Craziness in Kinston

Written by Sid BridgecloseAuthor: Sid Bridge Name: Sid Bridge
Email: sid@thesidagency.com
Site: http://www.theendive.com
About: Sid Bridge, APR is Senior Editor for Parcbench. He is also Editor-in-Chief of The Endive, an online humor magazine for conservatives. As Parcbench's Senior Editor, Sid enjoys working with a diverse team of writers, each with his or her own unique personality. Sid is a happily married father of four, and a rare breed - an orthodox Jew who likes muscle cars and wears cowboy boots.See Authors Posts (74) on October 22, 2009

This is one of those moments where we all need to take a break, run outside, and scream in frustration. As reported by Fox News, Kinston, North Carolina’s attempt to remove party affiliation from ballots was overruled by the the justice department.

The reason?

“the Justice Department ruled that party affiliations are needed in part to protect equal rights for black voters. The department determined that white voters in Kinston, N.C., would only cast their ballots for black candidates if they run as Democrats.”

The Justice Department has thwarted the attempts of the good people of Kinston to make people THINK before they vote.

Removing party affiliation from a ballot kills its status as a fast-food menu. You actually have to learn who your candidate is and maybe even what he stands for before you punch that button.

To make matters worse, this has somehow become a racial issue. I thought our Nobel Prize Poster Boy President eliminated race issues from politics and pop culture by getting elected and holding a beer summit. I guess I was wrong. The white people of Kinston apparently have to know that the African American candidate is a Democrat if they are going to vote for him.

Now we can all go outside and have that scream I mentioned before. When are we going to realize that using race to set policy like this only furthers racial divisions?!

I recently attended a conference featuring a former news reporter from New Orleans who is now a crisis communications expert. He devoted a great deal of time to criticizing Ray Nagin for failure to communicate the gravity of hurricane Katrina.

At one point, he stopped his presentation and said something very powerful to us.

When you vote, don’t look at party affiliation or race or any of that other fluff. Vote for the person you would follow into battle. Vote for someone you would trust with your life.

Apparently, the Justice Department doesn’t trust the people of Kinston enough to allow them to do that.

Perhaps next time they’ll pass legislation telling them who they have to vote for and what they have to think about it.

I’ll be outside, screaming.

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Sid Bridge, APR is the Senior Editor of Parcbench and the Editor-in-Chief of The Endive (www.theendive.com), a satirical news magazine. He also tends to vote for the guy who favors Chevy over Ford.