The vast left-wing fantasy

SUPPORTERS of Barack Obama were worried that if John McCain's campaign fell badly behind, it might resort to race-baiting. But Republicans have decided to try red-baiting instead. ACORN, the grassroots organization that has been working in poor areas for 38 years without the apparent overthrow of the government, is now being held up as "an extreme left-wing outfit" that is "destroying the fabric of democracy" and perpetrating a massive voter fraud.

On Thursday, House minority leader John Boehner called for cutting off all the $31 million that ACORN receives in federal grants (mostly for housing programs) until the FBI finishes investigating the fraction of falsified voter registration forms collected by ACORN canvassers. Never mind that the group itself flagged many of the discrepancies, and that actual voter fraud is exceedingly rare. It is only a matter of time before ACORN - the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - is linked to the radical terrorists of the 1960s.

So some facts are in order: ACORN's voter registration drives are only part of the group's advocacy, which includes free tax preparation to help the poor claim the earned income tax credit; ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage; activism against utility shutoffs; affordable housing; and a host of local issues from getting stoplights installed on dangerous traffic corners to improved trash pickup. The group's tactics include noisy street protests as well as standard legislative lobbying, but the aim is justice, not socialism.

Undeniably, ACORN has been sloppy in its voter registration campaigns and has seriously lax internal governance. But the real threat McCain sees is the half-million new voters ACORN registered, mostly in low-income areas that tend to vote Democratic. Since when is helping citizens exercise their franchise a radical threat to democracy?