Tucker Carlson is concerned that some states are allowing 17 year olds to pre-register to vote and participate in party primaries if they will be 18 on election day. His argument is that 17 year olds are too immature to successfully order food at a restaurant, so they must be too stupid for their political opinions to be worthy of consideration.
However, Campus Reform reporter Katherine Timpf reassured him that some young people are disappointed in Barack Obama’s presidency and might actually vote for Republicans. This is the crux of the matter. Republicans oppose voter participation by any group who they think will not support them, while Democrats support the broadest voter participation possible.
Perhaps Democrats wouldn’t be quite so pro-voting if it worked against them, but I can’t imagine the Democrats arguing that their goal is to suppress certain voting groups. The Republicans do tend to couch their opposition to voting in terms of voter fraud in order to disguise their true intent, but they are often quite explicit about their desire to keep black turnout down, or to prevent college students from participating. There are groups that vote reliably Republican, but you never hear any talk from Democrats about suppressing their votes.
It is simply insane that the subject of “voter fraud” gets even a millisecond of coverage in the media or discussion among the beltway pundits. It is indisputable that the actual empirical evidence is simply overwhelming that voter fraud is almost statistically non-existent. So then, the only reason any media figure would even consider cover it would be because it furthers their own personal or corporate political agenda. It just fucking blows my mind when I see these discussions occurring where everyone sits around and talks about the hypothetical impact of massive voter fraud, when the actual pulling-off of such an event would require such a massive collusion of so many people as to be impossible to succeed.
It’s like sitting around hypothesizing about how horrible it would be if a meteorite slammed into MetLife stadium next Sunday during the Super Bowl halftime show. Yeah, it would be a monumental tragedy. But we don’t even consider building a meteor-proof dome over the damn thing, just in case.
Every discussion that ever takes place on this subject is simply fatuous. Yet almost no one in the media calls it what it for what it is.
Every discussion that ever takes place on this subject is simply fatuous. Yet almost no one in the media calls it what it for what it is.
Because the TradMed seems intent on proving Upton Sinclair right.
“you never hear any talk from Democrats about suppressing their votes”
True, that, and its too bad. I would like to see the Republicans playing defense for once.
Perhaps it could be argued people over the age of 75 shouldn’t be entitled to vote unless they can walk unaided into the polling station, because otherwise they are too likely to be unduly influenced by the person who helped them get to the poll.
Or, how about this? Anyone in receipt of government funding shouldn’t be entitled to vote — the Republicans would THINK this just meant that people on welfare were eliminated from the polls, but actually it would also include everyone on medicare….
In Oregon we vote by mail. With double super secret password protected envelopes. Wouldn’t at all be surprised if we vote via the Internet sometime soon.
Wonder if there’s an app for that?
Completely OT: Got to be in on a private sit-down with our Congressman yesterday. He delivered his Obamacare support talking points flawlessly, brought up income inequality (said to listen for the President to mention this in the SOTU). He gave us some insight into TPP. He’s glad people are organizing around it and he will pay particular attention to those topics that people bring up the most(ie Labor)but that we shouldn’t be in panic mode about this thing. So far only 2 from the House and one from the Senate have stepped up to sponsor it. It is a long way from passing the House. People haven’t even finished reading it yet. [so this fear-mongering by people like Alan Grayson is more about fund-raising is my take]
He said that the Farm Bill is getting closer to moving forward. Instead of 40 Billion cut in food stamps over the life of the Bill that the GOP is proposing…it will probably end up being more like 9 Billion.
He wants a privacy advocate for the FISA court and wants more transparency about their opinions, even if they’re redacted. He says the redacted opinions can still provide a lot of information to Congress. He and his Democratic colleagues aren’t buying the President’s explanations about the NSA at all.
He’s not sanguine about Immigration reform. The GOP is being hyper-partisan about the path to citizenship.
We only had access for 20 minutes, but the Congressman was very forth-coming and informative in that time. Best part for me was that he’s not running away from Obamacare at all!
He’s glad people are organizing around it and he will pay particular attention to those topics that people bring up the most(ie Labor)but that we shouldn’t be in panic mode about this thing. So far only 2 from the House and one from the Senate have stepped up to sponsor it. It is a long way from passing the House. People haven’t even finished reading it yet. [so this fear-mongering by people like Alan Grayson is more about fund-raising is my take]
Do you remember how NAFTA got passed? I could go on but if you think it’s all about fund-raising right now, you’re wrong. Corporations want TPP. And they want it bad.
As I recall, being one of both the generation and one who first voted at age eighteen, the voting age was lowered from twenty-one through the popular consensus that if we were old enough to fight in wars we were old enough to vote.
You’re either with us, or against us
.
No fear.
However, Campus Reform reporter Katherine Timpf reassured him that some young people are disappointed in Barack Obama’s presidency and might actually vote for Republicans.
Really? I can believe that young people are disappointed in Obama, but what are they disappointed about? That he’s not doing enough to stop abortion? That he’s over-regulating all the job creators? That he failed to use the word “terrorism” enough times?
No, the GOP basically has one message for young people: Don’t buy health insurance. Otherwise, it’s not like college students are going to embrace whatever neanderthal the Republicans nominate in 2016 just because he isn’t Barack Obama. Presumably there will be a Democratic nominee too, and if he or she has any brains then he or she will be offering solutions that will really help young people, like relief from student debt.
Vote Republican. We won’t make you eat your vegetables.
If it was up to me, anyone with a birth certificate in this country would automatically be registered to vote on their eighteenth birthday. And would stay registered until the government got a death certificate. Problem solved.
Don’t forget the $50.00 penalty if you don’t actually go and vote.
Oh, I don’t give a shit if they vote for Mickey Mouse or Adolf Hitler’s favorite puppy.
Get people to vote every single election, and by default they’ll pay more attention than they do now.
Tucker Carlson holding forth on immaturity. Bwahahahahahaa!
Not so unimaginable considering that Democrats did that for only like a hundred years. And when that became unacceptable to the Democratic Party as a whole, those Democrats became Republicans and have been pushing the voter suppression thing from the other side.