Friday, December 06, 2013

One Wisconsin Now: Nelson Mandela's South Africa Assaults Voter Rights

Brian Fraley points out that One Wisconsin Now has been caught in an embarassing bout of cluelessness.

OWN used the occasion of Nelson Mandela's death to make a cheap political point, praising Mandela as a champion of democracy and contrasting him with Governor Walker and his supposed "assault" on the right to vote; presumably a reference to the requirement that voters present a photo ID and proposals for stricter registration rules.

Mandela was a champion of democracy but South Africa requires voters to have an identification card to vote and has far more stringent registration rules than Republicans in Wisconsin have ever proposed. 

To get an identification card in South Africa, you must submit two identical color photographs and "[a] certified copy of your Birth certificate or reference book or a copy of the old Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda or Ciskei homelands identity or travel documents." Having to obtain a birth certificate to get a photo identification card is, of course, regarded by OWN and other opponents of voter ID as tantamount to fascism. Who knew that Mandela's South Africa was so Republican?

But OWN isn't the only one to suffer from foot in mouth disease on this.  Jesse Jackson made the same blunder. 

It would have been a tad more classy to mark the passing of a great man without trying to turn it into a sophmoric talking point. Maybe next time.

Cross posted at Purple Wisconsin

14 comments:

John Mitchell said...

"But we should be clear about what this empty gesture endorses. It is not liberty. It is not equality. It is fascism."

Akin to you labeling the Milwaukee Common Council as "fascist" without any specific evidence.

Yes, OWN was juvenile in its point, as was you with your previous rant. There is NO difference between you and them...it's all partisan hackery and buffoonery.

So please spare us the sanctimony, professor.

Anonymous said...

Not to be outdone, the good perfesser attempts to score some cheap political points of his own by calling out fellow travelers. We wonder where the perfesser came down in the mid-80s when St. Ronnie sided with the RSA diamond merchants.

Anonymous said...

Mandela brought the fine art of necklacing to political discourse and was a terrorist.

George Mitchell said...

No, deranged anony 1:35 a.m., Mandela was a freedom fighter who opposed the brutality of apartheid.

Paul Kersey said...


See, this is what you get when you don't teach your children history.

Mandela was not a fighter, freedom or other. He was imprisoned for sabotage, not terrorism. The murders that he was involved in, the Church Street bombing and such, he committed by proxy. Never at any stage risked his own precious skin. And planting bombs and walking away hardly constitutes "fighting," even if he had done it himself.

Actual fighting, now; you want names? The fact that you don't know these names reflects your own ignorance. How about Leonidas, Alexander, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Charles Martel, Jan Sobieski, Napoleon, Henry V? You've never heard of them, because they were White men who fought and won actual battles by planning, strategy, courage, discipline and tactics.

Gandhi? A Rabble-rouser who took advantage of Britain's exhaustion by the war, then claimed he'd done it all himself. Guevara? A hippie coward who loved to watch executions, but cried like a baby when his turn came. Mandela? A nonentity who became a figurehead by virtue of his birth into a tribal royal family. Kind of like Queen Elizabeth II, a/k/a Elizabeth the Useless.

Anonymous said...

Actually Paul, that is what you get when you home school your kids.

George Mitchell said...

Indeed, Mandela won actual battles by planning, strategy, courage, discipline, and tactics. Segregation in South Africa, viciously imposed by whites, was destroyed brick by brick, with Mandela leading the charge.

Paul, you need to read blogs other than Vox Populi.

Paul Kersey said...

Can't find anything to respond with, so both of you come with the personal attacks.

Pick a name and stick with it, Mitchell.

Paul Mitchell said...

Alexander the Great was a war-monger, Hannibal laid ruthless sieges upon cities, Caesar was a brutal dictator...do I need to go on before you get further embarrassed by your ignorance?

Paul Kersey said...

And all three leaders built great civilizations. In 25 years, Mandela managed to tear a first world nation into a third world nation.

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2013/12/life-expectancy-in-south-africa.html

http://patdollard.com/2012/07/genocide-watch-issues-alert-south-africa-in-early-stages-of-white-genocide/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcOXqFQw2hc

Anyway troll, bet you can't provide an answer for this one. Can you name the laws, programs or budgets which, when implemented, would bring blacks collectively up to the levels of whites in terms of obeying the law, graduating school, creating businesses, keeping their illegitimacy rates manageable, and improving the quality of life in formerly white cities?

jp said...

Let us discuss voter rights...please

jp said...

Let us discuss voter rights....please

Fred Mitchell said...

"Let us discuss voter rights...please"

Go right ahead, JP, by all means.


Now, back to the pertinent discussion at hand.


“And all three leaders built great civilizations.”


And all three leaders also pillaged, plundered, and murdered to accomplish their goal.


“Mandela managed to tear a first world nation into a third world nation.”

You ought to carefully vet your sources. The isteve author cautions the reader to seriously doubt the information provided--“By the way, I don't know how much to trust this data that Google provides so conveniently” AND clearly infers that in any transitionary period, there will be political, economic, and/or social upheaval. In this particular case, the invading force (whites), after raping the landscape for decades, finally ceded authority to the original occupiers of that region.

The sung by Mandela that refers to the killing of whites is no different than savage Europeans and Americans who sang spiritual hymns while butchering women and children during the various Indian wars of our nation’s history in the name of “Kill the Indian to save the man.”


Psalm 11:5--The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

So, Paul, why do are you so wicked?


“Can you name the laws, programs or budgets which, when implemented, would bring blacks collectively up to the levels of whites in terms of obeying the law, graduating school, creating businesses, keeping their illegitimacy rates manageable, and improving the quality of life in formerly white cities?”


First, your inquiry is rife with logical fallacies--one-sidedness and loaded question for starters.

Second, you have to replace “blacks” with “impoverished blacks, Latinos, whites, Asians, etc.” and “whites” with “American citizens” to even reasonable begin the discussion.

Third, since you are a highly educated man, you do realize that overall crime rates among blacks, has been steadily decreasing within the past two decades, that only 2 percent of black males commit a violent crime in a given year; whites are 6 times as likely to be murdered by another white person as by a black person, that more white people are reliant on welfare than black people, and that the illegitimacy among white women in their 20’s with some college rise more quickly than in any other group.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Utah same sex marriage will come to Wisconsin