19 November 2013
In a Recent Austin American-Statesman editorial, Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak says I’m lying about why he wants to restrict the rights of our fellow Americans to vote:
“Increased Turnout Trumps Democrats’ ‘Suppression’ Argument”*
Okay then: fair enough. In my defense, I call Mr. Mackowiak out. In my opinion of Republican malfeasance, I am telling the truth.
It is Matt Mackowiak who is lying.
Please bear with me on this one. The defensive case to make can seem a bit convoluted:
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The Republican Party wishes to impose photo I.D. laws for the sole purpose of preventing more people of Democratic American values from voting in elections throughout the country.
Given (1) how hard it is for someone else to vote using someone else’s voter registration, and (2) how easy voter fraud is to detect, and (3) given how the preponderance of the evidence supports that such fraud does not practically exist, and (4) given that even voting registrars—even some Republican registrars—insist that voter fraud is no problem and (5) that photo-I.D. laws only serve to reduce voter turnout—
The only real reason for Republicans to promulgate costly and inconvenient Voter I.D. laws is because, to paraphrase Mr. Mackowiak, “Republicans want fewer legal votes, not more. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying.”
By the abandoned virtue of his presumptive projection, Matt Mackowiak naturally must be included in the “lying” group.
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This “presumption of guilt” on Mr. Mackowiak’s part does not just run counter to our Constitution. It also creates challenges for those who would defend against the accusations—when it is so often those first accusers who are guilty.
Take the current Obamacare controversy.
In the lead up to the bill that became the ACA, those on the Right kept saying, “Obamacare is a government takeover of healthcare! You will lose your current insurance! You will lose your doctor!”
These accusations forced the President to come out and say, “No, it’s not. No, you won’t.”
In my personal case, President Obama’s assertions have proved true. Over the course of the past year, I’ve received several notices from my insurer, describing the few, key changes that Obamacare has made to our “grandfathered” insurance plan. So what I have, as a direct result of Obamacare, is a policy that has increased about the same as, in past years or less this year than in some years, while the benefits have increased dramatically.
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It’s harder to defend against and to describe untruths succinctly than it is to make originating accusations in the first place. Republicans accused Obamacare of things that are mostly untrue.This led President Obama to respond in kind. The result is now commonly taken for a lie. But the President’s words have borne out exactly as promised, for me and for millions of other self-employed, formerly under-insured Americans.
Republicans such as Matt Mackowiak accuse me of lying about their voter-suppression issues. It’s harder to defend against and to explain how wrong these Republican activists are about voter fraud than it is to make the preemptive accusations in the first place. And it’s harder to convey the case that the only benefit served by photo-I.D. laws is to suppress Democratic voters. But this, here, has been my short version of that case.
Mr. Mackowiak is a liar: the only true reason for the epidemic of photo I.D. laws is because Republicans want fewer [Democratic] votes. Not more.
Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!
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*Matt Mackowiak, Austin American-Statesman, 7:00 p.m., 11/17/2013
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