The Opposition…

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

Carol Anderson

Discussion: 2018-Oct-Nov-Dec

Why we're reading this: October 1, 2018
[close] October 1, 2018

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May 30, 2019 Letitia rated it really liked it

Shelves: human-rights, book-club-suggestions, 2019-to-read

Absolutely brilliant. No apologies, straight to the point, calling voter suppression out for what it is: white supremacy. If you are not passionate about voting rights as a point of political advocacy, if you don't understand why Kobach destroyed Kansas, if you have wondered what happened in 2016 and now what's ahead, read this book. You will become convinced, within a matter of pages, that voting rights - more than climate change, more than LGBTQ rights, more than universal healthcare, more tha Absolutely brilliant. No apologies, straight to the point, calling voter suppression out for what it is: white supremacy. If you are not passionate about voting rights as a point of political advocacy, if you don't understand why Kobach destroyed Kansas, if you have wondered what happened in 2016 and now what's ahead, read this book. You will become convinced, within a matter of pages, that voting rights - more than climate change, more than LGBTQ rights, more than universal healthcare, more than criminal justice reform - is the battle of the moment, and perhaps the battle of the American experiment.

Anderson's book is concise, very readable, and easily understood. She walks the reader through the history of vote suppression, and convinces through her own sheer conviction that this battle rages on and is no less connected to racism and class than it ever was.

My only hesitation in giving this book a higher rating is that there's more to say, and, as I always tell my students when I am grading their political position papers, you have to address at least one counter argument. Anderson does not. I think this would have strengthened her book, if she had tackled arguments that assert we DO need photo ID laws, or that representation is not an indication of racial parity. She doesn't address this, and because of this oversight, I feel the book depends too much on the assumption that the reader is in agreement. She also makes no bones about the partisan nature of voter suppression and while she's right, that also narrows her audience.

Additionally, I think this book could have been stronger had it been extended to include an exploration of identity politics and how that impacts voting; why do no Black representatives from a dominantly Black district indicate voter suppression? She had the space, and her reader had the bandwidth, to gain a much more nuanced understanding of how tiers of leadership impact vote suppression. The base doesn't make sure that Latinos aren't voting; that's the party leadership that does that, and they know exactly why they're doing it. I don't think the average farmer in Oklahoma thinks about how more people of color voting means the Republicans don't win, but Paul Ryan DEFINITELY thinks about it.

All in all, brilliant book. Great summary of one of the most serious issues that threatens America, and one that most people have only recently paid close attention to. Kudos to Anderson for presenting it in this readable and well-researched way. ...more

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