Political Disenfranchisement Analysis

Discrimination against those of Mexican family reached its peak in the depression years of the 1930s when the lack of jobs started a kind of backlash among the Anglo majority. The tone was set from the top down, as President Herbert Hoover “denounced Mexicans as one of the causes of the … depression … and … initiated plans to deport them.” Hoover declared, “‘they took jobs away from American citizens.’” (Sanchez 213).

During the era of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the nation seemed to be split down the middle in terms of its citizens. Obviously this is not meant to be taken literally, as the citizens of the United States were divided in terms of political views, morals, and other very important topics. One of these topics happened to be the act of expanding suffrage to people other than rich landowners. Both arguments in this debate were represented with a number of different types of evidence as to why each side was the correct way to go about shaping the way people voted in the United States and why the opposing opinion was not to be trusted. There were both pros and cons of expanding suffrage in the United States, but some were more valid than others.

One example of registration laws that effect voter participation includes the House Bill 1355. In 2011 Florida voted on House Bill 1355 placing new regulations on community organization that have helped eligible voters to register (Herron, Smith 2013). Seeing as Florida is a swing state and every four years during presidential elections the state and its residents can determine who will be the next president of the United States, it’s important for communities and organizations to mobilize the people to go out and vote. Although a federal judge in 2012 later blocked the legislation that was making it difficult for third party registration organizations the damage was already done. For a prominent voting organization opted out of doing registration drives when the House Bill 1355 was initially passed (Herron, Smith). The implementation of the Bill influenced the upcoming presidential election in 2012 by slowing the voter registration of thousands of Floridians. Bills like the 2011 House Bill 1355 only raises the cost in the rational choice model making it only more probable that people will just opt out of voting because they don’t want to deal with the time-consuming process. When registering to vote one must adhere to the states laws and comply with the process of registration. Because each state has their own legislation and laws that their residents must follow, it crucial for people to get some information on the state registration process in order to vote.

Before L.B.J. got into politics, he worked at a Mexican-American school in Cotulla, Texas. President Johnson taught 5th, 6th, and 7th, grade at this small elementary school. President L.B.J. says, “They never seemed to know why people disliked them. But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes.” This proves that President Johnson had some heart for these students. Mr. Wilbur

The democratization of American society that started in 1820s has led to a significant change of relations between government and people. These changes include growing equality of opportunities for white men and possibility for people to influence political processes taking place in the US. While people gained new rights and chances to start another life, government was, on the one hand, set under the growing pressure of society, and on the other hand, could be constructed by people.

In 1963, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson ascended to the presidency. Johnson, a democrat, had enormous ambitions to expand the role of the federal government in American’s lives like FDR had done. The nation was in shock and Johnson rode the wave to have the martyred president’s “New Frontier” agenda passed into law. As a former majority leader in the Senate, he used his know-how to continue to churn bills one after another through Congress. Most notable among them was the Civil Rights Act of 1964: a landmark in the fight for equality. Johnson’s other bills were part of a declared war against poverty, and these would come to be called a part of his “Great Society” harkening back to FDR’s “New Deal” in both

A time of betrayal, uncertainty, confusion, and corruption, the Election of 1912 was a peculiarly exciting bout between four candidates Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft and Debs. Brett Flehinger state in The Election of 1912 and the Power of Progressivism, “The 1912 election was a unique moment in the Progressive Era because it drew together politicians, social reformers, intellectuals, and economists onto a single stage and produced a many-sided national debate.” (Flehinger vii) All were concerned with one central issue: the future of America’s economic, political, and social structures. The role of blacks in society, women’s suffrage, trust busting, and tariffs were some of the major political issues of the 1912 election.

Devinatz focuses the article on the similarities between the new president elect, Donald J. Trump and the 1968 election of George Wallace. Devinatz informs the reader that while Donald Trump’ presidency was an event that took the nation by surprise, mostly white union members voted for Trump just like they voted for Wallace because their campaign strategy was similar. Devinatz exclaims that Wallace used comparable rhetoric to Trump’s to get the crowd on his side at rallies, the rhetoric they both used was racial rhetoric. Wallace and Trump used the racial fears that immigrants and people of color would take the white Americans jobs to get the votes and gain political power. The overall argument Devinatz is making is that presidential canidates

This felony disenfranchisement came about to keep blacks from voting; it didn’t have anything to do with keeping criminals from voting. However, the stigma has always been that most crimes are committed by blacks. Black Americans who are of the voting age are four times more likely to lose their voting rights than the rest of the adult population, with 1 of every 13 black adults disenfranchised nationally. Nationally 2.2 million people are black citizens that are banned from voting. In three states more than one in five black adults are disenfranchised; Florida has 23 percent, Kentucky has 22 percent, and Virginia has 20 percent (Chung, 2014).

