I was shocked (shocked!) to hear over breakfast a while back that my friend Peter L. will vote for neither Obama nor Romney. All my posts about how politics is a practical business, how it's always about the lesser of evils,and about how foolish it is to let the best become the enemy of the good have fallen on deaf ears. But I won't give up on old Peter: he's worth saving from the remnant of his liberal folly.
When you vote for a president, you are not voting for just that one person. You are voting for his entourage as well. And for Obama that entourage is a sorry lot including as it does Eric Holder who became Attorney General. Remember the outrageous suit his Justice Department brought against Arizona re: S. B. 1070? (See my Arizona category for 1070 posts.) Now the issues raised by S. B. 1070 are complex. But the issue raised by photo ID laws is not. It's a very simple issue and there ought not be any dispute about it whatsoever. And yet our esteemed Atty Gen'l is going after states with photo ID laws making irresponsible accusations of 'disenfranchisement' and comparing the requirements to poll taxes.
Anyone with common sense ought to be able to appreciate that voting must be conducted in an orderly manner, a manner to inspire confidence in the citizenry, and that only citizens who have registered to vote and have satisfied the minimal requirements of age, etc., are to be allowed into the voting booth. Given the possibility of fraud, it is therefore necessary to verify the identities of those who present themselves at the polling place. To do this, voters must be required to present a government-issued photo ID card, a driver's license being only one example of such. It is a reasonable requirement and any reasonable person should be able to see it as one.
Suppose you don't have a driver's license. How hard is it to get a photo ID? Not very hard. In Arizona it costs only $12 and is available at any DMV office. And it's good for 12 years. That comes to a dollar a year. That's a hell of a deal, especially when you consider all the other things you can do with that nifty photo ID such as open a bank account, cash checks, use credit cards, buy alcohol and tobacco products, apply for store credit, secure a library card, etc. You can now start doing all the things that normal citizens do. Ain't that grand? You can stop being a nonentity. Remember what your Uncle Quine taught you, "No entity without identity." If you tell me you don't do any of those things, and don't have any desire to do them, then why are you so interested in voting? You don't have a bank account, or cash checks, etc., but you have a burning desire to vote?
If you are 65 or older or a recipient of Social Security disability benefits you can get the ID for free. So what's your excuse for not securing a photo ID? If you are that lazy, how informed will you be about the issues on which you have such a burning desire to vote?
Liberals feel that the photo ID requirement will 'disenfranchise' many blacks and other minorities. This shows that we conservatives have a higher view of you minorities than do your 'keepers,' the Dems.
Some people want to play the 'numbers game.' They claim that there have only been a few cases of voter fraud. If you think that, then I refer you to the work of John Fund and Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. And please note that the number of convictions in courts of law for voter fraud is bound to be much much lower than the actual cases of voter fraud. And if there are. contrary to fact, very few cases of voter fraud, then, by the same token, there are very few people who lack photo ID.
But there is no need to play the numbers game at all. It's matter of principle. Will we have a election system that is credible and worthy of respect or not?
Those who oppose photo ID have no good reasons, but they have plenty of motives, and I fear that they are of the unsavory kind.
Recent Comments