Petition Drive to Ban Affirmative Action Faces Hard Fight
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Matthew Hansen, Omaha World-Herald, July 1, 2008
{snip}
Defenders of current affirmative action policies are trying to disrupt [Ward] Connerly’s group at the outset at it tries to collect enough petition signatures to place the issue on the November ballot.
They send “blockers” who videotape petition circulators, document any alleged wrongdoing and discourage people from signing the petitions.
They accuse Connerly’s group of deception and publicize cases in which minorities have signed the petition believing it would strengthen, not erode, affirmative action.
They employ aggressive legal strategies, challenge petition signatures and force the issue into court.
The new game plan is simple, says a leader of one national group that opposes Connerly.
“The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That’s the only way we’re going to win,” said Donna Stern, Midwest director for the Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary.
The new game plan is working better than earlier strategies. {snip}
Already this year, opponents in Oklahoma and Missouri managed to keep the question off the ballot in those states.
{snip}
That leaves Nebraska, where the leaders of the main group opposing the ban, Nebraskans United, have signaled that they won’t allow the proposed Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative onto the ballot without a fight.
David Kramer, the group’s director, handed out video and audio clips last week that he said showed petition circulators breaking state laws.
{snip}
Connerly, in an interview, called the opposition’s new strategy “desperation.” He said Kramer is trying to take the focus off affirmative action because it’s a losing political issue.
The anti-affirmative action leader pointed to a recent opinion poll, funded by the Connerly-affiliated Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, as evidence that Nebraskans are on his side. It said that 71 percent of those surveyed favor ending preferences based on race, ethnicity and gender.
Connerly said that in Nebraska and elsewhere, affirmative action supporters are using “street thug tactics” like intimidation and videotaping to discourage people from signing petitions.
He reserved special disdain for a recent Nebraskans United radio ad that suggested that if people signed the petitions, their identities might be stolen.
{snip}
Even the name of Connerly’s group—the American Civil Rights Initiative—suggests that he’s in lockstep with the civil rights movement, opponents say, when most civil rights leaders strongly oppose banning affirmative action.
{snip}
In Nebraska, Kramer hopes the proposed constitutional amendment banning affirmative action can be defeated by voters if it does reach the ballot.
He pointed to the so-called “taxpayer bill of rights” initiative two years ago that seemingly was favored by Nebraskans in opinion polls done over the summer but failed at the ballot box in November.
{snip}
Kramer said the group then may file a legal challenge to any ruling from Secretary of State John Gale that would put the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.
And, because of the opposition, leaders of the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative know they will need to hand in more signatures than the minimum 115,000 required, said Doug Tietz, the group’s director.
“They’ve figured one thing out,” Tietz said. Keeping the proposal off the ballot “is their only chance.”
Email Matthew Hansen at matthew.hansen@owh.com.
(Posted on July 1, 2008)
Comments
I have so much respect for Ward Connerly. I watched him speak as part of a panel discussion on affirmative action at UCLA late last year. He was rudely interrupted and heckled while speaking, and during the Q&A session, a line of black students (who weren’t even enrolled at UCLA) lambasted him, babbling on about cognitive dissonance, and calling him an Uncle Tom, etc. He was so calm and reasoned. I wish the black community could see him as a role model, rather than just a target.
Posted by at 5:12 PM on July 1
I have no problem with affirmative action, BASED ON EQUAL MERIT. It is not, as we have seen with police and fire departments country wide, its about lowering standards. So why not call it “minority handout” or something relevant to what it actually is?
Posted by at 5:46 PM on July 1
These BAMN bozos are messing with Ward Connerly who is on a mission, an AMERICAN MISSION. Ward has right on his side and is backed by Americans who want to support the American Way and celebrate our Country’s birthdate on JULY 4. The goal is to send these malcontents back to Michigan and pay homage and respect to our founders for out fantastic country.. ALSO, let’s hear it for Ward Connerly!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Jake at 6:06 PM on July 1
Affirmative action has caused more problems than any program in history because it has placed people in jobs they weren’t qualified for and denied qualified applicants jobs based on their skin color. Because of this program all of us, in one way or another, have had to deal with blacks who were unfit for their work and made up for it with “attitude.” And it usually takes a white to straighten out a mess made by a black. We’ve all seen that too. Banning affirmative action would be one of the best things that could happen in this country because it would surely put people in positions they could handle and have a beneficial effect on all aspects of our society.
Posted by Vlad The Emailer at 6:48 PM on July 1
White people are bit by bit being denied any real self-government or voice in their own and their children’s future. A people that can’t fight via the ballot box against its own marginalization and stigmatization is eventually going to have to adopt other means less congenial to the traitorous governing elites.
