It’s really funny how things happen.
Apparently Rock the Vote started a campaign e-mailing mock draft notices to members. Apparently the Republican National Committee didn’t really like this. Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the RNC, noted that he believed the “misinformation campaign” was “being conducting [sic] with malacious intent and reckless disregard for the truth.” His basis for this statement? Bush and Rumsfeld said that we won’t have a draft. (For the record, Kerry said the same thing.) Gillespie ordered RtV to cease and desist with the campaign or else face legal action.
Hmm, that’s interesting. I’d say the possibility’s still there, seeing as how I had to register for the thing and they say on their site that they’ll “maintain its readiness as required by law.”
Jehmu S. Greene, the president of Rock the Vote, didn’t like that as much as Gillespie didn’t like the first thing. In a response, Greene asserted that the organization had a right to publicize the possibility of a draft and marked Gillespie’s comments as “attempted censorship.”
My opinion? The draft issue will get young people (yes, men and women, seeing as how the latest draft legislation isn’t gender-biased) to vote, and it’s an issue concerning them. Rock the Vote had the right to do it. I think they might have been a bit too forward, from what I’ve heard, but they have the right – just like the RNC has the right to misleadingly characterize Kerry as a flip-flopper. It just scares me that either party would attack an organization whose sole purpose is to get people to vote over something like this.
Lots of good stuff over this at the Democracy Now! site. I’m really disappointed at how dirty this campaign has become for both sides – and it still bothers me that no matter how hard I try, no matter who tries to convince me, I can’t come up with a single reason why I’d vote for Bush. Must we resort to this sort of childish bickering on an issue this important? I really hope not, but I fear it’s already happened. Things like this really make me want to get into politics.
(An interesting aside: the RNC letter was cc’d to a few organizations, including Vince McMahon of WWE [that made me chuckle] and bigwigs at MTV, AOL, Time Warner, and NBC. The Rock the Vote letter? NBC, MTV, AOL, Time Warner… Jay, Conan, and David… and Jon.)