Voter registration is through the roof, and it has the potential to change the political landscape of this country for years to come. But each of these new registrations has a story behind it. Here’s one that says a lot.
Jason Robertson, 29, walked through the voter services door a few minutes after 2 p.m., wearing a stained, long-sleeve T-shirt and a black winter cap. He had extended his lunch break to come here, and he needed to be back at work in an hour. He makes brochures in a small printing shop in a warehouse off the highway. It’s a good job, and he intends to keep it.
Work had become hard to find after he picked up a felony drug charge five years ago. His cousin found him the gig at the printing shop, but it can offer him only 30 hours of work each week. Robertson dreams of opening his own shop, or applying for one of those cushy jobs printing for the state. “It’s crazy,” he said. “They’re paying, like, $15 an hour.”
Robertson always thought the felony charge disqualified him from voting, until his girlfriend picked up a registration form last month at a hair salon and read the fine print (ex-felons may vote in North Carolina if they complete all terms of their sentence, such as probation or parole). She brought it home to the two-bedroom apartment they share with their four children and told him to fill it out.
“You’re always talking about wanting change,” Kim Fowler told him. “Now you can help make it.”
Fowler, a longtime voter, met Robertson at a post office four years ago, and her interest in politics rubbed off on him. She took him to see “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and volunteered at Obama’s local office. More cynical than hopeful, Robertson wasn’t the volunteering type. “George Bush cheated in both elections, and Congress should all be thrown out,” he said. But lately he felt compelled by a new sense of political urgency.
“I want them to answer me, ‘What happened to the middle class?’ You got rich, you got poor, and everybody is going in one of those directions.”
Lately, Robertson has been sliding ever closer to broke. Since he moved in with Fowler, he has supported a household of six, including his 2-year-old son; Fowler’s 10- and 8-year-old daughters from a previous relationship; and a baby they share. A few months ago, Robertson paid $632 — a solid two weeks’ wages — to have the baby circumcised.
Medical bills have devastated their bank account, because Robertson and Fowler lack health insurance. Last year, Robertson’s hand was caught in machinery at work, slicing his right index finger to the bone. His trip to the emergency room resulted in nine stitches, and he has been paying for them ever since. Three hundred dollars for anesthesia. Nine hundred for an X-ray. Six hundred for stitches.
Robertson considered asking his boss for help with the medical bills, but the company doesn’t offer insurance, and he needs the job.
That is why, on the day he registered to vote, Robertson dropped off the form Fowler had given him a few days earlier and turned right back around, headed for work.
Hopefully, Jason’s story will help us all remember what we’re fighting for. I broke my self-imposed ban on cable news tonight because I felt like I needed to get a sense for what people are seeing. And they’re not seeing anything remotely related to what concerns Jason. We can’t do much about that. But we can overcome it. It’s easy to lose focus on the task at hand. We can’t be focused on who appears on cable news or what they say on cable news. Those are just obstacles in our path or distractions that sap our energy. People need health coverage. They need our government to stop bleeding the treasury dry to enrich our Saudi and Chinese bankers. They need change. I just thought I’d remind us all what’s at stake.
So much at stake and the health care crisis is among the more heartbreaking examples of what has been allowed to go wrong in this country for so long.
And now you apparently have Democratic bigwigs in Congress (I’m thinking Schumer and maybe Kendrick Meek, but I could be wrong) saying they might not have the votes to move on health care after all next year, even with a Dem president. Not good enough. Do they know what these new voters expect of them?
Universal health care’s time has come. Those who would subvert it or drag their feet on it MUST move on these critical issues–as they’re expected to–or they deserve to be swept out of office as a result. And absolutely no mealy-mouthed backtalk should be permitted from Washington. We’re trying to get Dems IN for the express purpose of enacting these changes. What makes those in Congress think they would be able to get away without doing so? Now is the time to make sure Democrats (and as many Republicans as possible) know they don’t have a choice.
Reminders are everywhere I look these days.
My daughter sees a reminder every time she passes a gas station and wonders if she can squeeze just a little more mileage out of her poor old second-hand sedan.
I see a reminder every time I fill out the grocery order and notice that the price of eggs has gone up, again.
I see a reminder every time I get an explanation of benefits from my insurance company.
I see a reminder every time I look at my granddaughter’s cocoa skin — much like Barack Obama’s, a product of a white mother and a black father — and think about the kind of future she’ll be facing.
I see a reminder every time the face of the Idiot King appears on television.
I see a reminder every time some vapid, meaningless non-story drowns out the issues we should all be talking about in this country.
