Keith Ellison stands up for corruption:

Requiring photo IDs to vote in federal elections would be banned under legislation introduced Wednesday by Rep. Keith Ellison, who said such requirements disenfranchise minorities, the poor, women, elderly and young people.

“While photo IDs seem harmless, they are in fact the modern day poll tax,” Ellison, D-Minn., said in a statement.

While appeals to logic with supporters of someone like Keith “X” Ellison are probably futile, one is bidden to try.

How, precisely, is a photo ID – something that is equally available to everyone regardless of race or economic status – anything like a “poll tax” which was, in fact, designed to keep people from the polls?

How dare Ellison trivialize the ghastliness of the Jim Crow laws like this?

Ellison, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, got an important backer for the bill, as the panel’s chairman, Michigan Democrat John Conyers, signed on a co-sponsor.

Color me “not shocked”.

Ellison noted that people do not need a photo ID to vote in Minnesota.

 And we’ve not had (much of) a voting scandal, which shows that Minnesotans are either very lucky, very blind or uncommonly virtuous.

“In Minnesota we go to great lengths to make voting as inclusive as possible,” he said, arguing that has helped with voter turnout.

The mania for “turnout” as a goal in and of itself is absurd. 

While I support the right of everyone, no matter how ill-informed or ignorant, to vote, I value “inclusiveness” at the polls less than I do “smart voters”.  Dragging busloads of ignorant, uninformed people to the polls – whatever the party – does nothing good for our democracy.

Making elections amenable to the ignorant, the uninformed and the lazy (to say nothing of the many Democrat initiatives to re-enfranchise felons – who, factually, seem to be America’s most solid Democrat constituency) cheapens the franchise for everyone – and, more importantly, means this nation will be run by ever-lower common denominators of people.

Fill in the snark of your choice right here.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said that requiring a voter ID helps preserve the integrity of the voting process.

“The right to vote is one of the most fundamental liberties we have as Americans,” he said. “And to protect that right, we must ensure that those who vote do so legally.”

But “the integrity of the voting process” is the last thing Keith “X” Ellison would seem to care about.

But what on earth is the big problem with ensuring people are who they say they are?

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Democrat Party, Liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.