Pic Of The Moment: Supreme Court's Conservative Justices Strike Down Part Of Voting Rights Act

[EarlG]

Supreme Court Strikes Down Key Part of Voting Rights Act

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[onehandle]

1. Ralph Nader's SCOTUS.

She should bake him a cake too.

[BlueDemKev]

4. Yep.

If Al Gore had been elected president in 2000 and re-elected in 2004, the Supreme Court would now have a 6-3 liberal majority.

Thanks again, Ralph. Take a good look at the cost of what you did.

[DainBramaged]

5. +infinity

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

6. Al Gore was elected, the supreme court stopped the vote count which proved it. nt

[onehandle]

8. If Nader hadn't relentlessly run in Florida, or dropped out, or hadn't run.

There would not have been a need for a recount.

The Recession, the Iraq War, this SCOTUS...

Ralph Nader's Legacy.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

12. Play that old song if you feel better, but the election was stolen, plain and simple

and all the reThuglican operatives who were flown in to stop the vote count did everything the Chicago crew went to trial for. The press just said "get over it". That's when democracy died.

[Politicalboi]

18. 100%

I don't get the Ralph Nader blame game either. It was between the butterfly ballot, Jeb and Supreme Court that stole it for Bush.

[BlueDemKev]

35. And if Nader hadn't siphoned off 97,000 votes from Gore in Florida...

...the Supreme Court wouldn't have had an opportunity to hand the election to Bush. Stop trying to deny it. Ralph Nader's stubbornness, selfishness, and spitefulness cost Gore the election and our country went to hell in a handbasket over the next decade.

[Ken Burch]

57. You're ASSUMING those people would have voted for Gore if Ralph had pulled out in Florida.

The truth is, almost all of them would just have stayed home. They felt that this party had abandoned them and there was never any real chance that Gore would have won them over. He just didn't have appeal among people who cared about progressive values. All liberals who DID vote for Gore voted for him with clenched teeth and no enthusiasm. Nobody but the DLC was actually HAPPY that Gore was our nominee that year.

The truth is, the real cause of the Florida defeat was Jeb Bush's voter roll purge of 70,000 black voters. Why on earth do so many people here keep acting like what Jeb did doesn't matter?

Also, you can't assume that the vacancies Dubya got to fill WOULD have occurred if Gore had been sworn in. At least some of them
would have tried to tough it out until another 'pug got into the White House.

Ralph shouldn't have run in 2000, but it serves no purpose to keep bashing him and his supporters about it. And if we hadn't let the damn DLC take over in 1992(clearly, a fighting Real Democrat like Tom Harkin would have beaten Bush the First too-the Icountry wasn't demanding that we repent for ever being nice to poor people and labor) we wouldn't have ended up with Gore.

At some point, you're going to have to accept that 2000 was the fault of the RIGHT wing of the Democratic Party...the people who should just become Republicans and be done with it, because they don't agree with Democratic values on anything that matters.

[BlueDemKev]

58. Yes, many Nader voters would have stayed home, BUT...

...not all 97,000+ would have. Bush only had 537 more votes than Gore in Florida. There's no question Al Gore would have received at least 15,000 to 20,000 of those votes and even if he'd only gotten 2,000 of them, he'd have become the president and the Bush-Cheney nightmare would have been averted.

Of course what Jeb did mattered...of course what the SCOTUS did mattered. But Nader's candidacy gave Jeb and the SCOTUS the OPPORTUNITY to do what they did.

Yes, I agree the 2000 election is behind us, and I know that Gore should have run a far better campaign than he did. My point is this: we must LEARN from that awful mistake and make sure that it never, ever happens again--that is, beating ourselves by splitting the liberal vote and allowing a conservative to slip in the back door. Only by voting together can we stop the tea-baggers from gaining power and destroying our country.

So, let's stop fighting and work together.

[Ken Burch]

59. The way to avoid the vote-splitting is for OUR party to stop treating progressives as the enemy.

Nader pulled the vote he did because Clinton and Co. had spent about a decade(starting with the pre-primary takeover of the party by the anti-liberal DLC) forcing the party's message to be "fuck the left"-even though none of the party's problems were ever the left wing's fault.

You want to keep the left together, you need to make sure nobody in this party tells the left to go to hell.
And the stupid thing is, none of the bad right-wing things Clinton did(even signing Rush Limbaugh's wet dream of a welfare deform bill)ever GAINED the party any votes. Clinton took 43% as a union-hating death penalty freak in 1992-ANY Dem, including Zombie Adlai Stevenson, would have matched that, for God's sakes.

