Voting rights are integral to the sanctity and
integrity of any republic. No one should be prevented from
voting, if they are born or naturalized citizens of the legal age. I also
believe that felons should be allowed to vote, if they have a
demonstrable record of reintegrating themselves into society
with model behavior, with no continued record of wrong-doing.
Having shared this point of view, I do not
understand why progressives continue to argue that Voter ID laws are repressive
measures which suppress minorities and youth. Throughout the United States,
individuals have to provide a photo ID to open a bank account, to purchase and
drive a car, to consume alcohol and cigarettes, and even to obtain a library
card. Surely, liberals do not think that the right to vote is so trivial
compared to these other transactions.
Ironically enough, Random Lengths News featured
the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, whose members were protesting
the Voter ID laws enacted by the Republican supermajority legislature and
governor Pat McCrory. Yet in order for those individuals to attend the protest,
they were required to present the same kind of photo ID required by North
Carolina’s new legislation. Prior to that, in 2012, the Texas Chapter of the
NAACP required attendees to present photo ID before entering to hear from
Attorney General Eric Holder (the same Attorney General who allowed DOJ
officers to seize AP reporters phone records and conduct a felony-stupid gun
running operation along the American-Mexican border).
This double-standard is not the only hypocrisy among
the leadership of the NAACP. While those leaders claim that Republicans,
conservatives, and limited government advocates inadvertently manifest a “dark
vein of intolerance”, in the words of former Joint Chief of Staff Colin Powell,
they refuse to reprimand their own members, who neglect to render the same
respect. One leader in the North Carolina NAACP, William Barber, referred to
African-American US Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) as a “dummy”
manipulated by the “ventriloquist” Right. Such comments are shameful and
demeaning. Where’s the outrage?
In 1996, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume called for a
renewed commitment to end the “national scourge of intolerance and insensitivity”. In 2013, FreedomWorks
Outreach Director Deneen Borelli and Senior Fellow Rev. CL Bryant called for
NAACP leadership to stop condemning black conservatives.
When will liberals and progressives (including
NAACP leaders) stop their hypocritical attacks on voter ID laws and black
conservatives?