What No One Is Talking About

Voter turnout in the 2012 Minnesota primary election was the lowest in over 60 years.

Only 8% of the state voted.  People are either happy with the status quo, are resigned to the status quo, or...seriously...they did not get a reminder postcard from their local board of elections, or a booklet of some kind about the candidates.  Not only that, but candidates were not campaigning as hard this year as they had in previous years. 

Bersih Minneapolis

On Saturday April 28, Malaysians living in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, and elsewhere gathered at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden for a peaceful demonstration to support the Bersih 3.0 movement.  In spite of the cold, rainy day, over 60 people showed up to support free, clean elections in Malaysia.

Why is this significant?  In most American papers, Malaysian affairs do not get top billing.  Perhaps they should.  For quite some time, Malaysia has been the Southeast Asian country with the most stable democracy in the region.  Due to a widening class divide rising from corruption and laws favoring Muslim Malays, and institutionalized racism against Malaysians of Chinese and Indian descent, this former model of democracy and tolerance is disintegrating.  Many of the nation's intellectuals leave Malaysia for opportunities elsewhere.

Amnesty International has published a report about the Malaysian government's increasing repression of the Malaysian people here.

It was not so long ago that some people in the United States questioned Dubya's presidential election victories, and wondered if his brother Jeb in Florida had something to do with rigging things.  It was also not long ago that the state of Minnesota decided to put a Voter ID bill up for public vote in November.  American patriots should follow what is happening in Malaysia to make sure that we are not fooled into following the same path.

Beating the System

In 2012, it may be a lot harder for college students, people with disabilities, minorities, and low-income citizens to vote.  Different states have proposed or already passed legislation that would keep the following folks from voting:

-- College students with a college issued student ID from that state (as opposed to a driver's license), simply because they could be paying out of state tuition;

-- Low-income urban minorities who do not drive, and therefore do not have driver's licenses;

-- People with disabilities who do not drive, and therefore do not have driver's licenses;

-- People released from prison, whether or not they paid their taxes. 

You can read it all here: Voting Law Changes in 2012, a report published by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.  It is rumored that Republican-dominated states are passing these laws to reduce the number of potentially Democratic voters in their districts.