Page 2 The Skanner September 14, 2016
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Challenging People to Shape
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Opinion
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
What You Need to Know About Voting on November 8
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
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Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
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Reporter
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Photographer
2016
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SPECIAL EDITION
Next Week
Sept. 21, 2016
re you ready to vote?
Are you registered?
These may seem like
simplistic
questions,
especially for those who are
aware, but every year some
folks are denied access to the
polls, because they didn’t reg-
ister on time, or they moved
and their address does not
match the address the regis-
trar of voters has, or SOME-
THING. The Presidential elec-
tion is likely to be a nail-biter,
and there are local races that
are also close. Your best bet is
to make sure you know what
the requirements for voting
are in your state. Check out
www.vote.com; the site lists
the requirements for all 50
states. A few states allow vot-
er registration on the day of
an election, but most states
require you to register be-
tween 11 and 30 days before
the vote. Some states allow
online registration, most al-
low registration by mail (with
requirements about the date a
registration is postmarked),
and almost all allow in-per-
son registration.
The terms and conditions of
voting are still being negotiat-
ed in some states so it makes
sense to stay on top of voting
rules. A federal appeals court
recently kicked discrimina-
tory North Carolina voting
terms to the curb, saying
that that state discriminated
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
against African Americans
with “surgical precision.” Ef-
forts to reduce the number of
days available for early vot-
ing, or to eliminate Sunday
voting, disproportionately af-
fect African American voters.
North Carolina Republians
are deliberate and mindful in
“
and others. Disputes revolve
around things like absentee
ballots, purges of inactive
voters, and issues of whether
ballots will count if they are
cast in the wrong precincts.
In our “Democracy,” it seems
that we do more to discourage
voters than encourage them,
and while the voting process
could be seamless, plans to
prevent as many as 50,000
Kansas voters from going to
the polls, for example, make
no sense in a “participatory
democracy.”
Some folks don’t want it to
be participatory, though. Re-
Your best bet is to make sure you
know what the requirements for
voting are in your state
their attempt to sideline Af-
rican American voters, since
most African Americans
are Democrats. They want
to deliver their state to Don-
ald Trump and they want to
ensure that Senator Richard
Burr and Governor Pat Mc-
Crory, both Republicans, are
also re-elected.
North Carolina isn’t the only
state with electoral shenani-
gans. Texas, Kansas, Georgia
and Alabama have also imple-
mented restrictive measures
that are being appealed by civ-
il rights groups, the League of
Women Voters, the NAACP
publicans now control most
state legislatures, and have
been passing voter suppres-
sion laws since 2010, when
they began to take control of
state houses. Civic participa-
tion organizations, like the
Lawyers Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law, the Nation-
al Coalition for Black Civic
Participation, and others, are
ighting back, preparing to
have people available to help
voters, especially in battle-
ground states, and with hot
lines (1-866-OUR-VOTE) and
other forms of voter assis-
tance. In an election that is
likely to be close, it is import-
ant that every voice be heard.
I’m still not clear why poll-
ing suggests that this vote is
so close. Secretary Hillary
Clinton, for all her imper-
fections, is a stunningly su-
perior candidate to Donald
Trump, who just recently
praised Russia’s Vladimir Pu-
tin as a “better leader” than
President Obama. Now, that’s
just downright unpatriotic,
not to mention short-sided,
and tone-deaf.
Donald Trump goes to one
Black church and gets all kind
of mainstream media cover-
age. Hillary Clinton visits nu-
merous Black churches, and
the mainstream media is ab-
sent. Donald Trump blusters
his way through an interview
with Matt Lauer on national
security, and is hardly chal-
lenged and, certainly, never
interrupted.
We have stark choices in
this election, but some of us
won’t be making choices be-
cause we won’t be prepared to
vote on November 8.
Now is the time to make
sure you are prepared. Are
you registered? Where will
you vote? Will you be out of
town or unable to get to the
polls on November 8? Can
you do early voting or vote
via an absentee ballot? These
aren’t questions to ask on No-
vember 5.
The Moral Origins of Trump’s Improbable Rise to Power
A
s if to compound the in-
sult to American pow-
er represented by the
world’s vociferous re-
jection of the Bush doctrine,
the U.S. found itself in 2008
facing the biggest econom-
ic disaster since the great
recession. The collapse was
so stark, so sudden, and so
unavoidable that several of
America’s largest and most
venerable inancial institu-
tions collapsed overnight.
The recession in America
led to a global recession, as
liquidity dried up, debts got
called in, and entire nations
went bankrupt.
This blow to Americans’
conidence would provide
fertile ground for doubt, re-
sentment and rebellion. It
quickly became apparent that
the economic status quo that
existed before the Iraq War
and the Great Recession was
giving way to a ‘new normal.’
The country limped along
in this new normal; Ameri-
can businesses experienced
very slow economic growth
amidst massive economic dis-
location. The Federal Reserve
used every trick at its dispos-
al to ward of total catastro-
phe. It was successful in its
aim, although the resulting
‘Franken-economy’ it created
began to resemble a monster
that moved and walked, but
Armstrong
Williams
NNPA
Columnist
was somehow strangely also
dead.
To wit: even though em-
ployment ‘recovered,’ labor
force participation dropped
to a thirty year low. People
“
and political establishment
that irst found expression in
the Tea Party (on the political
right) and the Occupy Wall
Street movement (on the po-
litical let). Both movements
were essentially defeated –
the former was co-opted by
the Republican Party, and the
latter was crushed by the po-
lice (at the bidding of ‘liberal’
elected oicials).
The pressing unanswered
question of why Wall Street
got bailed out while Main
Administration from putting
its’ own proposals forward.
Over the past six years, the
Congress has done practically
nothing in the way of helping
the American people out of
the mess they are in. The lack
of commitment to a national
project for reconstruction
seemed strange in a country
that had just demanded such
brave sacriice from its war-
riors.
The political impasse sty-
mied American progress, and
extended
the econom-
ic recession
beyond its
reasonable
shelf
life.
Amidst the doldrums of eco-
nomic and political stagna-
tion, Donald Trump’s bold
rhetoric, a stark departure
from the normal fare, seemed
to be a strong wind. It didn’t
really matter whether that
wind was blowing America
forwards or backwards — to-
wards a safe harbor or fur-
ther out to sea. At least, for the
irst time in six years, there
seemed to be some movement.
When one is stuck in the same
place for what seems like an
eternity, even going back-
wards can seem like making
progress.
The pressing unanswered question of why
Wall Street got bailed out while Main Street
loundered was never successfully answered
came back to jobs that paid
less, ofered fewer beneits
and demanded more of their
labor. American workers
were hailed by economists for
their increasing productivity,
although, to most workers,
it just seemed like a pay cut.
Never had industrial perfor-
mance and the state of the
labor market seemed less con-
gruent; and this strained an
unspoken assumption about
the trickle-down beneits of
capitalism.
The twin monsters of insult-
ed national pride and injured
economic prospects began to
foment a visceral, growing
resentment to the economic
Street loundered was never
successfully answered either
by a Republican Congress or
a Democratic White House.
The midterm elections of
2010 promised to bring about
major changes as a Tea Party
insurgency came to power in
Congress. However, the insur-
gency did not prove strong
enough to enact its agenda –
slashing government debt and
spending on entitlements,
and reducing regulatory bur-
dens on small businesses. Not
able to advance its’ own agen-
da, The Republican Congress
settled for a role as a spoiler
caucus, mainly concerned
with preventing the Obama
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