Why was disability not discussed in yesterday’s elections?

Staff Column
By Jim Dickson

Primary elections are arguably much more important than the general elections.  Primaries are where candidates identify their supporters and decide issues on which to campaign.  By the time the general election comes around, the winning candidates who have survived the primaries, have fashioned their platform, made their promises and decided on the themes for stump speeches, issue papers and campaign ads.  There is a reason they are not called “secondaries.”  Webster dictionary defines “primary” as “first or highest in rank, quality or importance….preliminary to a later stage in a continuing process.”

People with disabilities do not vote in primaries.  Only 0.5% of us are regular primary voters.  Beginning in the 1980s, the Evangelical community made voting in the primaries a major objective with the result that Evangelical issues are a part of political discourse.  Pastor Rod Parsley, founder and president of Moral Clarity said, “There is no such thing as just a primary.”

In 1993, at the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, he startled the chattering classes when the first major issue he pushed was gays in the military.  Why did Bill Clinton do this?  Was he surprised it was controversial?  No.  Did he think it would be an easy fight?  No.  He kept his promise to the first organized constituency that supported him in the primaries.  The Gay and Lesbian community were the first group to consistently deliver votes to Bill Clinton in his bid for the presidency. 

It is not enough for individuals with disabilities to vote.  We must organize issued-based Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) drives focused on issues and we have to be able to prove that we turned out our people.  Any political candidate who is going to campaign on disability issues without proof that people with disabilities vote in the primaries will be a loser.  We need to organize lists of people with disability interests, phone bank them with nonpartisan issues, and after Election Day, check against the voter registration file to see who actually votes.  This is called a list enhancement.

Only about 7% of the general public cares deeply about the pro-choice/pro-life issue.  Yet every elected official has a position on the abortion question.  Why?  Approximately 3.5% of the public votes for pro-choice candidates.  But that 3.5% makes up nearly one quarter of dependable Democrat primary voters.  The other 3.5% makes up nearly one quarter of dependable Republican primary voters. 

Disability issues are going to be left out of public discourse until we are an organized voting bloc.

Comments

[Catherine]

Excellent post. I wonder about this all the time -- at least that makes 2 of us.

[Larry Wanger]

Jim:

You’ve hit the nail on the head in that until we vote as a sizable block, candidates just are not going to do more than give lip service to the disability community. 54 million of us and yet we’re not given the respect and authority that seniors, evangelicals, unions or the gay/lesbian communities get from candidates. I think that enough people in our community understand that we need to establish this block. Yet, how do we do this? How do we become that block of voters that candidates must approach and give compelling reasons to in order to secure our support? How do we go from a group that gets lip service to a block of voters that is in the top five considerations when a candidate plots his or her campaign strategy? Obviously, one way you do that is through turning out high numbers of voters. We’ve tried to address accessibility as a voting issue and one reason why voters with disabilities don’t participate in the election process. And, we’ve probably got a long way to go with this issue but I believe its gotten far better thanks to HAVA, not to mention options where people can vote by mail or absentee. I’d hope that this all increases the numbers of us who do vote. I think though that apathy, lack of access for some voters, awareness and feeling a connection to a broader disability community are all barriers that we face. I strongly believe that we need to direct some of our efforts to building a broader identity as a disability community where we recognize ourselves as that block of 54 million people and yet retain some identity in terms of our individual issues and concerns. On one hand we send a message that we want to just be like everyone else and yet we also want people to get the message that there are millions of us with disabilities and that we should not only celebrate that but make it very apparent to others. Voting blocks work because the people who are part of those groups are aware of issues impacting them, they self-identify with an issue or characteristic that brings them together with many others and there is ready access to information and other members of that same voting block. We as a community face some serious barriers in establishing ourselves as a strong voting block because we’ve not done enough to put the foundations in place.

Larry
www.disabilitynation.net

[Maureen Linehan Howard]

I felt the same way- so I decided to find out the position of each candidate on disability issue. Well, I was pleased to see that Sernator Barack Obama has a plan on his website and that there is a very active and dynamic disability policy committee involved with his campaign, so I joined the committee! In fact many members are former Bill Clinton era officials.

I have attached a link to an open letter to the disability community from former Clinton Administration officials endorsing Barack Obama for President of the United States that we issued today. Each of these officials worked on disability policy and/or programs in the executive branch during the 1990s.

We hope that this letter will help fuel the growing enthusiasm in the disability community for Barack Obama.
http://my.barackobama.com/
page/community/post/DisabilityPolicyBlog/CGMmH.

I encourage everyone to go to Barackobama.com and join the disabilty group- let your voice be heard. Barack is the only candidate who will appoint a person with a disability to oversee disabilty issues and report directly to him. AS persons with disabilities, this our chance- a leader that will not only listen to our issues but will give us the authority to solve them.
We can no longer accept the status quo- excuses for why the ADA has not been enforced- we must come together and shout "YES WE CAN!" To quote or dear friend and leader Justin Dart-Advocate "as if your life depended on it- because it does!"

