Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Hoisted by My Own Petard!
I decided to that I would ask people in my office if they were registered to vote, and if they were not registered to vote, that I would register them.
I did that today. My 31-year-old client had never been registered to vote. She felt embarrassed by that. I told her that it was okay, and that we could do that right then, and that she wouldn’t be charged for my time in doing that. I went to the very easy “ServiceArizona” website. I gleefully typed in her name, address, telephone number, driver’s license, and last four digits of her social security number. Then came the question about her party affiliation.
“What party do you want to belong to?
“I really don’t know much about politics. What party does Trump belong to?
“The Republican Party.”
“Okay, I’m a Republican.”
I dutifully did my job. I registered her to vote as a Republican. She is set up to vote by mail in all elections in the future. She is excited to finally be able to vote! She feels like a full adult, ready to take on the challenges of adulthood. She is looking forward to voting for Trump.
Sometimes I hate my life.
Published in General
Here is a vaguely similar “redish vote” story from Greenwood, Mississippi, Summer of 1964.
One of those northern white college kids, I was going door-to-door canvassing for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and urging folks to come to the next Freedom Day, when a whole bunch of people would go together to the courthouse to redish vote.
(The grand strategy for the summer, looking to the DNC Convention in Atlantic City, was to parallel the regular Missippi Democratic Party. When they held County Conventions, we would do the same on the same day; when County delegates went to the State Convention in Jackson, we would hold our Convention on the same day–in Jackson. SNCC and COFO lawyers were gathering affidavits every step of the way, and that record eventually became the basis for the delegate challenge in Atlantic City, AND, a year later, became a significant part of the legislative history of the Voting Right Act of 1965.)
Small town Mississippi, like New Orleans but unlike almost anywhere in the North, was “checkerboard:” black and white neighborhoods intersecting almost block-by-block.
So it was inevitable that I knocked on one door and a little old white lady showed up. I gulped a bit, yes, but steeled myself to this: “WE don’t discriminate; WE are the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.” So I gave her the same spiel I had given dozens of times to her black neighbors, and asked her to sign the SAME petition on opening up voting registration protocols and such.
But like @garyrobbins, sometimes things don’t follow the hoped-for script. 15 minutes later, I was arrested for disturbing the peace, with the little old lady pointing me out as the culprit. One of the cops grabbed my SNCC pin off my shirt and stabbed me in the leg with it, and I suffered a cracked rib when pushed into the squad car with the butt end of a nightstick. I was bailed out a few hours later after a terrifying time in a holding cell with some local drunks, and eventually my case was one of several hundred that became a Supreme Court case on the right to “remove” regular old state court criminal cases to federal court (we lost(!), and so my bail was forfeited in exchange for dropped or suspended charges, several years later in a “mass plea bargain.”
P.S. Actually SEEING the legal strategy being worked out and played out–because Greenwood was the temporary national center of everything–is what changed my college major from math to government, and sent me on my way to law school.
That would be the point — Unless you take the attitude of the folks at The Lincoln Project or George Will that Joe Biden and/or his VP needs to have total control over Congress in 2021-22 in order to work his magic, having another down-ballot GOP voter in Arizona is a positive.
(Kevin Williamson is not totally unsympathetic to those people in his Tuesday National Review column, but in the end comes down on the side of Peggy Noonan in her steel cage death match struggle with Mona Charen and Charlie Sykes over the ‘Burn it down” mentality, saying,
Those who think it can’t also seem to think they can waltz in after Biden wins and tell all of Trump’s voters there’s a new sheriff in town, and here’s how the Republican Party’s going to be run from now on. That’s a mentality that would have recoiled from registering a first-time GOP voter — the moment they said they were going to vote for Trump, they would have gone from being a sweet lady to being a moronic cretin not worthy of assistance.)
Wow. I would love to read a whole post about this, or an article, or even a book. Thank you for your courage.
This is a huge and fascinating fight.
The Editor of The Bulwark is Charlie Sykes is part of burn it all done, and he had a good podcast with Tom Nichols today about that. Charlie is alighted with The Lincoln Project (TLP).
The Publisher of The Bulwark is Sarah Longwell, who started Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) which only wants to defeat Trump, but not all down-ballot Republicans.
While I enjoy the Anti-Trump ads by TLP, I have shifted my donations to RVAT.
I or we should offer her a free subscription to Ricochet, but I’m sure that that would backfire in the other direction…
…
I hope things are good in Arizona. What’s the temperature in Arizona in August?
94 degrees at 3am?
I think we just had the coolest August day that I can ever remember. 58 degrees. Apparently the record is 52 degrees. It has been raining in August? About an inch a week. That doesn’t usually happen.
Not really. I have more respect for Williamson because he’s not trying to rally people in a grift. He just says “I’m not voting for him.”
The others are hoighty toighty types upset with the uncouth getting into their country club and not being in demand for speaking gigs. And sycophants like Sykes who probably needs alimony to pay.
Not liking Trump is one thing, working against making Republicanism more big tent is another. I think populism and nationalism even if I disagree are important voices in the discussion.
Why is it that Gary only likes republicans who vote like democrats?
C’mon Gary!
For that alone you should be proud.
How did you register someone online in Arizona? What site did you use?
“Service Arizona.” It is run by the Motor Vehicle Division. To get a driver’s license in Arizona, they require lots of documentation. If memory serves, a birth certificate is needed!
Sweet and funny story, Gary. Well done.
Remember: Neither her vote nor yours will matter.