Voter ID: Why do Democrats Resist?

Today I got an email from the State Representative, Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) that represented the district where I used to live.  It was a pretty simple email, notifying "Constituents and "Friends of District 103" that the Democrat party needed something from them.

I haven't lived in his district for a couple of years, and this is the first email I can recall getting from him since I moved.  Kind of like those "friends" you never hear from unless they want something.

Anyway, below is the text of his email, the subject of which was simply "Texas Voter ID Lawsuit":

Dear Constituents and Friends of District 103:

The Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee is seeking voters willing to be named as intervenors in the voter ID lawsuit who fit the following criteria:

1. The voter is Hispanic, African American or Asian (i.e. groups protected under the Voting Rights Act);

2. The voter does not have any of the forms of ID that would be available under the voter ID bill. 

The types of ID that will be necessary if the voter ID bill is approved are:

• Driver’s license, election identification certificate, personal identification card, or concealed handgun license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety;
• United States Military identification card containing the person’s photograph;
• United States citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph; or
• United States passport.
• With the exception of the U.S. citizenship certificate, the identification must be current or have expired no more than 60 days before being presented for voter qualification at the polling place.

3. The voter would have trouble obtaining the free Election Identification Certificate for some reason (doesn't have necessary documents, too far to travel, etc.);

4. The voter is willing to testify to that effect (their testimony would likely be taken in the town where they live, not DC)

If you know of any individuals who meet the above-referenced criteria, please contact Cliff Walker, Executive Director, of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee at (512) 473-2004 or at cliff@texashdcc.com.  Thank you for your time on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Rafael Anchia

State Representative

District 103

It's not hard to figure out which part of this letter I was reading that first pissed me off.

And, somehow I was not up to speed on the issue of voter ID in Texas, so I had to do some homework to get caught up.

Last year, the Texas Legislature passed a bill requiring that voters show an acceptable form of government-issued identification in order to cast a vote at a polling place in the Lone Star State.

However, the bill cannot be enacted without approval known as "pre-clearance" from the federal government's Department of Injustice.  You see, about 100 years ago, Texas and various other states had some problems with voter discrimination.  So the feds - by way of the Voting Rights Act - insist on reviewing and providing final approval of anything we and these other states do that would have any impact to elections.

Six months later the Department of Injustice still has Texas' bill on its desk, in no hurry to provide the required approvals despite the bill specifically indicating that it was to be enacted in time for the Texas primaries.  It's no secret that the feds don't like Texas and Texas doesn't like the feds, so the delay isn't much of a surprise.

After having run out of patience, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit against the federal government a few days ago to light a fire under the feds' asses so the bill would be approved.  And, based on this email from Rep. Anchia, opponents of the voter ID bill are gearing up for a fight.


Democrats whine that the voter ID requirement would be de facto discrimination against a large part of their voter base - minorities - because they are disproportionately poor and less likely to have the required identification than other groups, while Republicans (and other rational, intelligent people) know that a voter ID requirement is necessary to minimize voter fraud.


State Rep. Dawanna Dukes (D-Austin), one of Anchia's Democrat buddies, was eager to display her stupidity for all to see when she smugly declared that the burden is on the state of Texas to prove that requiring ID to vote isn't discriminatory.  Apparently she is indeed a minority, because the majority of people know you can't prove a negative.


Further, the United States Supreme Court has recently dismissed the Democrats' weak argument against voter ID laws in Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 07-21 (2008), saying, "The inconvenience of making a trip to the [Bureau of Motor Vehicles], gathering the required documents, and posing for a photograph surely does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote, or even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.".  (It's even easier than that here in Texas).  


But let's pretend for a second that there is something to the Dems' argument that requiring ID creates an undue burden on the poor.  Why does Anchia's Democrat party only want to hear from minorities as stated in criteria #1 in his letter above?  Can someone please explain to me how OTC's (Other Than Caucasians) are somehow MORE burdened than an equally poor Caucasian person would be?  Is it somehow MORE difficult for OTC's to obtain identification than it is for Caucasians?


Of course not.


