By Selwyn Duke

Not far from where this writer lives is the village of Port Chester, NY.  It’s a little corner of the world that, sadly, is being targeted by the U.S. Department of Injustice.  The tyrannical bureaucracy is using our tax dollars to sue the village based on phony voting-rights allegations, meaning, of course, that Port Chester is forced to use its residents’ tax dollars to defend itself.

At issue is the village’s "at-large" voting system, whereby all town residents may cast votes for all of the locality’s seven trustees.  (For some background on the case, click here.)

So what’s the problem with one man, one vote, you ask?  Well, the shysters at the DOJ claim that Hispanic residents are being disenfranchised because although they constitute 22 percent of the village’s voting-age population, no Hispanic candidate has ever won a trustee seat.   The Feds want Port Chester’s residents to vote based on districts so that once a Hispanic district is carved out, a Hispanic will be almost assured of winning a seat.

I had no idea that democracy was meant to guarantee representatives who exactly match an area’s racial composition.  So now I suppose we’re to have quotas applied to elections. 

And let’s be clear on something: The village’s voting system is the same as it has always been; it did not change it because of demography.

This outrageous intrusion by Uncle Scam is unjust on more than one level.  First, when was such an action ever taken on behalf of other ethnic groups years ago?  During our history we’ve had many localities in which a given group might not have had the numbers necessary to put one of its members in office.  (In fact, this might have been the case with those of Italian descent in Port Chester at one time.)  All of these groups, whether they were of Italian, Irish or some other descent,  assimilated into the American political system without preferential treatment.  Why the double standard?

As to these Americans of different  heritage, if we’re going to break this down ethnically, why are all whites lumped together?  Perhaps we should ascertain what percentage of an area’s population has a given ethnic background (e.g., Irish) and then ensure that just that percentage of the representatives share it.  Let’s not just play the numbers game when it supposedly benefits a politically-favored group.

Then, what is more bigoted than the notion that one cannot be represented by a member of a different ethnicity?  Should I never vote for a black person?  The last I heard, people of different backgrounds can actually have things in common, such as, mercy me, a shared ideology. 

Lastly, it doesn’t take more than a few brain cells to figure out that such action is never taken when whites are underrepresented.  This is nothing but a most disgusting, invidious form of social engineering, and President Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for not reigning in the DOJ.

As for the DOJ, maybe it’s time to cut the funding of this intrusive bureaucracy, as it obviously has too much time and money — our money — on its dirty hands.

Stay posted.  A ruling on this case should be handed down very shortly.