“American youth attributes much more importance to arriving at driver’s license age than at voting age.” —Marshall McLuhan
Opponents of Voter ID laws argue the laws stifle turnout among students, poor people and minorities, who are more likely to vote for Democrats but might lack government-issued IDs, such as driver’s licenses and passports. And that is a totally flawed notion.
Why is that notion so flawed? Simple. Let us look first at the largest demographic in the U.S. who is most likely to seek out public assistance of any kind. In doing so, lets look at a program or two that are universally recognized:
Food Stamps
According to the Social Security Administration website, under the section entitled, “How can you apply for food stamps” SSA lists the following criteria:
Food stamp applications are available at any Social Security office. If you and everyone in your household are applying for or already getting SSI payments, any Social Security office will help you fill out the food stamp application and send it to the food stamp office for you.
All others, including those applying for or getting only Social Security, must take or send their food stamp applications to the local food stamp office or to any Social Security office where a food stamp representative works.
When you are interviewed, you also should have:
- Identification (my emphasis) such as a driver’s license, state ID, birth certificate or alien card;
- Proof of income such as pay stubs, Social Security, SSI or a pension for each member of your household;
- Proof of how much you spend for child care;
- Rent receipts or proof of your mortgage payments;
- Records of your utility costs; and
- Medical bills for those members of your household age 60 or older, and for those who receive government payments such as Social Security or SSI because they are disabled.
Student Aid and Pell Grants
According to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).gov website, the following items are needed to fill out the application:
For the 2012-2013 school year you will need financial information from 2011. You may need to refer to:
Your Social Security card. It is important that you enter your Social Security Number correctly!
- Your driver’s license (if any)
- Your 2011 W-2 forms and other records of money earned
- Your (and if married, your spouse’s) 2011 Federal Income Tax Return.
- IRS 1040, 1040A, 1040 EZ
- Foreign Tax Return, or
- Tax Return for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federal States of Micronesia, or Palau
- Your Parents’ 2011 Federal Income Tax Return (if you are a dependent student)
- Your 2011 untaxed income records
- Your current bank statements
- Your current business and investment mortgage information, business and farm records, stock, bond and other investment records
- Your alien registration or permanent resident card (if you are not a U.S. citizen)
- To organize your information, you can print and complete a FAFSA on the Web Worksheet before you begin entering your information online. However, you are not required to do so. FAFSA on the Web will guide you through the questions that you must answer, and you can save your application and return to it later if you don’t have the information you need to answer any of the questions.
Similar examples are found when applying for a “Housing Choice voucher” through Housing and Urban development. The same is the case for Medicaid, WIC and the plethora of government assistance available to “poor people” as referred to by our friends on the left
In fact, the requirements for an identification card seem menial within the context of any of these programs. Just applying for these programs makes one’s life an open book to a government agency! The Government wants a persons’ income, household composition, rent receipts, utility costs, medical bills. the list goes endlessly on. It is one thing to be “poor” but it is an entirely different matter to be poor and want the government’s help. Seems they want to know when you scratched the last itch and the location on ones’ person of that itch.
The need for an ID is endemic in life without regard to ones social strata. One cannot function efficiently in contemporary society without identification. Check-cashing, most banking, obtaining medications, obtaining housing, claiming packages, purchasing cigarettes and alcohol and obtaining credit all require a valid identification. Showing identification is a part of everyday life.
Yet, despite the aforementioned the leftist democratic party line is that, “Voting is a fundamental constitutional right, unlike flying, buying liquor, or renting porn.” and accusations by Democratic mouthpieces and other leftists calling efforts for a voter id measure discriminatory. Republicans trying to keep people away from polls who typically vote for Democrats.
Well, what exactly is a fundamental constitutional right? “Fundamental rights” are widely regarded as a set of rights based upon fundamental, or inalienable “rights.” Such rights thus belong without presumption or cost of privilege to all. So this is where the flaw lies in the arguments of liberals. A person with a fundamental right has the right to choose to purchase tobacco, alcohol or travel. But liberals argue that those are choices. This is why the Hegelian dialectic is ruining our public discourse. So many people buy into this notion that there are a rights such as voting but no rights to choose and govern the personal choices in our lives.
In any society there has to be some small measure of accountability. Most agree that there is a minimum age where people can purchase alcohol and tobacco. There is some consensus that it is undesirable to have unknown persons on public transportation who might have kill us. Rights are worthless without some small measure of personal responsibility. Even my libertarian friends disagree with me and respond with, “your papers please” when advocacy for proving who one is becomes the topic de Jour.
Over thirty states have some form of voter ID law implemented. When one takes into context the nature of the arguments it would appear the democratic apparatus advocates for necessary wiggle room to tweak elections in their favor using fraud. “Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.”
