“Should we really have gone after reducing the turnout of voters in those places where we thought it would make a difference? The Republican Party should be a party that says, ‘We want everybody to vote,’ and make it easier to vote and give them a reason to vote for the party, [whereas] not to find ways to keep them from voting at all,” Powell said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Powell went on to note that “What’s happened in the last few years, is the party has shifted dramatically to the right “” that’s perfectly acceptable, but if you stay that far to the right, you’re losing where the country is.”
Please note, though Powell endorsed Obama twice, he was George W. Bush’s Secretary of State and still considers himself a Republican. He says he voted for seven straight Republicans for President before voting for Obama.
This from the man who went before the United Nations and lied to support US [Republican party] plan to invade Iraq…hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered because of him – now he’s concerned about voting…
That’s a bit unfair, Fusion.
There is a good deal of evidence both from Gen. Powell and from Col. Wilkerson that both men had been deceived by the intelligence agencies at the behest of Dick Cheney.
Powell had the fortitude to take responsibility for something he described as a lasting blot on his record.
Another politician, Joe Scarborough, said that the Republican Party is guilty of gerrymandering following the 2010 smackdown of House Democrats.
That brings him up to date on serious election dysfunction.
I find it hard to believe that Powell actually wholeheartedly believed the intel he quoted to the U.N. (I mean, none of us did, right? And we had our reasons at the time. And we were right. He’s not deaf, dumb, or blind.)
Show me a politician who doesn’t lie to the public…
Going to war with Iraq was completely indecent and he was a key player in getting us into the war. However, I strongly suspect going to war was a done deal. If not him, then someone else. I have no doubt they would have destroyed his credibility had he tried to deviate from the party line. It is pretty much ruined now, anyway, as far as I’m concerned.
Case of halfway decent guy in the wrong place at the wrong time…?
Anyway, I can’t argue with his criticism of the GOP.
There is not enough criticism of their gerrymandering, which IS working for them, so expect it to increase.
Ernest @ #2
It took the London Guardian about 24 hours after Powell spoke to publish with details the fact that the UK’s ‘good paper’ Powell touted was in fact plagiarized by Downing Street from a graduate student’s published paper..24 hours…and Powell, with all that staff, and weeks to prepare, couldn’t have conducted a review that a British newspaper did? Not to mention the long list of other misused so-called intel he trotted out –
He didn’t care enough to look? He believed/wanted to believe? to please his masters?
He recanted – when it became uncomfortable
Dick Cheney’s Haliburton was about to go bankrupt because Bill Clinton wouldn’t attack Iraq.
Which was why they attack Clinton the Monica to try to keep Gore a Vietnam vet out of office.
Dick Cheney trashed the CIA agents who told the truth like Valerie Plame and her husband and had the CIA continue to investigate the nuclear Iraq links.
Colin Powell as were every Liberal and Conservatives were lied to about the seriousness to get Dick Cheney’s and Bush’s war.
Now conservatives are dragging their feet to pay the bill in the debt limit.
Aside from all the skepticism regarding voter ID Laws, is it not reasonable to prove you are a US citizen when voting? If those who oppose it, then what are the solutions to this issue, because I don’t hear any, just more rhetoric how the republicans are rigging the game. The argument still stands, seeing that there have been reports of a number of foreign contributions to the campaign via internet, and if there is no system in place to prove US citizenship for voter registration, then what is to stop people who are not us citizens from voting? This just seems like an oxy moron.
Troy @ 8 asked:
First, it’s not “skepticism”, it’s the knowledge that polling place Photo ID laws disenfranchises thousands of legal voters but does absolutely nothing to stop voter fraud.
As to proving you are a US citizen when voting, the time for that is when registering, not when voting. By registering, in most states, you are offering an oath that you are a legal U.S. citizen. Your name and address are in a public database. If someone wants to present evidence that you are NOT a citizen, they may do that.
Well, there’s not really a problem here, so we don’t really need “solutions”. Voting by non-citizens is INCREDIBLY rare. But, again, names and addresses are known, so if public officials wish to try and confirm citizenship, they are welcome to do so. But they are not welcome to disenfranchise legal voters in the process.
You are conflating two different things. Foreign contributions via the Internet have nothing to do with non-citizens voting. Nothing. Not to mention, almost no non-citizens vote. How dumb do you have to be to tell the federal government your name and where you live if you’re not a citizen, risking jail time, huge fines and deportation in the process!
Powell is absolutely wrong on this one! When you vote you should show I.D. Now I know liberals had the forsight to flood America with Illegals and then let them vote illegally! This is how they win! Allowing 1 illegal to vote is to much! especially when democrats fight to keep military personell from sending in absentee ballots
Libssuck – You’ve got so many pieces of sheer and utter nonsense crammed into a single paragraph there, I’m gonna choose to believe you’re a parody account. Nobody could be that cluelessly misinformed, right?