On March 3 the U.S. House of Representatives gave its assent to a sweeping election reform bill, H.R.1, also known as the “For the People Act.” Biden asserted that it would strengthen American Democracy and insure “the integrity of our elections.” As with Orwell’s Ministry of Truth which dealt almost exclusively with lies, up is now down in America, black is white and crass propaganda is granted the status of irrefutable religious doctrine.
Marauding through city streets burning buildings and assaulting cops is now a legitimate form of social protest. Ludicrously seeing every human issue through the lens of Race now makes one an “anti-racist.” Seeking special privileges for a particular group makes one a champion of “equal rights.” Lying to the citizens of your state about the death toll of your Covid policy entitles you to an Emmy! And introducing a Law which assures the Lawlessness of all future elections, is now, apparently, a win for Democracy.
Every Republican in the House as well as one conscientious Democrat voted against the Bill. While it is not likely to be passed into Law by the Senate, some of its proposals are staggeringly stupid.
H.R.1 blasts the doors to voter fraud wide open. While mail-in ballots are clearly the most easily abused, the Bill would grant every citizen the right to cast their vote from home while offering no reason for their reluctance to vote in person. Even more absurd, however: “A State may not require an individual to provide any form of identification as a condition of obtaining an absentee ballot.”
Should I have a dozen acquaintances who clearly have no interest in voting, I could with very little effort obtain a ballot in each of their names and vote multiple times. But, according to the Left, demanding every citizen have some valid piece of I.D. is comparable to reinstating the era of Jim Crow, is in fact motivated by a veiled desire among the “privileged” to simply “exclude” those most likely to vote Democrat.
Yes, asking for I.D. is now a form of oppression! Hardly surprising in a culture which has seen fit to denounce Mr. Potato Head! Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, says of the Republican attempt to impose perfectly rational criteria on the voting system: “This harkens to pre-segregation times in the South, and it goes to the core quest of how we define citizenship and whether or not all citizens will actually have access to fully engage and participate.” I took this quote from an on-line article in The Atlantic which sees efforts by Republicans in states such as Georgia, Texas and Arizona to reinstate public confidence in the electoral system as veiled expressions of racism and, of course, the various other sins to which we “conservatives” are all predisposed.
On Feb.18 the Republican dominated House of Representatives in Georgia introduced an omnibus bill, HB531, which sought to address the issue of electoral integrity. While still allowing no excuse absentee voting, it demanded those registering for such submit legitimate evidence of their identity and location. To those not in possession of the documents no doubt held by the vast majority of any population, it offered the options of a copy of any current utility bill, any bank statement or pay check, indeed any government document showing the required information. Tell me, does any of this seem unreasonable to you? Or is H.R.1 not only an assault on simple common sense, but an attempt to enable millions of illegal immigrants in possession of no legitimate documentation whatsoever to vote for their Democratic saviors?
Coincidentally, on Mar. 4 The Epoch Times reported that a Mississippi judge has invalidated the results of a local June runoff election in which 78% of the absentee ballots cast were deemed illegal. Three individuals have been charged with engaging in intimidation tactics at polling stations while a female notary has been accused of aiding voters in circumventing the State’s protocols. Is it any wonder Americans are skeptical of the results of their elections? Or is the notion that H.R.1 is an open invitation to fraud just another ludicrous right-wing conspiracy theory?
Voting rights activist Stacey Abrams is known to have campaigned vigorously among the poor colored people of Georgia in an attempt to get them out to vote in the recent election. B.L.M. was conspicuous at many polling stations across the country inciting their followers to vote Biden. Strangely, given that White Supremacism is deemed to be the greatest contemporary threat to American Democracy, Republicans generally just seem to cast their votes while allowing their neighbors the right to do the same in accordance with their conscience.
If I haven’t made it clear, my belief is that the Left is inherently, pervasively, pathologically irrational, supporting the Rule of Law when it suits its agenda and simply ignoring it when it does not. Examples abound. John Ralston Saul’s “Voltaire’s Bastards,” to which I have already alluded, is a typically “progressive” polemic on the evils of Western Rationalism. Given the cultural preeminence of his naive sentimentalism in our Western World, it is hardly surprising that the Democrats should celebrate a Bill which, to anyone of simple common sense, facilitates electoral fraud among the masses while nonsensically proclaiming that it does the very opposite. Is it hyperbolic to suggest they may literally be insane?