Voter turnout is important because smaller number of voters heightens the likelihood of GOP victories. Had more people come out to vote, for example, Eric Cantor might not be where he is today--nipping at Mitch McConnell's heals and his job.
Our challenge is to speak to the needs of African Americans, including the problem of the proliferation among states of the voter i.d. requirement that so cripples underclasses from participating in the electoral process. This "epidemic" rests on the untenable premise that voter fraud is a problem, which it isn't; it is rather an overblown myth to justify a discriminatory practice.
More time should be allotted to voter registration, she said, and larger time periods for the early voting option.
Society needs a reason to go to the polls; the successful candidate will be the one who speaks credibly of the need for job creation, and the one who understands constituent needs. The trend in 2012 and beyond is the rapidly changing demographic in this country, with the number of Hispanics increasing most rapidly.
Communities of color must become increasingly engaged in politics and civic life, a development that will eventually stymie GOP efforts to stifle their needs and aspirations.
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Moderator Daniella Leger began the panel discussion by noting the unprecedented voter turnout in 2008, compared with the reduced turnout in 2010 (also found to be the most corrupted one so far, in a long line of similar fiascos that can be blamed for so much of what went wrong as the millennium gifted this country with its second member of the Bush family--ed.)
The discussion ranged over the impossibility of duplicating the voter turnout of 2008 and the "aspirational" politics that drew voters to the polls then, the theme of "voting with the heart." Since then, results have "wearied" so many voters, who will have to be coaxed to get their votes out in 2012.
It is up to the Democrats, said Jamal Simmons, to persuade African Americans to vote.
The fundamental issue is trust, he said, despite the exigency of other issues.
Said Kim Williams, the GOP aren't really targeting the black vote as much as the "moderate white swing voters." Their tendency is rather to minimze the number of people of color, especially African Americans, from voting (because the overwhelming majority of them vote Democratic--ed.).
Offering advice to the GOP, Jonathan Capehart said that they should appeal to affluent African Americans and the growing number of swing voters among the Hispanic population, though in the latter case, Republican policies toward immigration are alienating them. In 2008, 67 percent of the Latino population voted Democratic.
In answer to Leger's question whether a specific agenda for the African Americans would help, Capehart said it would have the opposite effect, and Simmons said that a presidential agenda addressing the pressing needs of the majority would benefit [nearly] all Americans; Williams said that a specifically African American agenda might militate against an agenda for all Americans.
The subject turned to the strictly defined issues of the LGBT community, including Don't Ask, Don't Tell, prohibition against gay marriage, and so on, versus the absence of laws directly targeting African Americans, who comprise a large percentage of state and local-level governments.
In general, said Simmons, Obama has done lots for the LGBTs that has not received publicity; he has problems communicating his narrative and achieving clarity on what he will do in the future to address the massive problems; LGBT issues certainly do not interest the GOP, he said. But minorities must work together; it is certain that the huge majority of blacks will vote for Obama, even though he has fallen short of a promised agenda that will take far more than one or two terms to carry out, a theme Simmons repeated later in the conversation.
Obama's biggest card is the lack of a "thoroughbred" among the Republican candidates that have emerged so far, he added.
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