Chris Matthews is at it again.
On last night\’s “Hardball\’ show Matthews decided to serve up a softball to Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), who is in a tough fight to hold her seat against Republican Thom Tillis.
Matthews settled on the voter ID issue – partly, I assume, because North Carolina has a large (about 21%) Black population, and partly because he apparently believes that equating a voter ID with suppression of the Black vote will bring out a higher percentage of Black voters on election day.
He better be right too, because if Black voters are under-represented at the polls on election day, Hagan is probably a loser.
So how did Mr. Eloquence formulate this softball? He did so by asking Ms. Hagan the following question:
“Why are they trying to screw the Black voter, to put itbluntly? Is it because they don\’t like Blacks or because they don\’t likeDemocrats?”
Heck of a question, Chrissy. Let\’s try to answer it.
First, we\’ll get the “they don\’t like Democrats” part of it out of the way.
I don\’t know whether individual Republican candidates like or dislike Democrats. But I do know Republicans want Democrats to lose elections. And – just a wild guess, Chris – I kind of suspect that Democrats feel the same about Republicans.
Now about this voter ID claim:
How does expecting every voter to provide identification before voting screw Black people? It seems to me that a voter ID requirement which does not single out Black people, but is exactly the same for everyone, makes the “suppression” claim sound pretty ridiculous.
So let\’s go through some of the “explanations” people – maybe yourself – have put out, and see if they hold any water:
–Less Black people have IDs than White people, which means less Black people can vote.Is that so? Maybe it is and maybe it isn\’t. But since a valid voter ID is 100% available to everyone, free of charge, and has been for months and months, every legal Black voter who did not have an ID could easily have gotten one. So how does that suppress the Black vote? Try again.–It is harder for Black people to get a voter ID than it is for White People, which means less Black people can vote:Why would that be?Are you saying there are different, more stringent criteria for Black people to get an ID than for White people? I hope not, because the criteria are exactly the same for everyone, regardless of skin color.Are you saying that Black people, in aggregate, find it tougher than Whites to get one – which overtly suggests that Black people, in aggregate, are an inferior race, less capable of performing what amounts to a simple procedure than Whites are? I hope for your sake you aren\’t, because – aside from being dead wrong -it makes you a stone, cold racist.Or are you saying that a larger number of Blacks than Whites do not have documentation, thus cannot secure voter IDs. This would also mean they have no birth records, no immunization shots, never enrolled in school, never got a library card, never got a driver\’s license, and never did a bunch of other things that people do to establish their identities. I would think a) there are very few such people in that situation, b) there is no reason to suppose that skin color correlates to those who are, and c) in any event, it is more than a little possible that people who cannot supply such documentation are probably not qualified to vote in the first place.–Demanding a voter ID is the same thing as re-implementing “Jim Crow” laws, such as a poll tax or literacy requirement. As such they are designed to keep Black people from voting:If the requirements for a voter ID were in any way different for Blacks than they are for Whites, I would agree with you. But they are not in any way different, so that one goes down in flames. Next?-Voter IDs are irrelevant, because there is virtually no voter fraud.No one believes this BS – not even the Democrat political operatives who are barfing it out at us – like you, Chris. Look at the polls, and you will see that, for years, a large majority in this country, including a majority of Democrats, and Black people, supports a voter ID requirement. If most Black people are on board with voter ID, how can you then claim voter ID is detrimental to Black people? Do you think they\’re all stupid? Here we go back to that “Blacks are inferior to Whites” crap I gave you a pass on earlier. Maybe I acted too hastily.–If Democrats can keep equating voter ID with suppression of the Black vote – i.e. racism – long enough, it will eventually turn the Black population against IDs, and will become an issue that gets more Blacks out to the polls – which is great for me and my pals because Black people vote vastly more for Democrats than Republicans.
Hey!! Waddaya know!! Finally a reason we can agree on.
