From today's Post-Dispatch [1]:
[Ward Connerly’s so-Missouri Civil Rights Initiative] is distinguished by an extraordinarily deceptive title. Indeed, when a guy with a clipboard walks up to you at the supermarket and asks you to sign "the civil rights" petition, you'd probably be inclined to do so; most everyone is in favor of civil rights.
But the effect of this measure would be to roll back employment and education programs that took years of true civil rights struggle to achieve. And it would do so in cynical, dishonest fashion.…these highly motivated special interests are willing to deceive voters to get their names on the dotted line.
…Any straightforward discussion of the merits of affirmative action programs would laugh Mr. Connerly's civil-wrongs arguments out of the state. That's why he has to mask his plans true aim and sneak it through the back door. Missourians should slam it on him.
Earlier this week, we learned about Ward Connerly’s group’s use of fraudulent techniques to push their agenda [1] in Oklahoma.
But that’s not the first time they’ve been caught using fraud to push constitutional changes to ban affirmative action programs. Courts and the Michigan Civil Rights Commission documented that the group deceived voters [2] to get the measure on the ballot and passed in Michigan.Now the group is getting into the business of intimidating judges. They’ve already bullied one judge in Missouri [2] – Richard Callahan – into re-writing the ballot summary for their measure in order to mask its real purpose and deceive more voters into signing their petition. Callahan himself is on the ballot for reelection this November.
Missourians now face the great risk that their constitution will be changed in ways that very few people support because too many people --judges included-- are too scared to do anything to stop it. It's not enough that the Post-Dispatch editorial board recognize the fraudulent nature. We must all act to ensure that the truth be heard and our state be protected.