It’s the same old song – with a different BEEF since the sixties are gone.
There is no way Jack Kennedy would recognize today’s Democrats. In his day, Democrats championed real have-nots (Blacks in the Jim Crow south) and opposed real problems (Russian missiles in Cuba). JFK might recognize the do-good talk of today’s party but for their make-believe issues, which have many Washington think tanks questioning where the liberal party is headed.
Almost all political scientists agree the Democratic party is drifting left toward European-style Green and Socialist ideals; following the dreams of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Even Captain Obvious knows this far-left lurch is alienating church-goers, working families, and small-town voters, but why?
The simple answer is that mad-liberals mis-understood Bobby Kennedy’s virtue signal to “dream of things that never were and ask why not” to mean one thing: if a Democrat means well, current controversies and future consequences can be ignored. Such gonzo thinking is what makes Ocasio-Cortez tick, because she believes being “morally right” is more important than being “factually correct.”
This is a dangerous thinking-trap that has most Democratic presidential hopefuls hatching bad ideas. To wit, Sanders is “morally right” about healthcare, Warren is “morally right” about corporate taxes, Booker is “morally right” about reparations, and Harris is “morally right” about open borders. Dems lead from the heart and make-believe woes excite the base.
In fairness, there is usually a moral premise behind their proposals, such as opposition to Voter-ID laws, their woe du jour. This issue took off in 2018 and exemplifies what makes today’s Democrats tick: it is long on heart (presumed to be racially motivated), short of brain (no evidence of voter suppression), and championed by election-loser Stacey Abrams.
Abrams believes voter-IDs suppress black votes because she lost her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial bid by “only” 55,000 votes. She has yet to concede and still claims, “I think the election was stolen from the people of Georgia.” She believes her white Republican opponent used his position as Georgia’s secretary of state to suppress black votes before the election. Mind you, this woman’s make-believe credentials are rock solid.
Her 55,000 vote gap is far outside the margin of fraud and her vote total (1.9 million) exceeded the 2014 winner’s vote total (1.4 million). A record 6.9 million Georgia voters were registered in 2018, and a plurality (3 million) did not vote for either candidate. There was even a 2002 federal use-it-or-lose-it law that ordered Georgia to clean up voter rolls. Yet, Abrams is just that right???
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBES) recently provided real evidence that refutes claims that voter-ID laws suppress votes. They looked into 2,000 elections in Florida and Michigan, where voters are asked for ID’s but can still vote without one. Even though Floridians and Michiganders knew they could vote without showing an ID, over 99.7% presented a photo ID – in 2,000 elections!
This is common sense to proponents of fair and fraud-free elections; that is, millions of votes are not being denied in US elections, and almost every American has a photo ID. This factual evidence should persuade “morally right” Democrats to support voting reforms, especially after the 2000 hanging-chad and 2016 cyber-meddling elections.
Today’s Democrats should make voter integrity and result legitimacy a Democratic issue, because a “house divided cannot stand” (Lincoln). Surely, they can’t like rancorous transitions of power that cripple any chance of bipartisanship, but don’t bet on it. Liberal lies abound, such as the Brennan Center for Justice’s false claim that 11% of voting-age citizens (24 million) lack a photo ID.
Everyday Democrats know photo IDs are omnipresent. Just try to cash a check, board a plane, drive a car, enroll in school, rent an apartment, buy a home – plus cigarettes and beer – or apply for employment without one. In the end, voter-ID laws, combatting cyber-meddling, and exposing fake news on social media will not change election outcomes; so, who opposes reforms that qualm election fears and ensure peaceful transitions of political power?
The obvious answer is one who wants to de-legitimize election results, like Abrams. If she cared about facts, she’d remember Republicans gave LBJ the votes to enact voting-rights laws (Senator Dirksen), established the EPA (President Nixon), and granted amnesty to un-documented Hispanics (President Reagan). Otherwise, she should just help fellow Georgians get a photo ID and run a better campaign next time.