Gimps Overwhelmingly Liberal, Not Voting

I've always been a liberal to some degree. As a kid, I'd dress up as FDR for Halloween. I was one of the lone Democrats in my heavily Republican highschool. I've been registered as either Green or Dem all my voting life.

And I'm not alone:

June 27, 2000 -- A new political-attitude survey of people with disabilities has found them to be more liberal than the general population, as might be expected in a group that often accepts government services, but also reveals a strong streak of skepticism about government, says study author John Gastil, a University of Washington assistant professor of speech communication.

The findings were based on telephone surveys of 302 disabled and 1,485 non-disabled people ages 18-64 in New Mexico, a state whose party affiliations and election results closely mirror the nation's as a whole.

In the surveys, 52 percent of those with disabilities identified themselves as Democrats and 23 percent as Republicans, compared with the general state population surveyed of 43 percent Democrats and 39 percent Republicans.

Yeah, it's six years old, but I imagine the numbers are even higher. No Child Left Behind has really made a mess of disabled education, and the stem cell debate along with Medicare and Social Security 'overhauls' by the GOP congress has been a nightmare. For example:

The report also examined what the task force called conflicts between the federal law and the disabilities act. Under No Child Left Behind, a disabled eighth grader whom educators deem to be working at a sixth grade level must take examinations for eighth graders. The report said the requirement contradicted provisions in the disabilities act requiring school authorities to devise a unique program suited to the needs and abilities of each disabled child.

"N.C.L.B. requires students with disabilities to be tested by grade level, while IDEA mandates that students be taught according to ability," the report said.

A Republican state representative from Utah, Kory M. Holdaway, who is a special education teacher as well as a task force member, said the federal law's provisions for educating the disabled were a special irritant in his state.

Now add it all together and you get a pretty big chunk of Democrat voters, right?

Wrong.

The problem is, they aren't voting:

People with disabilities are about 20 percentage points less likely than those without disabilities to vote, and 10 points less likely to be registered to vote, say researchers who conducted a national random-household telephone survey of 1,240 Americans of voting age after the November, 1998 elections.

(Snip)

If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as those without disabilities, there would have been 4.6 million additional voters in 1998, raising the overall turnout rate by 2.5 percentage points

Can you say President Al Gore?

So why are gimps holding out? As the above study points out, about 27% aren't voting because they don't think they'll be able to physically do it or even get to the polling place. Only 8% who do vote actually do have problems. I never have, and polling places are required to assist voters with special needs.

And then there's absentee balloting, which makes it even easier.

So come on, Democratic Party. Talk to us. There are 20% of the American public identified as disabled, and they're overwhelmingly liberal. They're literally waiting to vote for you.

Many of us were born blind or deaf. What's your excuse?