You can't just demand that liberals and leftists vote for the Dem ticket NO MATTER WHAT...you can't demand that they show loyalty when none is shown to what they stand for. The loyalty must always be two-way. And the respect must be two-way. The party needs to admit that the left wing NEVER deserved the treatment they got in the Nineties.

Is that really asking too much?

Also...nobody KNEW before election day 2000 that the result would come down to Florida. That was impossible to predict. Plus, it wasn't Nader's fault that Gore lost his OWN state(something every nominee should be able to count on NOT doing). Nader wasn't even on the ballot in Tennessee.

The anger that drove Nader's candidacy could have been handled differently, but that doesn't matter now. What matters is unity
in the present and the future.

[valerief]

14. Gore WAS elected, proving elections in the US don't matter. nt

[MindPilot]

29. ^^^^^THIS^^^^^^

[SunSeeker]

47. Elections matter. That is why you should not throw away your vote on Nader.

Or fail to vote at all. Because when that happens, and elections are close as the Bush-Gore election was, it allows the Republicans to pull the sort of shenanigans that they did and still do whenever they get the chance. Don't give them that chance. Vote Democratic.

[noiretextatique]

13. GOP judicial coup

continues to be dismissed by democrats against democracy. no wonder we can't get shit done: we still can't face reality.

[rhett o rick]

15. Ahh the Ralph Nader syndrome. The desperate need to blame all problems on one person.

It makes life soo much easier. It's very common with conservatives. Certainly lacks open-mindedness.

I bet you think that all this messy spying shit is the fault of Snowden.

[noiretextatique]

17. this delusion should be in the DSM VI

ralph nader symdrome: the inability to see the big fat elephant in the room because of an intense focus on the fly on the elephant's ass.

[rhett o rick]

28. Thanks, you said it so much better. nm

[BlueDemKev]

36. Liberals would have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court right now...

Had Gore been elected instead of Bush and marriage equality would have become the law of the land this week.

[rhett o rick]

40. Ahhh, the "what if" syndrome. But who am I to judge. I hope your rationalization

makes you happy, but I doubt it does.

[BlueDemKev]

43. Not "What IF", but "What WOULD" have been.

Gore would have appointed Supreme Court justices cut from the same cloth at Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and David Souter. You're living in denial to help suppress the guilt you have for indirectly voting for Bush with your Nader vote in 2000.

[rhett o rick]

45. What if? What if? nm

[BlueDemKev]

50. Keep suppressing your guilt.

When gay marriage loses later this week, you just keep pretending that Al Gore would have appointed Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court.

[rhett o rick]

60. And you keep wallowing in your self designated righteousness. nm

[Hissyspit]

2. That was fast!

[JCMach1]

3. We are back to 1964

The Supreme Court hasn't punted, they just killed (pulled all the teeth) from the Voting Rights Act...

[DainBramaged]

10. The GOP wants to remain the party of White, so let them congregate in the South once again

as the world slowly passes them by. Folks affected by this will one day realize that the people they have been voiting for have never held them in respect or done anything in their best interests.

[JustAnotherGen]

20. The real threat in 2012 Dain

Was in PA. Remember the voter ID fiasco? How quickly they shoved it through and so close to the election. And its large impact on MOSTLY minority Philadelphia?


I'm not worried about Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, etc. etc. We had a better chance of meeting God sometime in the next five minutes than we do of seeing those go blue in 2016 or 2020.


But PA - the 'battle ground' and 'swing' state - this going to hurt.

[DainBramaged]

21. And Virginia and wherever there is a Republican controlled majority.

I can see them telling folks of color that online voting takes precedence over manual voting and manual voting hours are on the Monday before the actual election day between 3 and 4 PM, doors close promptly at 4.


The GOP got the gift that will keep on giving, for a while. It will get fixed. And because of this I expect record midterm turnout next year.

[JustAnotherGen]

23. I don't

I think this is a brand new fight. And I also think places like VA and PA can get those laws in place fast enough for the 2014 and certainly the 2016 elections.

The 2014 House is going to be the same - so no legislation will get passed.

This is a big deal. Between this and the ruling yesterday that I can no longer sue and have my day in court except for in very narrow situations - the game is on.

At least we know how those people play the game.

[DainBramaged]

27. This ruling makes this court the least friendly to the average citizen in my memory

There have been too many destructive decisions since Alito and Roberts were seated. And I am afraid Thomas will stay till he dies. Or a Republican president is elected.

[BlueDemKev]

39. More like the South POLE!

Please, I live in the south. I'd like for them to move to Antarctica and form their own new nation with no government, no laws, no regulations, no public services, where it can be "every man for himself."

Then they'll finally be "free" to live like the wild animals they are.