Posted by Zorba_the_Geek at 7:08 PM on July 1
Now that is definitely way up on the ladder of pure arrogance! Isn’t it amazing how egalitarians/liberals give themselves away? Donna Stern knows that the majority of the populace would VOTE to do away with “affirmative action” (Black racial preference) programs.
Then she gives her self away by admitting that she knows most people are against an arbitrary, skin color based, governmental racial preference program. The following quote is proof of that.
“The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That’s the only way we’re going to win,”
She gives away the fact that she and her kind seek to rule over the majority population “by any means necessary” (tyranny). She and her kind “know best” and resort to trickery, mean spirited and hurtful, legal procedures in an attempt to FORCE their way on the rest of us.
Lies and deceit NEVER LAST!
Normal people leading normal lives can and sometimes DO rise to the occasion and defeat the evil plans of would be tyrants! The love of God and truth is a great motivator!
Keeping the Faith, dkidwell
Posted by dkidwell at 8:26 PM on July 1
“‘The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That’s the only way we’re going to win,’ said Donna Stern, Midwest director for the Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary.”
How laughably telling!
That is how I like to “win” my intellectual/ideological battles, by not fighting them at all.
Comrade Stern is typical of her kind, nothing but a worthless Red whore without enough work ethic or brains to understand that a “magic” show without any new tricks, isn’t worth seeing.
Michigan defeated her kinds’ efforts by 58%; hopefully, Barry Goldwater’s home state has enough decent human beings left in it to make it a 65% or better blow against the diversity apartheid, that is “affirmative action!”
Posted by John PM at 8:33 PM on July 1
Ah yes… And Barack Obama says that he dreams of a post-racial America; he wishes to “transcend” race… Yet, if we are truly to be a post-racial America and he truly wished to transcend race, then WHY does he continue to support Affirmative Action?
No race should receive preferential treatment! Equality for ALL!
Posted by Jackers at 9:02 PM on July 1
DONT ONE OF THESE MEN WHO ARE AGAINST AFFIRMATIVE ACTION,IN WARD CONNERLYS GROUP, HAVE A BIG BURLEY MEAN FIRE BREATHING WIFE THAT COULD JUST LITERALLY TAKE DONNA STERN OUT BEHIND THE BARN AND CLEAN HER CLOCK SO BAD THAT SHE WOULD NEVER WANT TO SET FOOT IN ARIZONA AGAIN?
Posted by DANJACK at 12:42 AM on July 2
““The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That’s the only way we’re going to win,” said Donna Stern, Midwest director for the Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary.”“
Really, does any reasonable person need to read more than this to know where morality lies? At once it is revealed that affirmative action is an injustice and that those defending it are malevolent.
Posted by Sunder at 4:33 AM on July 2
AA is not only racist and a terrible injustice to any white who wants to get aherad, it is also unjust to reasonably intelligent members of the protected minority classes that truly study hard, EARN their grades and LEARN how to do the job they want. If they earn it on merit, everybody still assumes they are there by AA and acts accordingly. It’s time to end this farce once and for all.
Posted by at 10:45 AM on July 2
The only thing Obama is going to do is persecute authentic Christians and Catholics for holding to an apostolic foundation like they ought to while he spends their money. His flowery words are just a coverup.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 12:06 PM on July 2
“DONT ONE OF THESE MEN WHO ARE AGAINST AFFIRMATIVE ACTION,IN WARD CONNERLYS GROUP, HAVE A BIG BURLEY MEAN FIRE BREATHING WIFE THAT COULD JUST LITERALLY TAKE DONNA STERN OUT BEHIND THE BARN AND CLEAN HER CLOCK SO BAD THAT SHE WOULD NEVER WANT TO SET FOOT IN ARIZONA AGAIN?
Posted by DANJACK at 12:42 AM on July 2 “
I know one. I’ll give him a call.
Posted by Wild Eyed Charlie at 1:25 PM on July 2
“I have no problem with affirmative action, BASED ON EQUAL MERIT”
The statement quoted above is a contradiction in terms.
Posted by at 5:56 PM on July 2
One has to wonder how many of these challenges are based on provocateurs ‘mistakenly’ signing these petitions.
Our side needs to start setting up hidden cameras to film everyone signing these petitions and then review the tapes for familiar faces.
I am a big proponent of filming all our events. The left has used manufactured and selective photos and video to spread their lies. We can easily expose their tactics and lies by having our own photos and video.
Fight fire with fire.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 1:25 PM on July 3