LJ_Reloaded
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Basically: Republicans are trying to suppress the female vote in Texas.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Republicans have targeted minorities or women for disenfranchisement. In fact Republicans have admitted to changing voter registration laws specifically to cut down on Democrat voters.
The tactic the GOP (Far Right Conservatives of our time) using is a 21st century rendition of the post-Civil War Democratic (Far Right Conservatives of that time) tactic called the Southern Strategy. Essentially, the Southern Strategy is about changing voting laws in order to keep certain groups from voting. This is achieved by looking at statistics and seeing what group is most affected by a change in the law.
For instance, since it was said (statistically) back at the end of the Civil War that most blacks were illiterate, the Southern Strategy at the time included literacy tests as a prerequisite for being able to vote. Poll taxes were another tactic they used to keep blacks from voting, since blacks were statistically characterized as poor. The literacy tests were particularly strongly justified by Southerners because “you must be educated in order to vote properly and dumb people shouldn’t vote.” (Sound familiar?)
Fast forward to today. Today’s justification for voter suppression, according to the Republican Party, is voter fraud. This is a false panic-button issue based on a problem that doesn’t even exist in any significant magnitude. Since “dumb people shouldn’t vote” is not a viable political tactic and most people are in fact literate, the GOP has chosen other tactics to keep Democrat voters away from the polls. Today it’s not called the Southern Strategy anymore, and the Southern Strategy now refers to appealing to racism to gain political support. Today it’s referred to by another, more general and accurate term: voter suppression. To combat the statistically nonexistent issue of voter fraud, Republicans have passed Voter ID laws, and at the ballot box, they have engaged in “voter caging”.
Voter ID laws are fairly self-explanatory: they typically require a photo ID and other paperwork in order to be able to vote. They typically disallow college IDs and anything that is not state-issued. A Social Security card is no longer enough under these new laws. These laws, obviously, work to weed out college students, who usually vote Democratic. Voter caging involves challenging voters when they actually come to vote. Republicans have been responsible for most acts that fall within either category of voter suppression.
As said before, literacy tests used to be for “weeding out stupid voters.” Now Voter ID laws are for “weeding out fraudulent votes.” The justification for voter suppression back then was as strong as it is now. One could actually assume, with some measure of safety, that many blacks back then were uneducated.That assumption, as shaky as it is, would be exponentially more sound than today’s over-blown fears of voter fraud.
So, now we get to Texas, and their rendition of the Voter ID tactic. In Texas, the law targets women who have changed their names as a result of marriage or divorce. This is no doubt in reaction to the potential loss of Texas to the Democratic Party due to the increase in women and minority voters in the area.Again, no evidence of widespread voter fraud has ever been found in Texas. These laws exist only to make it harder for people whose lifestyle fits the Democrat stereotype, to vote.
This is how Republicans are keeping up their war on women. And minorities, too.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Republicans have targeted minorities or women for disenfranchisement. In fact Republicans have admitted to changing voter registration laws specifically to cut down on Democrat voters.
The tactic the GOP (Far Right Conservatives of our time) using is a 21st century rendition of the post-Civil War Democratic (Far Right Conservatives of that time) tactic called the Southern Strategy. Essentially, the Southern Strategy is about changing voting laws in order to keep certain groups from voting. This is achieved by looking at statistics and seeing what group is most affected by a change in the law.
For instance, since it was said (statistically) back at the end of the Civil War that most blacks were illiterate, the Southern Strategy at the time included literacy tests as a prerequisite for being able to vote. Poll taxes were another tactic they used to keep blacks from voting, since blacks were statistically characterized as poor. The literacy tests were particularly strongly justified by Southerners because “you must be educated in order to vote properly and dumb people shouldn’t vote.” (Sound familiar?)
Fast forward to today. Today’s justification for voter suppression, according to the Republican Party, is voter fraud. This is a false panic-button issue based on a problem that doesn’t even exist in any significant magnitude. Since “dumb people shouldn’t vote” is not a viable political tactic and most people are in fact literate, the GOP has chosen other tactics to keep Democrat voters away from the polls. Today it’s not called the Southern Strategy anymore, and the Southern Strategy now refers to appealing to racism to gain political support. Today it’s referred to by another, more general and accurate term: voter suppression. To combat the statistically nonexistent issue of voter fraud, Republicans have passed Voter ID laws, and at the ballot box, they have engaged in “voter caging”.
Voter ID laws are fairly self-explanatory: they typically require a photo ID and other paperwork in order to be able to vote. They typically disallow college IDs and anything that is not state-issued. A Social Security card is no longer enough under these new laws. These laws, obviously, work to weed out college students, who usually vote Democratic. Voter caging involves challenging voters when they actually come to vote. Republicans have been responsible for most acts that fall within either category of voter suppression.
As said before, literacy tests used to be for “weeding out stupid voters.” Now Voter ID laws are for “weeding out fraudulent votes.” The justification for voter suppression back then was as strong as it is now. One could actually assume, with some measure of safety, that many blacks back then were uneducated.That assumption, as shaky as it is, would be exponentially more sound than today’s over-blown fears of voter fraud.
So, now we get to Texas, and their rendition of the Voter ID tactic. In Texas, the law targets women who have changed their names as a result of marriage or divorce. This is no doubt in reaction to the potential loss of Texas to the Democratic Party due to the increase in women and minority voters in the area.Again, no evidence of widespread voter fraud has ever been found in Texas. These laws exist only to make it harder for people whose lifestyle fits the Democrat stereotype, to vote.
This is how Republicans are keeping up their war on women. And minorities, too.