Why do we fight? Why do I fight? Because the idea of four more years of this is more than I’m prepared for, and I want to do what I can do prevent it.
Thanks for the reminder which we all need from time to time. There is like an ocean of needless suffering out there practically drowning the middle and lower classes. Their anger and frustration continue to build and the wealthy class with its privately owned mass media and the golden voice servants who work there is due for a reckoning.
Perhaps, such a cultural rearrangement can occur through the political process resulting in much needed reforms like health care for all at public expense, like complete and genuine disarmament, which is nearly twenty years overdue, like a thorough and continuous program to preserve the environment and create millions of new jobs.
The time for such change is now. If it does not come, then, society will IMHO implode in a tidal wave of dissatisfaction that will sweep all before it. Then, the neo-cons will be seen in their true light as destroyers of our civilization. Their names will be cursed forever. (Well, at least for a very long period of time.)
God is not the answer but the question.
Obviously, there are alot of stories out there Boo.
How about this. Pa gop primary- The MISSING STORY!!
Get a look at the results. Pretty interesting.
“If not now, when? If not you, who?”
– Primo Levi
Stories like this will go a long way toward afflicting the comfortable.
these nuggets too – here’s why GOP are soiling their pants, fearing the Obama message:
“You’re always talking about wanting change,” Kim Fowler told him. “Now you can help make it.””
This is a sad story and I’m glad Fowler found out he can still vote even tho he can never own a gun for hunting or travel to a country that blocks felons from visiting. But the part that blows my mind is —
This family with financial hardships spent $632 to UNNECESSARILY CUT OFF THE FORESKIN OF THEIR SON’S PENIS!!!
I feel ill.
Thank you – I thought I was the only one wondering what on earth is so life-threatening about an intact foreskin.
best healthcare system in the world…pfeh.
My first thought too…though of course it misses the point of the article.
This family’s doctor decided that s/he needed that money more than they did.
I think that’s a personal decision. I don’t question their priorities. I’m just sad to read about their situation.
DITTO!
On abc’s GMA
Dean to Candidates: Either Clinton or Obama must drop out in June.
Who is listening?
Well, he’s laid down a clear marker. Here’s the push, next comes the shove. Hillary may not “need any pushing” from Dean and the others, but she might get it anyway. I think Reid’s cryptic “things are being done” line was factual. The Party is starting to sweat in a serious way over Hillary dragging all of them down with her. And I’m not even sure anymore that there will be any carrots (Senate majority leader, etc.) dangled in front of her as an enticement — maybe just “get out”.
he voiced a less nuanced version of that yesterday on Meet The Press:
l hope the gauntlet has finally been thrown down.
yeah, they’re going to listen to their blood enemy.
Dean needs to STFU.
let’s face it there’s no way to get the Clintons to stop.
They’ve returned to seating the MI and FL delegates at the convention.
Matt Yglesias suggests they read Terry McAuliffe’s book, ya know the guy who is their campaign co-chair.
that was then.
I’m telling you, Hillary’s going to push all the way to the convention, claim that the nomination was “stolen” from her (and the people of Michigan and Florida), and run as an Independent, hammering Obama and praising McCain every chance she gets. And if McCain wins, she’s going to mysteriously wind up with a significant amount of power and influence.
And if McCain wins, she’s going to mysteriously wind up with a significant amount of power and influence.
No. No. go here
she’ll be all to blame for trashing Obama.
I meant under McCain. They’re using the same attacks and have representatives of the same company running their campaigns. Are we really supposed to believe there’s no communication flowing between the two?
of course the clinton’s won’t listen, that’s not the point, imo.
but STFU? that’s a bit harsh. especially considering he’s giving voice to the sentiments that you, l, and most all of the progressives hold.
dean is speaking to, and for, the people involved in the 50 state strategy. the ones who’re on the ground in all the down ticket races; and there is a considerable amount of angst being expressed in those ranks, if my experiences here in colo are any indication.
the udall/schaffer race for instance. the last poll l saw had it neck and neck w/in the MOE, and much of that can be directly attributed to the intermidable primary and lack of leadership at the national level.
he’s also speaking to the SD’s, and attempting to put the very real concerns re: the destruction of unity for personal gain that the clinton’s are indulging in.
this race not only threatens the RATpub’s, it threatens the DLC, and the 20th century version of oligarchy. an obama victory, conceivably, sets the stage for a major sea change in how politics is done in this country.
frankly, l’m glad he’s saying this, and imo, he’s being much more polite than l would be.
cut the man some slack…k.
This is what it’s all about.