Voter Fraud? Not!

An ongoing thread in the Daily News Record this week is a discussion of the recent SCOTUS ruling on Photo ID cards in Indiana. Time after time on the board, folks chime in with the time-honored Republican talking points concerning both illegal immigrants and alleged voter fraud. The tenants sound reasonable, "don't let illegal immigrants or 'dead' people vote." Of course everyone can agree that that "this makes sense."

The "problem" of illegal immigrants voting is a plank in the platform of the Republican Right Wing Noise Machine. They've piggybacked their xenophopia right on top of their largly bogus claims of widespread "voter fraud." For Republicans, the most important thing is to DECREASE the size of the total voter pool which INCREASES the chances for the minority view to WIN. Democrats, of course, prefer the opposite. Democrats lead voter registration drives trying to INCREASE the voter pool. A lot of mud is there for slinging on both sides.

The reality:

Some communities around the country are more LIBERAL than others, surprise, surprise! In doing a little reading, I found that the conservative communities pretty much use the liberal communities as examples for how bad things will get, while the liberal communities show how progressive and humanitarian they are and point to the draconian measures enforced in conservative communities to show how bad they are!

Reading a little further, I found plenty of evidence that some illegals have managed to take the huge risk to register and vote, mainly in Texas and California. In the rest of the country, the problem isn't statistically relevant. The fact that the propaganda has taken hold of the discussion on this board is evidence of it's effectiveness. That the "problem" doesn't even exist matters not, it's the IDEA of it that causes all the shouting.

With regards to the voter fraud in the Indiana case, the Republicans have been working on this one for years. (see paragraph one) Again, although there are many anecdotal stories about dead people voting, (mostly in Chicago in the bad old Mayor Daley days) voter fraud is not statistically relevant and is not a problem. Republicans win a huge victory however when they manage to restrict the rights of millions of citizens to vote, based on the alleged fraud of a few hundred.

The effectiveness of the Right Wing Noise Machine cannot be understated. They've managed to make THEIR talking points the accepted "conventional wisdom." My efforts on the board are to dispel the myths and simply point out the reality. It is important to continue shining the light on the true purposes of the Republican Creed: attainment and maintenance of political power; tax 'reform' and privatization to ensure corporate profit, unequivocal support of the military, and the unabashed hypocritical pandering to social conservatism.