Anyone who knows me, knows I, while conservative in some aspects, hold most Republican Policy makers in contempt. I often seek out opinions that are opposed to my own, and take note when I see a valid point, but too often I when seeking out conservative opinion, I just see a lot of "Liberals think..." and "Liberals want to..." blobbidy, blobbidy, blah, blah.
There seems to be a market for that kind of talk, a holdover from when the Republicans were the minority party, where all of the opposition is painted with the same brush. It might be an OK strategy for a minority party, but now that they have been in control for over a decade, it just seems tired and sad and like the party of personal responsibility is just looking to pass the buck.
So I often find myself on the opposite side of the aisle, not so much in support of Democrats, but in opposition to Republicans. Well not so with regards to the latest stink over the Federal Election Integrity Act, which would require a person to show ID when they voted. According to
this story in the Washington post, Democrats have called it a "modern day poll tax." As a conceincous Southerner, I am well aware of what Poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests were, and what they were reprehensibly used for. I even find it ironic that some of the same people who now think English should be the only language used in our government are a few of the same people who had no problem with the previously mentioned literacy tests being administered in Mandarin Chinese to keep even the minorities who could pass the English version from voting.
I know very well racism is alive and well, but come on, requiring a voter show ID? Funny thing is I have often times had to show my ID when I voted here in Kentucky. I never fealt disenfranchised. Now I believe in Georgia there is the issue where a non-Driver has limited recourse to getting proper ID, and it does cost 20 bucks and that is a lot of money when your broke. But what about cashing checks or collecting benefits or recieving health care, how is this done with out ID? Why would the standards for the eligibility of casting votes be held to a lower standard than cashing a $10 check at the bank, or writing a check at the grocery market.
"Show me the examples of the problem you're trying to solve," demanded Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat who accused Republicans of trying to appeal to the "fear and -- yes, perhaps -- the prejudices of people."
A Republican cited a study by Johns Hopkins University that found 1,500 dead people who had voted in recent elections. Mr. Hoyer belittled the study, saying no criminal convictions for voter fraud had been won in any of those cases.
Mr. Bilbray pointed out that such convictions might be obtained if proper identification were required.
Criminal convictions do not answer how 1500 dead people voted! I have an idea, how about passing mandatory minimum prison sentences for people engaged in vote fraud? How about seizing their property in the manner we do drug dealers? Defrauding the voting process is treason, and those engaged in it deliberately should be shot.
Treason is a word that is getting thrown around a lot these days. A lot of folks on the right are saying it's treason to bad-mouth the president (at least in a time of war, or when they are Republican), it's treason to publish a news story about something the government is actually doing, it is treason to want to "cut & run" from Iraq, it is treason to protest where the terrorist can see it on TV. That is all bullshit.
Thwarting the voting process is a crime that should be punished with the same severity we reserve for the most heinous criminal offenders. We the people fought and died for that right when this country was founded. We the people fought, died and suffered for it in the subsequent years since then, opening the right to vote up first for the non-land owning white males, then for all men who were either grandfathered in and could pay a poll tax and pass a literacy test. Later, it was fought for and won for women once it was realized that the desire to vote in women was not a mental illness nor criminal offense. Then with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, after bloodshed from the clan and "citizen committees", to everyone over 21. The final bought with blood right to vote was granted to those who were expected to be called up to arms to fight our nations enemies when the 26th amendment granted it to those over 18.
Comparing something you got to do to cash a check with something you have to do to decide the fate of this nation to "an attack on the voting rights of millions of Americans", is just silly. It should be just common sense.
Labels: politics
