The War On ACORN
Sometimes, it’s dangerous to be good at your job. On the surface, one tends to believe that the more effective one is at one’s job, the more respect one will gain from the community…in theory. When one’s job has political implications, all bets are off.
Take ACORN for example. People have often lamented the state of political awareness of and participation in the American voting process among minorities, women, and particularly African Americans. The discourse over how to engage disenfranchised individuals has taken one of two major stances.
First, that minorities would take more of an interest if they felt that their participation would make a difference. Also that for our electoral process to reach its greatest potential, we need maximum participation of all eligible voters.
Second, that the system works best if educated and well-informed people are the ones making decisions. Minorities, women, and the generally unmotivated in life prove their unworthiness of participating in the electoral process by choosing not to vote or by participating in lower numbers by comparison on a per capita basis.
Prior to the election of Nov ’08, we heard more of the former and less of the latter of those two points of view. People felt, “Sure, it WOULD be better if everyone participated…in theory.” Leaders in minority communities have attacked the problems of indifference and cultural malaise for decades while losing ground year after year. Then something happened—something miraculous if you’re on the left; something nightmarish if you’re on the right. Barack Obama happened. Barack Obama and his ability to motivate the masses with his words, happened.
News networks reported low income and minorities registering in record numbers to vote. That was great!!! Uh…wait a minute, thought the right. If more colored…ahem…black people vote this time, that means that Democrats will…oh darn! Quickly, find out how they are doing this!!!
And THIS was the first time we heard the name ACORN in the news.
ACORN, which bills itself as the “Nations largest grassroots community organization” has as its mission statement the goal of organizing people of low to moderate incomes into a socially and politically active constituency by encouraging leadership and social cohesiveness from within the community (my words, not theirs). It is worth noting that critics on both the right and left have decried minority leaders for decades for failing to do this. Now that someone has tasted the beginnings of success, the only thing heard from the right is, “MAKE THEM STOP!” And so began the Republican “War On ACORN.”
What strikes me as sad about this is what it says about the sense of fairness of Americans in the 21st century. An organization is successful at cracking a heretofore uncrackable egg and thereby gets noticed by malevolent political opponents. Now, I hate corruption same as the next guy. Criticism of ACORN should not be swept under the rug or ignored but it should be constructive, at least initially. They should be given a chance to do some house cleaning, correct their organizational problems, and improve themselves in general. In fact, if anyone should be dedicated to eradicating any perception by the public that the organization is out of control, it is the management of ACORN. The activities shown on the videos should not be tolerated by neither the public nor its management. ACORN should make a statement to its constituency to clarify its values and priorities, and outline what steps it will take to ensure its members understand and adhere to the same. Should ACORN management get defensive and waste time trying to defend the guilty rather than cutting dead weight in order to move forward, then I say they deserve what they get. Defending embattled colleagues may be loyal but will come at the expense of those who depend on them.
Having said that…
It is clear that ACORN is being targeted not for any corruption that may be found within it but to ensure that they are not a Factor in the 2010 midterm elections or in 2012. Right-wingers would gladly sacrifice any good ACORN may do for the communities in which they operate in order to achieve that goal. In other words, they would harm already disadvantaged communities to gain power. Are we to believe that the purpose of this sting was really to stamp out corruption? That is not only disingenuous but is an insult to our national collective intelligence! The goal of the sting was not justice but to neutralize the threat of an organization that has proven it can get voters to the polls. Here is a more likely scenario: Republicans hired private investigators to watch ACORN offices long enough to build a report of possible infractions and then used the report to develop the sting operation which captured those videos. Either they hired the two “private citizens” — as Bill O’Reilly calls them in his on-screen battle with Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) — directly, or they made the information available to groups they knew would be ready and willing to act on it to destroy ACORN.
