NY goes off the deep end.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_el_st_lo/us_voting_rights_election#mwpphu-container

(This post was originally in response to another poster's comments on the article above)

Let me get this straight. Election day comes. John has studied the candidates. He goes to the polls and casts his vote. Juan excludes himself from the political process. He stays home and watches TV.

The election results come in and the candidate that John voted for wins over the candidate that Juan stayed home for.

In our modern Bizarro world, when the system works as intended (i.e. voters get to decide the outcome of elections), federal election law has been violated.

Self-determined behavior on the part of independent individuals now requires state intervention to ensure that members of a specific ethnic group are more likely to vote.

That is pure insanity.

I've no problem with the voting system itself. It seems no worse than any other, at first glance at least. But I do have a very big problem with the attitudes that have inspired this change. It doesn't take a latino to represent latinos any more than it takes a methodist to represent methodists. Ideas and Character are what matter, not ethnic Identity and skin Color. Bobby Jindal is living proof of this. If someone chooses to exclude themselves from the political process because no one from their self-defined identity group is on the ballot, then that person is a fucking loser.

I also dispute the notion that "our civilized society" decided that affirmative action (read racial discrimination) and minority redistricting (read Gerrymandering) are necessary to ensure equality. They do not produce equality, but its antithesis. Everyone should be held accountable to the same standards of conduct and performance. Ethnic Gerrymandering only serves to create and perpetuate ghettos, which is precisely why the left is so fond of it. They want ethnic minorities to feel isolated and marginalized so they'll be more likely to vote for the destruction the country as a whole. Divide and conquer is the name of the game.