Maureen Linehan Howard

[Maureen Linehan Howard]

In case the link didn't work -here is the letter:

FORMER CLINTON ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ENDORSE BARACK OBAMA

“Barack Obama is the disability community’s best choice for change.”

February 6, 2008

Dear Friends:

We were privileged to work for President Bill Clinton in senior appointed positions related to disability policy and programs. We are proud of the progress made during the 1990s on behalf of the disability community and all Americans.

Yet, in 2008, we believe that Barack Obama is the disability community’s best choice for change. We support Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. We urge you to join us in voting or caucusing for Barack Obama.

Every day, people with disabilities face unimaginable barriers and blatant prejudice that most Americans never encounter. As a result, people with disabilities are employed at a much lower rate than other Americans. They have a higher poverty rate and a lower home ownership rate. Students with disabilities are less likely to earn a high school diploma and even less likely to get a four-year college degree. The number of people with disabilities who depend on Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income is rising while fewer and fewer are able to live independently and support themselves.

These challenges did not arise for the first time when George W. Bush entered the White House. The problems are stubborn and long-lasting. Certainly, the empty rhetoric and lackluster policies of the past seven years have made a difficult road more difficult for Americans with disabilities. We believe change --- dramatic change --- is necessary and possible. We deeply believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate to lead our nation and to help us change our world.

Barack Obama’s goal is our goal --- a world free of barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination. He has proposed a Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities that sets the right agenda for achieving that goal. We urge you to read his Plan by going to www.BarackObama.com, clicking on the “Issues” tab, and then clicking on “Disabilities,” or going directly to http://www.BarackObama.com/issues/disabilities. Even more important than the specific details of the plan is the fact that he has a plan. He has focus.

Barack Obama’s understanding of the hopes and dreams of Americans with disabilities and their families, and his knowledge of the barriers they face, run deep. He knows what it means to be denied health insurance because of one’s pre-existing condition: his own mother worried about whether her new health insurance policy would deny her coverage as she lay dying from cancer. He learned about the every-day barriers people with disabilities face from his father-in-law, Frasier Robinson, who lived with multiple sclerosis. From his wife Michelle, he learned what families must overcome when supporting a loved one with a disability. Barack Obama has faced down and helped others topple bigotry all of his life. As a community organizer, a civil rights attorney, a state legislator, and a U.S. Senator, he has constantly reached beyond what divides us to forge a working majority for hope. He believes our nation’s best days lay ahead of us --- not behind us. He helps us believe in the most powerful American dream --- that together we can build a more just and perfect union, that together we can change the world. For Americans with disabilities, this is the kind of leader we need. Barack Obama has the experience we must have in the next President of the United States of America.

As President, he will bring us together --- all of us --- to build a society in which every person can feel that they belong, each person can achieve to the limits of his or her abilities, and all people can make a difference. We hope you will join us in supporting Barack Obama for President of the United States. Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Seth Harris, Former Counselor to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, andFormer Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy

Paul Steven Miller, Former Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Former White House Liaison to the Disability Community

Sue Swenson, Former Commissioner, Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Robert R. Williams, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

[terri]

This is a very important question. This is a link to a post about a group of people who are attempting to address this issue. Check it out.
http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/comments/get_the_candidates_talking_about_you/

[Robert Evans]

HAVA, The help America Vote Act, requires one accessible voting machine in every polling place and the federal government put up three billion dollars to do this and other things for the benefit of the disabled community.

People with disabilities are always demanding access and equal treatment. But if they cannot get themselves registered to vote on their own, (about half are not registered), why should the taxpayer have to put up so much money?

While it's a fact that not all polling places are accessible, it takes time to fix 80,000 locations. In the meantime there are alternatives such as absentee voting, and if the polling place is not accessible election officials will bring the ballot to the curb so a voter can even vote from his or her car.

In my opinion, no more federal money should be spent for accessible voting until people with disabilities stop complaining and get themselves registered and voting. in these times of limited funding before the tax payer spends any more money on access, let's see the disability community prove it really wants to vote.

[James Weisman]

While I agree that candidates rarely acknowledge the needs and rights of people with disabilities I feel they vote in greater numbers than we assume. Since there is no "disability" voting block, people with disabilities and those who care about disability issues vote their concerns about Iraq, the economy, and other mainstream matters.

We must encourage the candidates, the news media, disability organizations and publications, people with disabilities, their families and friends to consider disability issues politically. Jim's right, voting's the solution, and there's already plenty of us voting- but not necessarily like we care about disability issues.

[online insurance]

I am pregnant and employed with a small company in New Jersey. My company does not have Short Term Disability insurance. I read recently that NJ is one of 5 states that requires this insurance by law. Does that law apply to all companies, or only companies of a certain size? Am I out of luck? Should I buy my own insurance? Thanks for any advice!