Republicans also knew that this information would be preaching to the choir for assault rifle-toting tea-baggers. It’s main objective is to anger moderate whites so that they won’t object to seeing proverbial red meat being tossed about. If that red meat belongs to those that have angered you in some way, you are more likely to turn the other cheek and allow the defeat of a movement you might otherwise have supported. Even if that movement is imperfect, a certain expression about babies and bathwater comes to mind. Regardless how you feel about ACORN, your reaction to this situation should take into account how you feel about its likely outcome and how that will affect the coming elections. Republicans to their credit, are thinking that far ahead. One must keep one’s eye on the prize.
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Let me start by stating that I believe the effort to withdraw all federal funds from Acorn, rather than investigate and weed out bad apples, is akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. Providing the poor and disenfranchised minorities with a voice by encouraging voter registration is a noble cause. Providing the poor and disenfranchised with low cost or free tax assistance and with assistance fighting home foreclosures is a noble and worthy cause. Sadly, like many large, federally funded groups, Acorn is susceptible to fraud, waste, and abuse. The poor decisions made by a few misguided employees often create discomfort and new rules for the rest of us. Unless and until it is proven that tax fraud is something condoned by and rampant throughout Acorn, I don’t believe they should be penalized as a whole, unless they choose not to acknowledge their mistakes and rectify the problems.
There are some underlying issues I have with Acorn that give me pause when considering whether they should be given further federal funding. Those issues include: voter regristration fraud, a propensity to use their resources as an opportunity to campaign against Republicans and for Democrats, and they have chosen the out that they were illegally “stung” and therefore not guilty of tax fraud.
I’ll begin with the voter regristration fraud, as that is probably the easiest to address and the most benign. The majority of the “fraud” complaints stem from what appears to be a flawed system of payment for greater numbers of registered voters. In an effort to earn more money, some workers have used the names of real dead people or fictitious characters in an effort to get paid more. This is a clear case of fraud, waste and abuse, in that federal funds are being spent to register non-existent voters. However, there has never been a proven case of one of these fake voters ever having actually voted.
My second concern is that a federally funded group, whose purpose is to increase voter registration, shouldn’t be campaigning for or against any party. In September 2006 Acorn was accused of engaging in “A Coordinated Campaign With The Express Purpose of Defeating Republican Candidates for Federal Office and Supporting Democrat Candidates For Federal Office” according to documents from the Federal Election Commission. The matter was dropped when Acorn removed the “questionable” material and claimed that those plans were just a “draft”. Again in November 2006, Give Missourians a Raise (a branch of Acorn) was accused of directing its workers to solicit votes for Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate, Claire McCaskill. The matter was dropped in spite of the fact that the complaints were coming from workers within Give Missourians a Raise who felt convicted by the conflict of interest. If Acorn’s mission is to empower and enable the poor and disenfranchised minorities to vote, then they have no business trying to influence the choice those voters make. It is genuinely accepted that the Democrats are the party of the poor and minorities, but that is a generalization that is part of why we can’t make any racial progress in this country. Yes the Democrats used to fight for civil rights and the welfare of all, but they have largely taken the minority vote for granted in recent years. That also assumes that religious and family values, hijacked by Republicans, aren’t important to the poor and minorities and therefore they could never vote Republican. For those who are torn about wanting a just and moral country, while knowing that there has to be a better way of legislating a more fair and equal society don’t need Acorn deciding their vote for them. I hated seeing “Rock the Vote” campaign ads telling me that the youth of this country needs me to vote for Bill Clinton. I also hated when the CWA (Communication Workers of America), who I was a proud member of, expected me to wear and distribute “Vote for Gore” paraphernalia. The assumption that I am a Democrat or left-minded just because I was young in ’92 or in a union in ’00 offends me, just as the assumption that all poor and minority voters are Democrats is ludicrous. Don’t get me wrong Republicans have done themselves a huge disservice by not distancing themselves from the radical right and bigots who have come out of the woodwork to fight any good President Obama is trying to do for our country. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t vote for a better suited Republican if the opposing Democrat is running a campaign inconsistent with my values.
