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The Hypocrisy of Rush Limbaugh and the Voter ID Initiative
Republicans typically claim to be the party of patriotism. But what is patriotism if it is not pride in and defense of our democracy? Yet Republicans are behind two insidious initiatives to corrupt our democracy: first, attempting to disenfranchise voters who do not have the resources to obtain required voter ID, and second, the incredibly cynical effort by Rush Limbaugh and others to urge Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries in such a way as to create chaos and mischief.
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Comments (2)
I disagree with the whole voter disenfranchisement argument. Voting is a right reserved for citizens. If a potential voter cannot prove that they are a citizen, then they should not even get the right to vote provisionally. a driver's license or official state ID is not hard to get and costs very little. Everyone has a birth certificate or social security card which are the basis for most forms of federal and state IDs. I do not equate these measures with those that prompted the passing of the voting and civil rights legislation to combat disenfranchisement particularly in the South a few decades ago. I think that states should move to issuing IDs that comply with a federal standard on government IDs. Period.
May 13, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
In Missouri, a state constitutional amendment has been proposed, and may pass in August, that would require a passport or birth certificate in order to vote. Clearly the demographic that can produce one of these documents is more Republican than the population at large.
The Republicans have only to pass voter ID rules in a few swing states to have a lock on the Presidency forever.
Our voting process is being corrupted, stolen by the Republicans, using xenophobia as an excuse. There is no evidence that non-citizens are voting in any significant numbers. The result of these efforts is the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
May 13, 2008 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
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