORN, Fannie and Freddie stole the election for Obama; conservatives principles are still popular and strong in the country and all will have gone well if it wasn’t for Fannie and Freddie and ACORN.
It is a long con in that, there will be renewed calls for much stricter ID Laws that will negatively impact minority/poor voters who mainly vote Democratic. Yourself and other pundits have already falling for this really hard. When confronted with flagged “Mickey Mouse” voter registrations, you and others have responded that it is not fraud until someone votes. Therefore to prevent those who have fraudulently registered to vote as Johnny Walker we need stricter id laws. Si?
Further more ACORN will be turned toxic, just as Media Matters ( Seriously, MMFA always provides an in-context video/audio clip with a transcript for all cases they bring to light ) has been turned to a fascist hate group among the right, so much so that the average reporter/politician/pundit will not quote them. Just as Soros has been turned so toxic that he is very careful about what he funds, so careful that he is largely uninvolved. This is the plan for ACORN.
Digby has been eerily prescient about the voter fraud issue.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Eh…
I dont think you get it. The ACORN issue is not just about the “Not my president” issue, it about delegitimizing an Obama presidency
October 15th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I’m not endorsing the view as legitimate, Dave, and I’m not making concern-troll proclamations about renouncing ACORN or anything like that. I’m just saying it’s a narrative that we’ll have to combat through the 2012 election.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
The ACORN issue is not just about the “Not my president” issue, it about delegitimizing an Obama presidency
Who gives a shit what they think.
Is ACORN rigging the freaking polls right now?
October 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Mark f – I understand that..and didn’t mean for my post to come off snarky like that. I agree that it sucks, but just kind of seems par for the course in this day and age. I mean, a healthy chunk of Dems even thought Kerry was robbed in 04. Just seems like the natural call of the losing party these days…
Though Mo does make a good point about the more serious consequences related to Voter ID law.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Ed Marshall,
ACORN is not rigging the polls. Remember the last President that the right viewed as illegitimate ended up being impeached. Even worse the hatred was then fluidly transferred to his Vice President during his campaign (despite being quite popular) and it all ended with George Bush as President.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Lots of charges of Communism and Marxism were used by the right to try and de-legitimize FDR’s Presidency. It didn’t work, at least not among anyone significant up until the ultra-right crazies who got their launch with Reagan and ascended with Reagan II / Bush Jr.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I don’t think these tactics will really be effective after the electoral landslide we are going to witness in November.
October 15th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Yes, we know the wingnuts will try to delegitimize the Obama presidency and we know they will use Acorn to do it, but it is not a matter of simply ignoring them, the times are different that what they have been in almost a generation. If current trends prevail, rObama is poised to win over 50 % of the vote and the conservative estimate on Pollster.com is 320 electoral votes — the first time an Democrat has been in this position since 1976. As such, Obama’s victory will not hang on a few hundred votes in a single state, and even if there are some close results in say Indiana, Ohio, or Florida, these will not be seen as the single cause of Obama’s win, and that will make scapegoating Acorn less convincing. (Here it is worth remembering that Rove likes close elections because they create room for manipulation, and antagonism that lasts beyond the election.) Moreover, as I said previously in a previous thereat, the press will delight in having a clear winner and not entertain much wingnuttery because we are in a crisis and that having a new leader in a time of crisis will be a big enough story and the one they themselves believe Americans want to read about. So the Wingnots will drone on and on and avoid any real self-reflection, especially since the most intelligent conservatives are being excommunicated as we speak and won’t be listened to. Do I hear a repeat of Roosevelt/Truman five terms of Democratic coming on? Not sure, but if the wingnuts cooperate it might just happen.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
ACORN is not rigging the polls.
I know that. I’m talking about the national and state polls where John McCain is getting his ass beat by a historic margin and how Obama’s theoretical fraud squad (that doesn’t make any sense) is managing to pull that off.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Yeah, one advantage of running up the tally and not settling for a 50%+1 strategy is that the whining about 30 voters in one precinct in Ohio deciding the election and other crap about legitimacy are going to have a lot less traction.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
re: Uh, those ugly personal politics got George W. Bush elected in 2000
No they didn’t. The Clinton impeachment played very poorly with the public and almost cost the GOP Congress in 1998. Bush owed his elctability to the fact that he was a Washington outsider who had played no part in that farce, and had even uttered a few cryptic words which could be spun as criticizing it.
Re: It is a long con in that, there will be renewed calls for much stricter ID Laws that will negatively impact minority/poor voters who mainly vote Democratic.
I don’t really have a problem with voter ID laws in principle. Florida IDs voters already and whatever election woes Florida has voter ID isn’t one of them. Voter ID laws will either mean that RealID, or any law that makes it unduly difficult for people to get state IDs, will be tossed as a result, or else it will mean that states will just start putting voters’ pictures on their registration cards. Come on, it really isn’t hard to get an ID, and if a state tries to make it hard that state wll be slapped down as Georgia was recently! Moreover who is going to be in charge for the next several years and who is going to be appointing judges?
October 15th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
The “it won’t matter after a landslide” crowd seems to forget that a large number of Americans still think JFK, however they feel about him, take it as a matter of fact that he was installed by dead voters in Chicago. They believe regardless of the fact that Kennedy would have won even if Nixon had carried Illinois.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Yeah, but at least Nixon was within fraud distance of the popular vote.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
You know, I think Democrats can actually spin this whole ACORN nonsense to their advantage after the election in a few ways:
1. Ask for a nationwide voting registration system. Instead of a patchwork of state laws, and depending on independent groups to register voters, make consistent national laws.
2. Find better ways to quickly, easily and accurately register to vote. I don’t have a whole lot of actual tactics with this one, but people smarter than me (read: most) could probably figure something out.
3. Demand one type of ballot/voting machine for everyone. Again, instead of having it be a patchwork of ridiculous (and, in some cases, easily manipulatable) machines and processes, make it uniform. Doing so would lead to better accountability and less confusion.
4. Make election day a national, off-work holiday. I believe we’re about the only modern democracy that doesn’t do this. I would be anything that more people would vote if they had the day off.
I’d also like to see the Electoral College swept into the dustbin of history. It’s an 18th century method that is ineffective and unrepresentative in the 21st. The sooner it is gone, the sooner the will of the people will actually be done.
Just a few thoughts. Feel free to counter/criticize/shred as you all see fit.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Whoops. That should read:
This place really needs a preview feature …
October 15th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
There are many side to ACORN, and here’s one that’s new to me. Will BHO call his version of that scheme “urban reform”?
October 16th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Remember the last President that the right viewed as illegitimate ended up being impeached. Even worse the hatred was then fluidly transferred to his Vice President during his campaign (despite being quite popular) and it all ended with George Bush as President.
This comment was spot-on. The right wing is manufacturing discontent–they will not see any Democratic President as legitimate and will work to undermine any Democratic President and the rule of law.
It is important, I believe, for progressives to push back hard on this unAmerican activity.
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