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September IS. 2004
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views of The Portland Observer
O pinion
There is No Shame in Bush’s Game
Major
corporations
win and average
Americans lose
behind to sc ra m b le fo r jo b s ,
healthcare and quality education.
The Bush adm inistration has
repeatedly championed causes that
primarily benefit corporate America.
His immigration plan to permit ille
gal immigrants to work in America
was designed to provide corpora
by J udge G reg M athis
tions with a steady supply p f cheap
As we approach the end of labor. Last year, on the advice and
G eorge W. B ush's presidential proddingofcorporate leaders. Bush
term, a close look at his record will pushed a $383 billion corporate tax
reveal that major corporations have cut through Congress - reducing
been the primary beneficiaries of taxes on corporate dividends and
his policies. On the other hand, stock sales.
average Americans are being left
The Cato institute, a conserva
tive think tank that usually sup
ports Republican policies, com
plains that the Bush administration
has spent more than $90 billion a
year on grants, subsidies, and loan
guarantees and other forms of cor
porate w elfare. Perhaps the biggest
corporate btxin of all has come from
the invasion of Iraq. There, war
contractors and energy companies
have made tens of billons o f dollars
in profits in less than 18 months.
Halliburton, the energy com
pany where Vice President Cheney
served as chairman immediately
prior to taking office, has made the
most profits from the Iraq invasion.
Currently there is a bi II pending that
would provide $31 billion in tax
breaks and subsidies to energy
companies. There is obviously no
shame in their game.
When it comes to average Ameri
cans, 1 cannot think o f one major
Bush policy that has primarily ben
efited them. Indeed within the first
three years of the Bush adm inistra
tion our Federal budget went from
a $250 billion surplus to a half a
trillion-dollar deficit, nearly three
million people lost their jobs, and
the No Child Left Behind Act was
the list w ould have led to the
w rongful disenfranchisem ent o f
many black voters-w ho as a group
o v e rw h e lm in g ly v o te D e m o
lition. These machines are the way cratic-w hile allowing a significant
that more than half the Florida elec num ber o f H ispanics convicted
torate will have to vote this Novem o f a felony to vote.
ber.
Florida election officials blamed
An even more serious matter is a "methodological flaw” for the
the state’s process o f purging its glitch. Perhaps. But many critics
lists of convicted felons. Florida subscribed to the view implicitly
doesn’t allow those convicted of a expressed by “New York Times”
felony to vote without them peti
tioning to restore that right. In 2(XX).
th o u san d s o f F lo rid ian s w ere
turned away from the polls because
they had been misidentified as be
ing on the state's list o f convicted
felons; many of them were African
Americans, who as a group over
whelmingly vote Democratic.
This year, Florida officials hired
a private com pany to develop its
felons list, but refused to make
the d o c u m e n t, w h ich to taled
som e 47,000 nam es, available to
the m edia until aju d g e ordered its
release. Then, it d id n ’t take jo u r
nalists and others long to dis
cover several egregious errors.
O ne was that the nam es o f 2,100
Floridians who had been granted
clem ency, and thus w ere eligible
to vote, w ere on the banned-voter
list. A nother was that ju st 61 of
the entire list were Hispanic. Thus,
Voting Denied ‘Déjà Vu’
by M arc
H. M orial
W e h a v e n 't y et
reached the final lap of
the presidential cam
paign. But one can say
with a gloomy confi
dence that America is on
course to endure an
other scarring contro
versy over whether some
Americans are in danger o f being
wrongly denied their right to vote.
The stunning aftermath of the 2000
election proved that voting con
cerns cannot be taken lightly.
A Harvard study found some 1.9
million Americans' ballots were dis
carded as spoiled, and other re
ports suggested non-whites cast
half of those votes. Congress has
enacted legislation and established
a new federal agency, the Election
Assistance Commission, to fix the
flaws and ensure this year’s voting
goes smoothly.
But at this most critical tim e in
the n atio n ’s history, N ovem ber’s
elec tio n could, as the saying
goes, be déjà vu all over again.
C ertainly, the news about the vot
ing-process in the state of Florida,
w here four years ago the most
w idespread and eg re
g io u s v o tin g b r e a k
dow ns occurred, casts
serious doubt that its
system has been cured
o f th e p o te n tia l fo r
w holesale violations of
vo ters' rights.
R ecent d isc lo su res
No American
election fo r any
office, especially the
highest one in the
land, can afford the
suspicion o f electoral
skullduggery.
have called into question the tech
nological capability of the new
touch-screen machines installed in
Miami-DadeCounty. Election offi
cials there knew a year ago the
machines had malfunctioned, but
didn't publicly acknowledge the
problems until two months ago —
af ter they were forced to do so by
pressure from a citizens' group, the
M ¡ami-Dade Election Reform Coa
passed but not fully funded for
success.
Even when Americans citizens
have a chance to do something
about our healthcare crisis by im
porting cheaper drugs from other
countries, the Bush administration
has sided with the pharmaceutical
com panies, ordering the Justice
Department to sue any state that
tries to sell its citizens cheaper pre
sc rip tio n d ru g s p u rc h a se d in
Canada.
With these facts in hand, Ameri
cans must go to the pol Is in Novem
ber and side with the candidates
columnist Paul Krugman: “It es
caped nobody’s attention that in
Florida, Hispanic voters tend to
support Republicans.”
No American election for any
office, especially the highest one in
the land, can afford the suspicion
of electoral skullduggery. The U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights was
right last month to ask the Justice
Department to investigate whether
Florida’s process of purging its
Ju d g e Greg M athis
that have sided with us. Otherwise,
we deserve what we get.
Judge Greg Mathis is chairman
o f the Rainbow PUSH-Excel Board
and a national board member o f
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.
voter rolls violated provisions of
the Voting Rights Act.
Black America, and America,
struggled mightily to expand the
fundamental right o f citizenship-
access to the ballot. Everything
possible must be done to prevent
this November from being compared
to November 2(XX).
Marc H. Morial is president and
CEO o f The N ational Urban
League.
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