Finally, I find Acorn’s response to the tax fraud “sting” both childish and foolish. On the one hand, they immediately fired several of the employees in those videos, yet are now crying that they are victims of racially (or racialistically as some would say) driven attempts by the “right” to suppress minority vote by discrediting their organization. They are claiming that those employees would never have engaged in fraudulent activity, had those “pimp and ho” never “stung” them. This is such a ridiculous defense, it stinks of Larry Craig trying to weasel out of his conviction for engaging in lewd conduct. Integrity is chosing the right or moral action, especially when no one is looking. Accepting a bribe, for instance, is no less wrong than the act of bribing. To say that someone would never have committed a crime if that person were never presented with the opportunity is ridiculous. Everyday I am faced with decisions to do or not do the right thing. Should I choose to chase down and slap the face of another driver, just because he presented the opportunity by cutting me off, I would fully expect jail time for assault. At the moment those tax advisers were questioned about illegally circumventing tax laws, they should have done the right thing by turning the “pimp and ho” away, or better yet turning them in for admitting to having underage girls in their possession. The fact that the two “characters” who participated in the sting were trying to play “gotcha” for the Right doesn’t absolve those employees, nor Acorn, of their responsibility.
In the end, Acorn is ultimately responsible for the conduct of it’s employees. They receive Federal funds, and as such, are subject to review when accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse are presented. “The Devil made me do it” doesn’t work as a defense for adults, even when the “Devil” is the racially motivated radicals from the far right.
Jeramie,
You make several good points.
1. You echo my own sentiment that you don’t disregard all the good a group does because of the actions of a few. The quickness with which society seems willing to write off an entire group because of the actions of a few is symbolic of the problems that minorities in America face already is it not?
2. You mention voter registration fraud as one of your problems with ACORN. I touched on that in the article and provided links to stories covering that. You can see that ACORN did not commit any fraud. They hired supposed activists to conduct registration drives and to fill registration sheets with potential voters. The people they trusted with this task betrayed their trust and falsified a number of registration sheets in order to increase their reward, as they were rewarded based on the number of sheets they completed. In retrospect, everyone can see that this tactic was flawed. ACORN acknowledged this and in fact were the ones who reported the fraud to authorities.
After the investigation, Republicans still sought to have the legitimate registrations thrown out with the fraudulent ones and hoped to use public outrage as a catalyst to do this. Why? Because ACORN operates in low income communities, which tend to vote Democrat. It is sad that people who represent themselves as more patriotic than liberals try to undermine the process of Democracy called voting whenever it suits their purposes.
3. As for people who use federal funds to promote their own ideology, we can eliminate this by making it illegal for anyone who benefits financially from federal programs to promote one party over another. Of course that means that all of the “values” programs sponsored by tax-exempt churches to vote for anti-abortion candidates (Republicans) will have to end or religious organizations can choose to give up their tax-exempt status as the Boy Scouts were forced to do. I’m sure liberals will happily agree to that.
4. You said, “But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t vote for a better suited Republican if the opposing Democrat is running a campaign inconsistent with my values.” I used to feel this way and still do to some extent. The problem with Republicans is that they want to impose their values on people whether they share their belief system or not. This is a problem in any society that claims to support freedom. Period.
And yes, some liberals want to impose certain liberal values as well. I am against them too.
5. I agree that ACORN going into defensive mode and defending the individuals who committed these infractions is problematic. I said so in the article. It is indeed foolhardy for ACORN management to try to ride this out without making tough decisions. They are on the radar now. Flying low to remain unobserved is no longer an option. Management must pragmatically and decisively deal with the cancers growing within or the organization will wither and die.
Conclusion: The Republican attacks must not succeed regardless the validity of the criticisms. They are undemocratic and seek to minimize the affect of minority votes within the United States. No one calling himself a patriot should support this no matter how they feel about ACORN.
The organization is in focus because it was so successful in registering new voters that Republicans want to make them go away. Those responsible for illegal or unethical actions should be (and I believe are) gone. If necessary, new blood may be needed in top positions if improvements are not made.