[TRoN33]

7. I keep wondering...

Is this all because of we voted for President Obama? Its officially, the Republicans are flushing this country down the toilet with their own craps around it.

[BlueDemKev]

41. No, they'd have ruled this way even if Romney had been elected.

The five righties on the court have been dying to gut civil rights laws for half-a-century. They can't do it legislatively (since it would be political suicide) so they're doing it through the Supreme Court.

[budkin]

9. Murica FTW

[TalkingDog]

11. ooooo.... Make it a Butter Cake!

n/t

[rhett o rick]

16. But just a small piece for Thomas. Just sayin. nm

[Politicalboi]

19. He'll supply the Diet Cokes

[rhett o rick]

25. Eeeew. nm

[warrant46]

22. Old Long Dong Silver

[PatrynXX]

24. gotta be the least funny joke from DU ever

why punish those who ask for forgiveness .... oh thats right we want to encourage people to lie.

[SunSeeker]

38. I think her saying she was sorry for using the N word was the lie.

She was just sorry everyone heard about it and she lost her sponsors.

[RedCloud]

26. Both Bush and Obama hire arch conservatives for their cabinets.

Think about that. We have a centrist for President who uses the Left for election purposes and fails to make any concession in his cabinet to the Left.

Did W put Ralph in his cabinet? Or Obama?

You are confusing reality here. As was stated in GB by the BBC, the election had fraud in numerous states. Over 2,000,000 people were cheated out of their votes.

Bush (Jeb) scrubbed the voter rolls in FL before the election began. The Repugs loaded up on super dooper second chance voting machines in GOP strongholds only!

Even had Gore won and not bored us to tears, I do think Mr. O would have appointed more conservative justices to fit his centrist ideas.

[SunSeeker]

33. WTF?! Both of "Mr. O's" SCOTUS appointees, Kagan and Sotomayor, were in the dissent.

You sure went out of your way to find a reason to criticize Obama in a post that has nothing to do with him. It's almost like you have an agenda or something...

[rhett o rick]

44. But the economic leaders and intelligence leaders are the same as Bush. Why? You appear to have an

agenda.

[SunSeeker]

46. The poster said "Mr. O" would appoint "conservative" justices.

He did not and would not. I notice you do not even attempt to defend the poster's statement, as it is simply wrong. Instead, you deflect. And deflect with a statement just as wrong. Obama is not the same as Bush. The Obama administration is not the same as the Bush administration. Don't know why anyone who agreed to comply with the TOS on DU would say such a thing.

[rhett o rick]

61. The poster is no more wrong at predicting what might have happened than you are.

Ralph Nader isnt responsible for what has happened. There are a hundred ways things could have turned out different. You want an easy peasy way out. Find one guy to blame. The Nacy Grace school of revenge over justice. Get over it.

[SunSeeker]

64. To suggest that Obama would appoint conservative justices is just wrong.

And we have a track record of two Supreme Court appointments to prove that.

[rhett o rick]

65. What about Clapper and Mueller? They worked for Bush. The same thing is happening in economics.

He is using the same people that Bush used. That's not change.

[SunSeeker]

66. Two people do not an administration make; Obama is not "using the same people that Bush used."

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and Karl Rove are not in the Obama administration. Bush would have NEVER appointed Kagan or Sotomayor...and certainly neither of these progressives worked for the Bush administration. Obama has not and never will appoint conservatives to the Supreme Court. Obama ended the Iraq War, pushed through the ACA, and saved the auto industry. He is now pushing through climate change solutions via executive orders. That is change.

To suggest that a few moderate Republican holdovers in cabinet or Department positions that can easily be switched out is comparable to a life appointment to the powerful Supreme Court is simply wrong. As is the claim that Obama would appoint conservative justices.

[rhett o rick]

68. Clapper and Mueller are not moderate. They ran the spy agencies for Bush. Dont you get that?

The spy agencies are the same. The same people, the same programs. Hello.

The same for the economic leaders. The same fucking people.

[rhett o rick]

72. Do you want me to list all of the conservatives Pres Obama has appointed? It's a long fucking list.

[SunSeeker]

73. How many conservatives has Obama appointed to the Supreme Court? nt

[Brainstormy]

30. Tasteless and nonsensical graphic

What does Paula Deen have to do with voting rights or the Supreme Court? Pure sleaze.

[SunSeeker]

32. She told a NYTimes reporter last fall that Southerners are the least prejudiced.

I guess the conservative majority believed her.

[90-percent]

31. This is a ghastly and monsterous psychopathic thought

Last edited Tue Jun 25, 2013, 07:32 PM - Edit history (2)

But it seems like the anti-democracy and anti-constitutional judges are begging their country to apply some SECOND AMENDMENT REMEDIES to wrest our Democracy back from the plutocrats.

