I regularly frequent a smallish political discussion forum, originated and moderated by a black New Yorker of Puerto Rican ancestry named Lincoln Ramirez.  Lincoln is unwilling to count out the rolling wreck that the GOP presidential campaign has become. 

“I’m not sold,” he says, “because I don’t trust the Republicans and their bag of tricks. Voter suppression is a real menace. And the American people put Dubya in the White House (at least) once.”

There are efforts to suppress the crucial (for both sides) Latino vote going on in some states, to say nothing about the naked — and perennial — efforts to suppress the black vote in Ohio and Florida. 

However, Democrats should be hammering on the principle that it would be unconstitutional to change election laws within 6 weeks of the election — especially Latino Dems, like the supposed head of the Democratic progressive caucus, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona. The Grand Canyon State is the primary battlefield where the anti-immigrant forces are focusing their energy, and this includes the big for-profit prison industries who designed the Arizona legislation in the first place and used their Republican catspaws in the AZ State Senate to get it on the floor.

Heck, even in Mississippi I am not required to show a picture ID. I have a paper voter’s card that is signed by the precinct chairman, to whom I already presented my identification when registering to vote. And we’re supposed to be backward politically here.

I don’t deny what Lincoln Ramirez says, that the Republican capacity for treachery is unlimited. But they’ve drawn their line– they want a referendum election,  and they’re about to get one. 

There’s going to be tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth on the Republican side. The billionaires pumping tens of millions of dollars into the Romney/Ryan campaign are going to wake up after the election and wonder where the heck all that money went.

Of course — it being only 8 figures when they’re worth 10 figures — it’s not really going to hurt them in the slightest, except perhaps their pride. One almost has to wonder why — if the GOP was truly serious about taking over and “running this country”, to paraphrase Ann Romney, and given the blank check the Citizens United ruling represents to spend as much money as they want — the Kochs, Sherman Adelson and other billionaire GOP donors didn’t all pool up and spend nine figures apiece, and just buy the whole process. 

They could have done so legally after Citizen’s United.

Why, Mitt missed an opportunity in his international fishing for campaign contributions. He could have come put the touch on Mrs. Gina Rinehart, an Australian mining magnate, the richest woman in the world. She’s worth $18 billion; he could have asked her for a loan of a billion or so and bought the whole thing with one donation! 

In the Los Angeles Times business section, she whines because her company must compete with companies in other countries which pay their workers $2 or less a day. 

She’s Mitt’s kind of folks.

That said, I continue to caution that although Americans may resoundingly reject the Romney/Ryan ticket and philosophy,  at the state level they will continue to vote for the devils they know, and enough of them will be Republican that the efforts to exclude and stigmatize people of certain colors and classes will go on.