The Ultimate Wedge Issue in a Democracy

[babylonsister]

http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/08/the-ultimate-wedge-issue-in-a-democracy/

The Ultimate Wedge Issue in a Democracy
By: Glenn W. Smith Sunday March 8, 2009 9:00 am


Airport Security Checkpoint or Polling Place?


Here is an honest and easy-to-understand statement of a Republican belief that lies behind their efforts to place burdensome and bureaucratic barriers between citizens and the ballot box:

Few citizens have the formidable intellectual and moral capacities (let alone the time) required for the role that {popular democracy} assigns to the citizenry, although defenders of the concept believe that participation in democratic political activity strengthens these capacities, enabling a virtuous cycle.

That quote is from Judge Richard Posner, of the Seventh U.S. Court of Appeals. It's in his book, "Law, Pragmatism and Democracy." Posner wrote the appeals court opinion approving Indiana's restrictive voter identification requirements. The restrictions on voting, he said in that opinion, would harm many citizens. But we shouldn't care.

Let the quote sink in.

Because so many of us lack the intellectual and moral capacity to participate in our governance, restrictions on voting are no big deal to Posner and his ilk.

In Texas this week, debate opens on a proposal that places extraordinary identification requirements on citizens who wish to vote. The proposed law's ambiguous language appears to grant part-time, amateur polling place officials the absolute power to accept or reject a would-be voter based solely on that citizen's appearance or other subjective judgments. For the first time since women and blacks were granted the vote, appearance alone may disqualify a would-be voter. We'll return to this in a moment.

snip//

Returning to the upcoming debate in Texas, we need to look at the context. Republicans control every statewide office. Democrats are at the gates. They've nearly reached parity in the state House. And, in 2006 and 2008, they've swept or almost swept local offices in major urban areas. Redistricting approaches. Rust belt areas will lose congressional seats. Texas will gain four or five. So that might be a turnaround of 10 seats. Consider the possibility of ten additional Republican seats in the 2012, post-redistricting election. Subtract ten Democratic seats. Now we see what's behind the Republican game.

It's democracy that threatens Republican power. Curbing democracy is their strategy.

In Texas, the bill appears to give unprecedented power to local, part-time, volunteer election officials. Even Republicans should worry about what happens under such a proposal. What are they going to do when, in the course of a hotly contested Republican primary, partisanship overwhelms these officials and voters begin getting rejected because they look younger than they say they are? See, Republicans don't want to appear like they're attacking the elderly, so they're talking about exempting the elderly from burdensome I.D. requirements. But won't it take an I.D. to prove one qualifies for the exemption? This is how stupid their proposal is.

Then again, glancing at their sorry history of voter suppression, they probably don't care. So long as they get a restriction in the law, they can use direct mail, phone calls and neighborhood posters to scare people into thinking they may not have the documents necessary to get through the screening process. That alone will diminish political participation, and that's really all the Republicans want.

[sonias]

1. See that is the scary part

The front line is the under trained overtaxed and underpaid poll worker. That is the person who is going to get to make the call. And you know that in very partisan hands that power can be abused.

Glen Smith made a very good point.

Sonia

[Baby Snooks]

2. Don't forget the problem of the ID itself....

They already have made it nearly impossible for some to get a drivers license. And if this bill passes, they will make it impossible to get a drivers license or an ID card.

Personally I have no problem with the ID card but the state should only require a certified copy of a birth certificate which is all I had to produce a million years ago when I got my first drivers license and the state should provide the ID for free.

That of course will not happen and yet another bill and another law passed by the Republican legislature will end up in the Republican courts. Which may or may not uphold it.

They are a desperate lot and getting more and more desperate. And all Texans will suffer as a result of it. Particularly the politics of Rick Perry who will do everything he can to ensure his victory next March and then next November.

As for the birth certificate, watch them find a way to make it impossible to get a certified copy it you don't already have one.