The party of Lincoln -- nowadays in name of only -- is looking for ways to suppress minority participation, and the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is rightfully pushing back. From the New York Times:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday entered the turbulent political waters of voting rights, signaling that the Justice Department would be aggressive in reviewing new voting laws that civil rights advocates say will dampen minority participation in next year’s elections.
This year, more than a dozen states enacted new voting restrictions. For example, eight — Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin — imposed new laws requiring voters to present state-issued photo identification cards. Previously voters were able to use other forms of identification, like bank statements, utility bills and Social Security cards.
Proponents of such restrictions — mostly Republicans — say they are necessary to prevent voter fraud that could cancel out the choices of legitimate participants. Opponents — mostly Democrats — say there is no evidence of meaningful levels of fraud and contend that the measures are a veiled effort to suppress participation by hundreds of thousands of eligible voters who lack a driver’s license.
There is no quantitative evidence that voting fraud is on the rise. So what is the intention here?
The GOP is doing everything it can legally to suppress the electoral participation of Democrat-leaning minority groups. For some this is just politics; for me this is morally wrong. And not surprising from the party of Nixon, Atwater, and Rove...
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