Jesse covered some of the ACORN ground, but I had to post on this nonsense. John McCain said this in the last presidential debate:
We need to know the full extent of Sen. Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.
Wow. That’s a bold statement. Bold, absurd—and a lie. All the hubbub about Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the nation’s largest grassroots community organization—one that has 1.3 million low-income, minority and young voters across the country register to vote has been a rallying cry by conservatives as proof that Democrats are trying to steal the election.
This nonsensical charge by the Right is really a smokescreen to divert attention from shenanigans that really matter—voter suppression—something Republicans know all about, given what happened in Ohio in 2004 and is going on there now, even as we speak.
You can find out The Truth About ACORN here. If you want to see and hear the full manifestation of the evil and hate unleashed by McCain/Palin over ACORN, head over to Right Wing Watch, which has emails and voicemails that are explicit - and RWW had to edit out personal identifying information. Clearly these people didn’t seek anonymity. Here’s one transcript of a voicemail:
“Hi, I was just calling to let you all know that Barack Obama needs to get hung. He’s a fucking nigger, and he’s a piece of shit. You guys are fraudulent, and you need to go to hell. All the niggers on oak trees. They’re gonna get all hung honeys, they’re gonna get assassinated, they’re gonna get killed.”
Wow. How long have I been talking about the the evil that we would see in this election cycle on this blog? This is one of those times when I hate being right, because it does shake one’s faith in humanity.
Did a small fraction of staffers submit fraudulent registration forms? Yes. Does that constitute a conspiracy of some kind? No. Submitting “Mickey Mouse” or dead people on registration forms does not create new voters who will show up at the polls. What part of that does wingnuttia not understand? Oh, never mind. The whole point is to conflate bogus registration forms with voter fraud.
Unfortunately, it seems that the motivating factor behind these attacks is fear of an expanded electorate that more accurately reflects the citizenry of the United States. We find it disappointing that rather than seeking the support of these new voters and listening to their demands for jobs, affordable housing, health care, living wages, and better schools, conservatives and partisan operatives would rather create an atmosphere of fear, intimidation, and chaos. In so doing they feel they can suppress the vote in the current election and pave the way for new initiatives to shrink and narrow the electorate for future ones.
Of course if you confuse and repeat often enough using Rovian tactics, the hope is to sway voters. Quite frankly, with the economy in the sh*tter, I don’t think anyone who is on the fence are going to give a flip about ACORN, particularly when the hyperbole launched by McCain is outlandish—and the fact that he supported the work of ACORN in the past. More below the fold.