Up until the early 1900s, obtaining suffrage for all was a long-standing, turbulent battle that many had devoted their lives to. Once the racial and gender barriers were shattered, the participation in the political process on a national and state level greatly increased; citizens were finally able to express their partisan viewpoint through vote. Unfortunately, current voting laws in the US do not provide every of-age citizen with the same satisfaction; convicted felons in Texas can not contribute to society through the ultimate method of political communication: vote.

35) As Hoovers administration continued its business backing policies African Americans drifted towards Democrats. This accompanied a rapid urbanization that rose the percentage of African Americans living in cities from forty four percent to fifty percent in just 9 years, from 1930 to 1939. (Trotter, pg. 11) Seventy five percent of African Americans lived in the South, where Southern Democrats had oppressed and opposed African Americans since the end of the Reconstruction in the early 1870’s. (Americans at War) Despite the bad blood between African Americans and Democrats, they drifted in large numbers towards ‘the left’ as Roosevelt and his administration began to administer the “New Deal”. The New Deal was a series of programs and agencies set up to help the United States recover from the Depression. Over 20 million Americans sought assistance from agencies and programs such as Social Service. (Trotter, pg. 8) Many of these were African Americans, but over sixty percent of African Americans received no benefits from the New Deal due to a propensity towards racism in many of the local distributers of aid. (Trotter, pg. 11) According to labor laws supported by Roosevelt and the Democrats, it was not required to pay African Americans minimum wage. Roosevelt also refused to sign an anti-lynching bill into law, allowing lynching to remain legal in many Southern states, due to Roosevelts need of the Southern Democrats to maintain power in the Senate and

Allow me to introduce to you Perry Hopkins and Del. Cory V. McCray, both are from different cities. Both lead different lives. Both lost their voting rights due to felony convictions relating drugs. Both never recidivated; yet, both can never vote. Disenfranchisement takes away more than a simple right to cast a ballot. It steals power. It silences. And this plague of power-corrupted-racially motivated theft in America has affected women, Native Americans, immigrants, those without land, African-Americans, and now felons. By disenfranchising felons, the government is robbing 5.9 million citizens of an inalienable right. As a result, the government has disabled millions of people from interacting proficiently with society. Although, some argue

The Constitution of the United States has been repeatedly amended to further extend suffrage to disenfranchised groups. Disenfranchised groups are a groups of people, typically minorities, that lack the right to vote. Throughout history, these groups of people who were denied suffrage fought for their rights in order to gain suffrage for their group. There were four groups of Americans who did not have the right to vote or had restrictions in voting. Women, African Americans, the economically disadvantaged, and 18 year olds did not have complete suffrage until amendments were passed to give them the right to vote.

More studied than the effect of felon disenfranchisement on individuals is the effect on the wider community. These laws diminish the voice of the Black community in multiple ways. First, they generally dilute the power of the Black vote, particularly because the disenfranchised population of a city tends to be concentrated in relatively few neighborhoods. For example, a 1992 study “showed that 72% of all of New York State's prisoners came from only 7 of New York City's 55 community board districts,” and a 2003 study showed that “53% of Illinois prisoners released in 2001 returned to Chicago, and 34% of those releases were concentrated in 6 of 77 Chicago communities.” This is problematic because, as law professor Debra Parkes summarizes: “When the views of one group are systematically cut out of the political process, the public debate will be skewed.” When the disenfranchised are concentrated in few neighborhoods, the political power of those neighborhoods is reduced.

Recently state and federal legislators have been discussing voter identification laws, also known as voter ID laws. This issue is controversial because it can lead states to deny voters a vote without an approved ID. On one hand, some supporters of ID laws argue that these laws are preventing criminals from committing fraud. From this perspective, the laws are protecting the value of a vote and what it means to actually participate in an election vote. On the other hand, however, people argue that by placing the restriction on voting it is impeding the people constitutional rights much like a poll tax. Opponents also claim that by enforcing an ID law it is creating a poll tax similar to the ones created to prevent the African American people from voting. A poll tax is a specific amount a person is charged before being able to place a vote; the comparison between a poll tax and a driver’s license fee is like comparing apples and oranges, when getting a driver’s license a person is using their license as their main form of ID. Poll taxes were outlaw in the 1960s by the 24th amendment.