The current parting out of our entire Democracy reminds me of the chorus of this Courtney Love song:

Go on take everything
Take everything
I want you to
Go on take everything
Take everything
I want you to

Just truck all the remnants of our demolished Democracy over to New Jersey and ship the scrap to China so they can use it to make stuff to sell back to us.


-90% Jimmy

[DissidentVoice]

52. It reminds me more of this...

Ironic that it is from a Canadian band whose lyricist (Neil Peart) was at one time an ardent Ayn Rand follower.

[Jamaal510]

34. Buckle your seat belts, ladies and gents.

We are about to start the time machine back to the 1950s. VROOM!

[AverageJoe90]

37. This was a major effing slap in the face to everything that the Civil Rights people fought for......

.....and I think that they all know it, too......Sammy the Bull and Fat Tony at the very least.....if not CONnedy, ROBerts, and yeah, ThomASS, too.

Yep. Crazy CONservatives ROBbing us of our rights 'cuz they're a bunch of ASSholes.

[BlueDemKev]

42. You forgot the Italian Mafia Bro's!

Scalia and Alito.

[tanyev]

48. C'mon, Paula would never say it that way.

"I'm gonna bake ya'll a cake!" is much more believable.

[alp227]

49. Something a little more political, created using ImgFlip.com

[wordpix]

53. next up: corporations should be allowed voting rights

[Cleita]

51. Maybe we should bake them some cream pies instead and

throw them at them when they emerge from chambers.

[DissidentVoice]

54. The fruits of the Nixon/Reagan "Southern Strategy"

It took them a while, but they succeeded in promoting a neoconfederate ideology as the dominant political philosophy in this country.

I'm not a Southern-hater. My maternal grandparents were from Kentucky and Tennessee.

But the political philosophies of the South are now dominant not only there, but from Oklahoma north to the Canadian border, the Pacific Northwest (except for Washington and arguably Oregon), Indiana (though really Indiana is virtually Southern in its politics anyway; I speak from experience because I was born there and lived there until 2007) and into parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Really, what do true LIBERALS hold in the political deck anymore?

The damned DLC has rebranded Democrats as "Republican-Lite."

Unless Bernie Sanders and/or Elizabeth Warren are on the Democratic ticket next time, I'm not sure what to do with my vote. I want to vote for DEMOCRATS, not "Blue Dogs."

[Ken Burch]

55. If she does anything with Scalia, that'll require "a MESS a' butteh!". n/t.

[The Wizard]

56. Courting civil turmoil

[MADem]

62. Well ain't that just a spot-on Pic of the Moment!!! nt

[DonCoquixote]

63. For everybody that said

That there was not much difference between Bush and Gore, I offer this toast:

ENJOY YOUR HANDIWORK! If democracy is cast aside, people like you are to thank, and if there is a Hell, I hope the devil prepares a Champagne toast for all of you at the banquet that will be held in Ralph Nader's honor!

[davidpdx]

67. Expect the southern legislators and governors to start pushing laws

making it hard to vote, limiting voting hours, and purging the rolls of minorities.

[marble falls]

69. Re: Paula Deen. Not caring at all for her shows or recipes, its Paula Deen for Pete's sakes.....

we need to be more concerned about the racism in the wars we fight, the ways we fight those wars, the way key parts of the voting rights act were reversed ..... its almost like a lot of people went, "Look! Squirrel!" fixed onto the squirrel that is Paula Deen.

[NYC_SKP]

70. Brilliant. (nt)

[Peaceful Protester]

71. The American System

Our Founding Fathers, who were inspired by the age of enlightenment, laid down a fundamental framework designed to advance the human race. They created a basic outline of democratic governance highlighting fundamental human rights and liberties.

The problem is this:

Our Founding Fathers handed us a timeless framework of governance, but the system, that, was designed specifically for their time, not ours. The American system was originally designed around the priorities of wealthy, landowning -- and often slave-owning -- white men.

Although the framework was designed to eventually accommodate others, the system itself was not; that task was left to us. Over the past 237 years, the system has changed very little. Our goal must be to create a system that is authentic in living up to the timeless framework of governance we have inherited.
[br]

[cash__whatiwant]

74. Lollll

[Oakenshield]

75. Such a damn mess.

Between Bush and his additions to the Supreme Court, it'll be decades if we're LUCKY before this mess gets cleaned up. Given how soft our supposedly liberal politicians are, I'd say a century is more likely. We really need to clean house. We need more representatives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. No more centrist democrats. There's no point trying to compromise with the right wing when they won't extend the same courtesy.

[avaistheone1]

76. You are getting too good at this Earl.