Originally Posted by alnorth
Direckshun, your position on this issue is just completely indefensible.
The legitimacy of our elections is one of the most important things to safeguard in our country, and one of the primary requirements for a legitimate election is allowing only those who can vote, to vote.
It doesn't matter if its rare, it doesn't matter if you think Republicans are pushing it for partisan political reasons, and it doesn't matter if they almost never influence the outcome of an election, it doesn't freaking matter. It is incredibly easy to get an ID, and it is our civic duty to prove we are eligible to vote if asked.
Serial killers are also one of the rarest kinds of murderers out there, and logically we shouldn't devote more resources to catching them than any other kind of murder, but the people become incredibly frightened and then angry if its not a top priority. Similarly, it is greatly offensive to a lot of people, logic aside, to think that it can be very easy to vote when you are not a citizen.
In this case, it just so happens that attempting to ensure that voters are legally able to vote may impact your side. Tough luck, you do not have any moral legitimacy in opposing these voter ID and verification laws.
If you don't like it, cheer up: the Republicans are doomed anyway (until they adapt and shift to the left) due to demographics. If not now, then surely in a decade or two when whites are no longer a majority racial group
The GOP is changing the rules for no justifiable reason. Our democracy does not weight the votes of people based on their income, race or age.
What the GOP really means to do is to say that an older, or less educated or less wealthy, or less white person's vote should not have equal weight.
The primary motivation for these laws is hoped-for electoral advantage. The GOP is paternalistically determining that the more each person's vote is treated as equal, the less likely the GOP's chances are of winning an election.
There is a difference between right and wrong. These laws are wrong and motivated by bad will. When people are intentionally doing wrong about something fundamental to our democracy it will catch up to them.
Chances are some loyal GOP voters are going to get humiliated at their polling places when they show up to vote and these GOP lawmakers may have to explain to those humiliated loyal GOP voters why they could not vote this election when they have voted so many times before.
Maybe you should work at the polls this year and when some old lady who has voted in the last several elections is turned away you can get in her face and talk about how the genuine humiliation she feels has no moral legitimacy
Making unnecessary changes to the rules because you expect to lose under the already fair rules is called cheating.