Political Update
Political Update
David Bositis
October 2, 2006
There were two significant political developments this past week that reflect poorly on American politics. First, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a “border security” bill that includes a provision requiring that, by 2008, all voters must present a government-issued photo identification card before voting. Voting rights experts in the civil rights community have demonstrated conclusively that such restrictions can and do disproportionately affect African Americans and reduce their political influence. Despite the forty years that have passed since the Voting Rights Act was enacted into law, there are still widespread organized efforts to prevent African Americans from voting. Fortunately, this provision is unlikely to be approved by the Senate.
New allegations of racism about Virginia Senator George Allen, who is in a tight reelection race, surfaced in the past week. One of Allen’s former teammates from the University of Virginia’s football team said that he regularly used the “N-word,” and that after killing a doe on a hunting trip, he cut off its head and placed it in a black family’s mailbox. His language usage was confirmed by well-known UVA political scientist Larry Sabato and an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama. Allan has denied the allegations, but it is difficult to discount them given his long-time flirtation with relics of Jim Crow such as the confederate flag and (hangman) nooses, as well as his more recent slurs, including calling a young Virginia man of Indian origin macacca, which is a well-known racial slur in several areas of the world. At this point, it is too early to speculate about whether these latest allegations will affect Allen’s chances for reelection.