BARACK OBAMA ON VOTER SUPPRESSION

Not often do we get honesty from Barack Obama.  But here’s an example of it…one that I hope everyone  finds out about.

During an interview on last night’s “All In” show on MSNBC, the conversation turned to voter suppression.

Said Mr. Obama:

“And the notion that some voter suppression is keeping you from voting, as systematic as Republicans have tried to make voting more difficult for minorities, for Democrats, for young people, the truth of the matter is, if you actually want to vote, then, you can vote, and it’ll take you 15 minutes in most cases where you’ve got early vote. If there’s no early vote, then, yes, you might have to wait in line for 20 minutes, or half an hour, to vote. And, the question would be, why would you disempower yourself? Why would you give them that victory if they’re trying to keep you from voting by not voting? We disempower ourselves all the time. You can’t tell me that all those folks who don’t vote are doing so because somebody’s turned them away or somebody’s intimidated them. No, it’s because they decided they had something better to do.”

Is President Obama correct about Republicans?

He is, at least in the sense that Republicans certainly believe the absence of Voter ID laws primarily benefits Democrats.  Neither he, nor I, have any doubt that, if the opposite were true, it would be Democrats, not Republicans, petitioning for thoser laws to be in place.

And why do Voter ID laws primarily benefit Republicans?  Mr. Obama does not say.  But common sense tells us it is because he knows the illegal votes a lack of ID laws make available are mostly going to Democrats.  If the reverse were true is there any doubt he would be supporting such laws?

OK, that was fun.  But now let’s get to the main event – Mr. Obama’s comments about Black non-voters.  What does he say about them?

He says that, with or without Voter ID laws, Black people who want to vote can do so.  Specifically, he says that it’s not the Voter ID laws, “it’s because they decided they had something better to do.”

In other words, President Obama’s beginning premise – the one that is intended to validate Democrats’ “no Voter ID” strategy on the grounds that it suppresses the Black vote – is as fraudulent as the votes it potentially enables.

OF COURSE Black people can vote as easily as anyone else if there are Voter ID laws.  Those laws are not different based on skin color, they are exactly the same for everyone.

To say otherwise is to say, in so many words, that Black people are inferior beings.  That acquiring and showing a Voter ID is no problem for Whites, a major problem for Blacks.

I think we can safely say that Barack Obama’s intention is not to call Black people inferior.

So what are we left with?  We’re left with the real reason Democrats oppose Voter ID:  because it enables illegal voting to take place, and the preponderance of that illegal voting is for Democrats.

Thank you, Mr. Obama, for making this so clear.