Do you think the Republicans would be pushing voter photo ID laws if they didn’t think it would benefit them politically? I think you can forget about that.
State Treasurer candidate Diana Irey Vaughan may have stolen the show at the Republican State Committee meeting this past weekend, but that doesn’t mean other party members didn’t have anything to say.
In fact, one of them had a lot to say.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) suggested that the House’s end game in passing the Voter ID law was to benefit the GOP politically.
“We are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we’ve talked about for years,” said Turzai in a speech to committee members Saturday. He mentioned the law among a laundry list of accomplishments made by the GOP-run legislature.
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
I don’t think the voter photo ID requirement is going to allow Romney to win Pennsylvania. but it will definitely cause the president to get many thousand fewer votes. In theory, the Pennsylvania law could change the outcome of the state election and therefore the national election. But it wouldn’t do this by preventing voter fraud. It would do it by preventing registered Democrats from voting. It would “allow” Romney to win even though most registered voters didn’t want him to win.
To get an idea how brainwashed the right is about this, let me tell you a story. When CabinGirl went to vote in our primaries, a Republican poll worker informed her about the new photo ID law. She said that they were asking for photo ID’s for the primary election but they wouldn’t actually be required until the general election in November. When CabinGirl complained about this requirement, the lady said, “We need to do this to keep the terrorists from voting.”
Think about the nitroglycerin of stupid required for someone to make a statement that dumb.
That’s what watching Fox News all day can do to a previously perfectly-good human brain.
But all non-whites are terrorists, don’t you know?
Remember the frying egg commercials? “This is your brain on FOX.”
The coup, my friend, is well underway. Very soon -perhaps as soon as 2013- there is going to be another civil war, or some other breakdown. And it will be entirely due to things like Citizens United, overturning the ACA, etc.
Admit it: if the red states decided to secede, who would enlist to preserve the union? We’re going down the same path as USSR, and it’s gonna be uglier.
Crap like this will go on and on as long as politicians are never held to account for their statements. In this case, is this Republican charging that Dems have won the previous presidential election through vote fraud? Pretty serious charge that would call for criminal penalties. So where’s his evidence? Or is he openly admitting that the ID law will work as intended by denying qualified Dem voters their right to vote?
But will anyone press these questions? Will the ass be called before a Senate committee to determine whether he made false statements charging criminal behavior? Of course not. That would be boring and make republicans mad. So we just sink deeper into a flag-waving narcosis as the country crumbles around us. What else is new?
BTW, the last sentence raises kind of a chicken-or-egg question: did Fox viewers begin with perfectly good brains that got corrupted by the TV, or were their maggoty simulacra of brains inexorably drawn to Fox News the way dog-boys are drawn to roll in shit? We report. You decide.
I guarantee you that no one is stupid enough to come up with such a dumb comment without being subjected to the 24 Hours of Hate.
Hmm…and what obligation would that be, I wonder? Also, ensuring no
black Kenyan socialistDemocrat ever sullies the White House again.“It would do it by preventing registered Democrats from voting.”
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And very likely by preventing new voters from registering at all.
that, too.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Now you know why I advocate so strongly for not disenfranchising people who go to prison from the get-go. I mean, this is part of it. I do not believe the right to vote should ever be taken away, no matter your conduct. But the inability to get it back once it’s taken away only fuels that belief.
Turzai just opened the door wide for the DoJ to step in. It’s called “discriminatory intent,” and the Voting Rights Act specifically forbids it.
nobody with sense believed otherwise, BooMan
Jail time for anyone making decisions that prohibit voters from voting will stop this insanity.
When I was growing up I was taught that one of the things behind our justice system was that it was better that 10 guilty people go free rather than one innocent person be punished. (Okay, it really only referred to white people).
Well, apparently the current GOP belives that it is better that a thousand legitimate voters (preferably non-white) be not allowed to vote than have one mythological non-legitimate (again non-white) voter be allowed to vote.
There is no doubt that is their hope, their intention, and their motive.
But it is far from a sure thing and, in any case, it is absurd to suppose there was no fraud based on impersonation that is made impossible by this law.
Interesting question how much, though when elections are stolen successfully no one misses them, anyway, so to speak.