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I highly recommend this powerful book! American voters are inundated with superficial corporate media reports that skim the surface of complex issues like the health of American democracy, our elections and immigration.
Spencer Overton's highly readable 'Stealing Democracy' explores what is really going on behind the curtains of our American democracy in our local communities, the state and national level. And it is chilling. But it is the kind of frank discussion that the American public needs to read so that we will be in a better position to get involved as citizens and exert a truer ownership over our own government that has so much daily influence on our lives.
I particularly appreciated how Professor Overton looks back at the historical roots of voter suppression in our American political system dating back to the early 1800s. The more things change, the more they stay the same: He examines gerry-mandering, the English-only Movement, voter registration purging, Voter ID legislation, and all the other ways that politicians continue to try to discourage those people that aren't inclined to vote for them to stay home on Election Day.
Professor Overton also looks at the chilling ways in which the venerable Voting Rights Act of 1965 is currently under attack by the right wing.
Today it is obvious to whomever is paying attention that there is a sustained effort to turn the clock way back on voter enfranchisement for the elderly, the poor, people of color and the handicapped - and American Democracy for ALL Americans right along with it!
Enlighten yourself on the new politics of voter suppression and how we can stop it: Read this book and recommend it to your friends as well!
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Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression by Spencer Overton
Sheri , June 18, 2006
I highly recommend this powerful book! American voters are inundated with superficial corporate media reports that skim the surface of complex issues like the health of American democracy, our elections and immigration.Spencer Overton's highly readable 'Stealing Democracy' explores what is really going on behind the curtains of our American democracy in our local communities, the state and national level. And it is chilling. But it is the kind of frank discussion that the American public needs to read so that we will be in a better position to get involved as citizens and exert a truer ownership over our own government that has so much daily influence on our lives.
I particularly appreciated how Professor Overton looks back at the historical roots of voter suppression in our American political system dating back to the early 1800s. The more things change, the more they stay the same: He examines gerry-mandering, the English-only Movement, voter registration purging, Voter ID legislation, and all the other ways that politicians continue to try to discourage those people that aren't inclined to vote for them to stay home on Election Day.
Professor Overton also looks at the chilling ways in which the venerable Voting Rights Act of 1965 is currently under attack by the right wing.
Today it is obvious to whomever is paying attention that there is a sustained effort to turn the clock way back on voter enfranchisement for the elderly, the poor, people of color and the handicapped - and American Democracy for ALL Americans right along with it!
Enlighten yourself on the new politics of voter suppression and how we can stop it: Read this book and recommend it to your friends as well!
(11 of 18 readers found this comment helpful)