Voter ID Idiocy From The Texarkana Gazette

One of the worst editorials we’ve seen lauding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Crawford case relating to Voter Identification comes from none other than the Texarkana Sun, in far North East Texas. Check out some of what the Sun had to say earlier this week:

It’s just common sense. But don’t try to tell that to some people. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court wisely ruled states can require photo identification before allowing someone to vote.
The justices voted 6-3 to uphold an Indiana law requiring proof of identity from voters. The decision also impacts about 25 states across the U.S. that have such laws. It is likely more states will pass the requirement now that the Constitutional issue has been settled.

For most of us, the idea of showing photo identification at the polls is nothing to get excited about. We value the right to vote and don’t want to see those who are not eligible cast ballots.

But there are some out there who view laws requiring voter identification and the court’s ruling as terrible impositions on society.

The main argument is poor and minority groups are less likely to have photo identification. Critics, especially Democrats, claim the laws disenfranchise millions.

We suspect their arguments are self-serving. Democrats benefit most at the polls from poor and minority voters.

First, whoever wrote that editorial needs to be fired by the good folks at Palmer Newspapers.

Second, the folks at the Gazette should, perhaps, pick up some of the more than half dozen studies and academic papers written about voter identification requirements in the past several years and read for themselves what kind of hardship Voter ID will cause.

And, if they somehow magically think that only minority Democrats and elderly Democrats will be effected, then they should listen to Republican consultant Royal Masset:

Anyone who says all legal voters under this bill can vote doesn’t know what they are talking about. And anyone who says that a lack of IDs won’t discriminate against otherwise legal minority voters is lying.

The Gazette also says: “It is not too much of a burden for every citizen to make the effort to obtain photo identification so they can vote.”

That is a prime example of exactly the type of arrogance that emanates from the editorial boards of “regional” daily newspapers who have somehow talked themselves into believing they are as learned as an above-average genius college professor and use that arrogance and sense of self-importance to spew forth garbage related to the supposed “conservative” values of their community. I seriously doubt the writer or writers of this editorial are in-touch with reality enough to know what a gallon of milk costs.

Evidently, the editorial board members of the Texarkana paper don’t know anything about what it is to be poor and working at McDolands or what it is to be elderly and on a fixed income–and not be able to afford to spend $50 to $100 to gather up birth certificates and other documents (and pay the hefty fees to get them) to be able to go out and obtain a photo ID.

The problem with people like whomever wrote this editorial is that they have no idea what it is like to be a disenfranchised minority, an elderly person, or poor in America. To them, getting an ID means going down to the DPS office every four years and renewing their driver’s license. They don’t have to worry where the $36 to pay for the ID will come from and, even if they had to pay for copies of birth certificates and the like, they probably wouldn’t be too concerned about paying for it and, chances are, could delegate the work to a secretary. They don’t have to worry about taking three hours off from a minimum wage job at Burger King and driving–on $3.45 a gallon gas–down to the courthouse to get a birth certificate only to be told they’ll have to drive over to another building and another building and another building to get that document, all in the name of being able to vote.

And, if the editorial author was born out of state, chances are he won’t have to worry about paying long distance charges to call the state he was born in to get his birth certificate, like a financially disadvantaged person might.

Of course, the person who wrote this editorial probably bought into the argument that many people do–that voter ID will prevent illegal immigrants, namely Mexicans, from voting. This could not be more of a lie. There are scant few–if any–instances of illegal immigrants from Mexico voting in Texas elections. The voter ID scam is simply another tool used by the Radical Republican Religious Right to make it look like our “way of life” is under attack. It is one of the most bogus arguments in their arsenal, and fits right up there with the old anti-desegregation argument about black boys being in classrooms with white girls. It is, in short, garbage.

We could go on and on, but you get the point. It’s time for Texans to speak up and let the pseudo-intellectual neo-conservatives sitting on their asses in padded chairs in the editorial offices of medium-sized daily papers across the state that they could not be more out of touch with their communities–or with reality.

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Written by Vince Leibowitz

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