ACORN and voter registration

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:  more from Peter.]

From: "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>



Friends and Colleagues:
 
The Republican attack on ACORN, the community organizing group, has 
accelerated dramatically in the last few weeks, with John McCain, Sarah 
Palin, conservative columnists and bloggers, and right-wing TV and radio 
talk show hosts all joining in the anti-ACORN chorus.  Among other 
assaults, they have been scapegoating ACORN for  Wall Street's 
disastrous lending spree. As John Atlas and I reveal in our article, 
"The GOP's Blame-ACORN  Game," 
(http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081110/dreier_atlas), which appears in 
the November 10 issue and also on-line, the accusations are completely 
bogus. Despite that reality, the campaign against ACORN has gotten 
traction because the conservative echo chamber has been effective at 
injecting their views into the mainstream, especially since McCain and 
Palin have jumped on the anti-ACORN bandwagon.  John and I will be 
discussing the anti-ACORN campaign on Laura Flanders' "RadioNation" show 
this weekend, which you can listen to on your local Air America station 
(check here for times: 
http://www.lauraflanders.com/pages/radionation.html) or by podcast  
(http://thenation.hipcast.com/rss/radionation.xml)
 
In the current issue of the Jewish Daily Forward, I debate Obama vs. 
McCain with Yuval Levin, who served as associate director of the Bush 
White House Domestic Policy Council from 2004 through 2006 and is now a 
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think 
tank.  Our dueling columns are posted on the newspaper's website -- my 
column, "Obama Would Bring Out the Best In Us" 
(http://www.forward.com/articles/14420) and Levin's "McCain Offers 
Substantive Solution."  (http://www.forward.com/articles/14419)
 
Peter
_____________________________________
Peter Dreier
Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Chair, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
Occidental College
1600 Campus Road
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Phone: (323) 259-2913
FAX: (323) 259-2734
Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
 
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great 
moral crises maintain their neutrality" - Dante