Raise your hand if you're sick of hearing about ACORN. Believe me when I say my digital hand has been fervently raised.
As America enters the final weeks before the presidential election, Republicans have intensified accusations against ACORN, a community organization working to register thousands of new voters across the country. Democracy Now! hosted a debate last week between ACORN's chief organizer, Bertha Lewis and a Republican lawyer. While it was definitely worth listening to, both sides spouted accusations and rebuttals I've heard endlessly before.
It seems like there’s a stalwart on the ACORN discussion, with ACORN insisting that they are the ones who flag questionable registration forms and Republicans insisting that their actions have become a “potential nightmare.” I think the media has done a pretty good job covering the ACORN issue; though I haven’t been completely vigilant in my consuming of mainstream media (since I was in New York for fall break), the coverage I have seen has been decidedly decent. The coverage, for the most part, has elucidated the connection (or lack thereof) between ACORN and Obama, one of the most important components, journalistically as it deals with truth.
Michael Winship has an article on CommonDreams this week explaining what ACORN does, Republican accusations of ACORN, the truth behind Obama’s non-connection with the organization and the real problem behind this story: the attempt to disenfranchise thousands of Americans.
Winship writes, “As my colleague Bill Moyers reported, ‘Hundreds of thousands of legal voters may have been dumped in recent years, many without ever being notified.
The report describes a ‘process that is shrouded in secrecy, prone to error, and vulnerable to manipulation.’
Hardly reassuring words if you want democracy to work, and sadly, not an urban legend, but the simple truth.”
Yikes.
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