SAVE Act

A meme and seven paragraphs. Relatively short and I’m going to take a few days off for your sake.

First, a meme, which I have not fact checked, but which sounds about right. You can certainly win California without Voter ID. I think poll workers are even prevented by law from asking.

Here is what I will say: yes, this Act requires some effort and some nominal expense for some. But does anyone really want to argue that ACTUALLY protecting democracy, the principle of “government of the people, by the people, for the people”—to the extent such a thing remains possible, which of course is debatable—is not worth minor expenses and minor hassles, which are all we are talking? Is protecting our way of life not worth even the most trivial sacrifices? If not, then that is a de facto admission that person doesn’t value our way of life. We are talking five cups of Starbucks coffee for most people, and maybe a couple hours, and that is the worst case. I have had my birth certificate my whole life, and I have a passport. Most people do. Are we that decadent, that we demand no level of effort be required to support our system? Nothing? Once we were all willing to go to war to protect America. Now, two hours in some office of the government is excessive? That also implies no effort at self education, no emotional maturity, and no knowledge of the issues beyond sound bites and memes created by for-profit entities with an angle of one sort or another.

Does no one remember pictures of the LONG lines of people in nations holding their first election ever, filled with people excited by the idea of voting? Can any SERIOUS person argue that we should allow rampant fraud because some people find $30 a lot of money? I would argue protecting democracy is worth minor inconvenience, and that the fact I feel the need to say this is a very bad sign about both the present and future.

Giving vent to a grumpy part of myself, I will say that the principle of “no representation without taxation” has long made a lot of sense to me, and that the people who find $30 onerous are probably just voting for the demagogue promising them free shit anyway, which is the path to the rapid destruction of a society and political order, a fact made obvious 2,500 or so years ago in Athens. This is the reason only land owners were initially granted the right to vote, by the very history conscious Founding Fathers. De Tocqueville wrote about this too, saying something like “once the people realize they can vote themselves stuff, the game is up.” But of course more eloquently.

And part of this bill also makes it legally mandatory for the Federal government to be able to audit State voter rolls. So I recall reading, in any event. We KNOW, beyond any doubt, that Illinois and California and New York and other places are knowingly and very intentionally placing people on the voter rolls that are not legally eligible to vote. Why? They hooked them on the dole, and now want the quid pro quo, which is voting for the people diverting tax dollars to them. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Simple and old principle and practice, which in this case is also illegal and antithetical to the “democracy” they claim to value. They are cheating, plain and simple, in ways directly detrimental to the American people.

I don’t think even most Democrats are confused about this. They just support it. Their view is that the ends justify the meanness [sic], where the end for most rank and file is protecting an enormously vain, self serving and delusional moral grandiosity; and self evidently for politicians, protecting lucrative sinecures. For everyone else, it’s about making money.

I read that evidence is supposed to emerge soon of rampant Chinese (and presumably other foreign government) interference in at least our last two elections. Proof in one is sufficient to prove it is possible in all. I have been often disappointed, and it may or may not happen, but the truth is that only crooks and idiots oppose making sure that only eligible voters are voting. Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell are probably crooks, since it’s unlikely either are idiots. McConnell certainly isn’t. And they are certainly not representative of Republican values or policy goals. They are, almost certainly, long term and determined liars, like so much of Washington.