So then, why IS it that Democrats fight so hard against voter ID laws every time a state proposes one?


The only plausible explanation is that they depend heavily on dead people, illegal aliens, and people that don't exist (voter fraud) to have any chance at winning elections.

Income "Inequality": Good or Bad?

The mainstream media have been very busy lately, between churning out as many stories as possible about the accusations of impropriety against Herman Cain, working feverishly to ensure the Occupy protests stay firmly atop the fold, and "reporting" anything and everything they can find critical of the diversity among income levels in America.

The accusations against Cain are pretty typical election season muckraking by the leftist lapdog media, no surprise there.  The effort to keep the Occupy movement in front of everyone's consciousness might help the left, if only those darn protesters weren't raping children, pushing little old ladies down stairs, assaulting police officers, trashing businesses, and other various & sundry acts of "peaceful protest".

But I digress, as the issue that stuck in my craw today is being touted as "income inequality".  Big and prominent on the Yahoo homepage today is a link entitled, "Remake America: Income Inequality".  Yahoo claims this is a "conversation" they want to have about "solutions", after running a short video of people moaning and whining about their low-paying job, having to pay the mortgage for a house they can't afford, the rising cost of groceries and gas, and bleating about how "unfair" it is that the rich are rich and they are not.

Evidently Yahoo thinks the answer is to "remake America", much as Obama wants to "fundamentally transform" her.  Apparently Yahoo hasn't been paying attention to what has been going on in the country; Obama is racking up failures in his bid to transform America almost as fast as the country is racking up debt.  Just another example of how the left utterly refuses to learn from history, and demonstrates its collective insanity by trying the same things over and over again, expecting different results.  I guess it's Yahoo's turn to give insanity a whirl.

Life isn't fair, and there is always going to be "income inequality" in a free country.  That's just how it is, and always will be.  In fact, aside from free will, there is little else that is equal.  Folks say there is equal opportunity for everyone, but let's face it, not everyone has the same opportunities.  This isn't the fault of the country, the system, the left, right, or rich...it begins and ends at home.  Young people define "normal" as what they experience in their lives up until they're an adult.  Kids that grow up in the 'hood without a dad and whose mom is a crack whore on welfare and food stamps see that life as "normal", and after years of listening to mama whine that it's someone else's fault, they believe that it must be true...because they don't know anything else.

As adults, they've got to wise up and break that perpetual cycle.  The only way that a society can have "income equality" would be if some central power were responsible for distributing "income" to the people.  Guess what kind of systems THOSE are, boys & girls?  Socialism, Marxism, & communism.  Totalitarian systems of government that turn the principles of freedom and liberty on their ear.  In these societies, the people are dependent on the all-powerful government for everything, from food, clothing, housing, education, medical care, and transportation.  You own nothing; you are merely a subject with no rights, aside what the government gives you.  You do as your masters tell you, or you are beaten, tortured, and killed.  Forget about free speech.  Protests of any kind...dissent of any kind...is strictly forbidden.

Look at East Germany (oops, it's gone), the Soviet Union (whoops), Vietnam, Cuba, and China for some case studies on income equality.  You'll notice a pattern - government officials and their lackeys have all the wealth, while the vast majority of people in these systems are poor when compared to the vast majority of Americans.  The Vietnamese do not live in opulent luxury; most are happy to have a mud hut to sleep in.  Cuba and China have enacted reforms, but again, the majority are poor.  Before the USSR and East Germany ceased to exist, their people were....poor.

But, by God, they had their equality! 

Here in America, we don't need to be "remade" or "transformed".  We are built upon the bedrock principles of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It may not be easy to make your own way here, but the rewards are great.  Regardless of how bad an economy is, a free people always have the opportunity to rise above it and drive on.  Here in America, you reap what you sow.  Work hard and do the right thing, and the possibilities are endless.

All of these people who are villifying our system and wistfully yearning for income equality should go spend a month living in one of those countries mentioned above. They'll come back with a new appreciation for the freedom and opportunity they have in the United States of America. 

The same appreciation the rest of us already have.