Extremism In The Maintenance Of Power Is No Vice…

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Want to Vote? In Georgia, a law was passed requiring a “photo ID” be shown at the polls in order to vote. Most people could simply use a driver's license. But if you were too poor to own a car, you had to apply and pay for an ID at the state ID office – and pay a fee.

And who were the poor in Georgia who were asked for their “photo ID” at the polls? Why, they were African-Americans, especially elderly African-Americans who had been denied good paying jobs when young by the South’s system of social and economic discrimination in place at that time.

The purpose of the law seemed congruent with the Jim Crow laws that had been repeatedly struck down by Federal Courts as discriminatory in intent and effect. The Republicans that passed it argued it protected against “vote fraud”.

The Justice Department was asked to void the law as discriminatory. Career civil servants in the Justice Department reportedly agreed – but were overturned by the Bush-appointed Voting Rights Chief. In testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, John Tanner “declined to confirm that he reversed the recommendations of career staffers”, but took responsibility for the decision.

Tanner had said that elderly blacks wouldn’t be unfairly impacted because, “African-Americans don’t become elderly the way white people do – they die first”.

Only George Bush could put a man with such sensitivity into such a sensitive post!

A Federal Judge – one appointed by a Democratic President – later blocked implementation of the law, likening it to a Jim Crow era “poll tax”.

Now maybe this is expected in Georgia (My great grandfather served in Sherman’s Army).

But Republicans in California have attempted to pass similar unconstitutional legislation for years. They also pretend concern about “vote fraud”. But it should be clear that this was a national strategy by the G.O.P. Using “vote fraud” as the screen, pass discriminatory laws designed to decrease turnout among poor minority groups who would vote Democratic if they voted.