Patience, Grasshopper

by digby

One of the things you have to admire about the conservative movement is their patience. (I think it comes from their reverence for the tactics and strategies of Chairman Mao.) They are willing to take the long road to achieve their goals and when it comes to vote suppression, they are planning far,far ahead. Byron York writes:

Take some time today to read John Fund’s excellent overview of the problem of voter fraud. One particularly interesting aspect of all this is that, with overwhelming evidence of fraud by ACORN and other groups, some on the left seem to have conceded that there is significant voter registration fraud out there — but insist that that will not translate into the casting of fraudulent votes. Of course some of those same people are the ones who oppose common-sense measures, like a photo-ID requirement, that can help prevent voter registration fraud from turning into voter fraud.

Step one accomplished. They have created the delusion that there is massive registration “fraud” — the left has even apparently agreed to it — which leads inexorably to the idea that voter fraud will follow. Therefore, we need stringent voter ID laws. It’s common sense, after all.

The point of all this, of course, is to suppress the vote of the poor, ethnic and racial minorities, immigrants — all the people who are likely to vote Democratic. There is zero data to support the charge of voter fraud and there is zero evidence that the ineligible voter registrations are the result of some sort of mass conspiracy to commit voter fraud. So there is nothing common sensical about requiring people to show photo ID, make ethnic minorities and recent immigrants have to face a gauntlet of Minutemen outside the doors and then have to have particular forms of ID to prove they are who they say they are.

But we’re going to do it anyway. Just watch, even though 2000 and 2004 (and possibly this one as well) featured egregious examples of Republican voter purging, vote caging, long lines etc, the most enduring electoral integrity issue will be ACORN and vote fraud. They are taking it one step at a time until little by little, they make it more unpleasant and difficult for lower income, elderly and immigrant citizens to vote. And if they can cast doubts on the election of any Democrat who represents such people all the better.

The aristocracy always protects its prerogatives, even when, once in a while, the serfs raise a ruckus.

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