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David: There's a New Hampshire House speaker who wants to cut voting rights for students.
And what's the root of this? Well, students tend to vote liberal. And this is actually
happening in 22 different State Houses in America, and this is a very clear plan. Here's
what it is: conservatives are working to disenfranchise voters through different photo ID, driver's
license, and different restrictions that while at face value may appear to be reasonable,
Louis, the goal is to make it more difficult for students and minorities and poor people
to vote.
In New Hampshire specifically, House Speaker William O'Brien is the guy who's involved,
OK? He said that Plymouth, a college town, experiences a lot of same-day voter registrations,
and he says they're kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience, he
said. So Louis, I guess you don't just have to be 18, according to William O'Brien, you
don't just have to be 18 and a citizen, you also have to have enough life experience so
that William O'Brien thinks you will cast a proper vote.
Louis: Wow.
David: That's his idea. And if you don't believe me that this is going to disproportionately
affect-- this is an anti-liberal voters thing, North Carolina, OK, Republicans have introduced
a photo ID bill that the Institute for Southern Studies estimates will cost taxpayers $20
million, and the target is voter fraud. Five people in recent history, five people across
the country, have been arrested for voter fraud, OK? So in a state that really is not
doing fantastically financially, does it make sense to spend $20 million to prevent voter
fraud, something that is almost... there is almost no conviction-- there are almost no
convictions for that? No, of course not. In 2008, there were 40 voting irregularities
out of 4.3 million votes cast in North Carolina. Voter fraud, Louis. We've got to have a photo
ID.
And again, who is less likely to have a valid photo ID from North Carolina? People that
only live there during college semesters, which, by the way, is November, when people
vote, people who don't have cars, and why may they not have cars in North Carolina?
Because they're poor. This is a direct attack, Louis. This is a direct attack.
In Texas, Texas has a $10- to $11 billion-dollar budget shortfall, and Governor Rick Perry,
Republican, has made it a priority to pass a voter ID bill as a, quote, "emergency item".
Tennessee. Tennessee's State Senate passed a bill requiring voters to present a driver's
license before voting. That bill would create a burden to voting for the state's more than
500,000 adults without a driver's license, most of them poor, many minorities. This is
the epitome of voter disenfranchisement.
Louis: And that's just our list. I'm sure there's more.
David: Right, well, there's 22 states and I just gave you three.
Louis: Yeah.
David: It's a class attack, it is a racial attack, and the funniest thing, and funny,
I guess, funny in a sad way, it's melancholy, it's not really funny, that states crying
poverty and the need for budget cuts are the ones promoting these voter ID plans that could
cost millions of dollars.
Now, it's no surprise. I mean, President Franklin Roosevelt told union members there are some
political candidates who think that they may have a chance of election if only the total
vote is small enough. This is still true for American conservatives. The smaller the turnout,
Louis, the better it is for conservatives. And we've known that, we've seen that, election
after election, midterm, presidential. The interest of having voter turnout lower is
on the American right.
Louis: And is it just assumed that this legislation will go under the radar, largely? I mean,
when the people of these states, when the constituents hear that this is going on...
David: Yeah, well, a lot of the people aren't making the connection that this is an attack
on-- a racial or class attack or a strategy to-- because Louis, you have to remember,
many people...
Louis: No, apart from that, just the money involved in it.
David: Oh, yeah, no, the money... Louis, come on. You know that who pays attention to budgets
and what states are spending money on in the government? We had to go completely nuts on
this show just to even get any reaction about the fact that supposed tax cuts were really
just smaller increases. People are not paying attention in great part.
And, oh, by the way, since conservatives are the ones who care about the Constitution and
they're the ones putting forward these things, obviously conservatives care about the Constitution
mostly when it helps fire up their base, many times against their own best interests or
suits their political objectives. This actually might be unconstitutional. The Brennan Center
for Justice said, "Legislators will have to fight an uphill battle to ensure their laws
are held up in court, and in a difficult fiscal environment, citizens may reasonably question
whether there are more pressing needs on which to spend their tax dollars than photo ID rules."
I'll say.
People have got to wake up or we're going to see... we're not going to... we're going
to see more voter disenfranchisement, and not by accident. It's a very carefully crafted
plan than we've seen before.
Louis: I guess so. But just bringing this up in a debate is a very powerful weapon that
anyone opposing these people could use.
David: Well, but then again, you open up the door to saying hey, you just need an ID to
vote, that's it. You know, a lot of these, you see it cut down to the nitty-gritty where
people say well, if it's so simple, it must be true. And many times it's not.
Louis: Right. And we know, through manipulation of language and all sorts of other things,
that the Republicans are very good at making things easy to understand and relatable.
David: And as David-Wynn: Miller would say, these are all... it's fiction-in, fiction-out,
and it's verb-adverb bias.
Louis: Noun, adverb...
David: And you have to use the correct parse-syntax-grammar, that's for sure. On today's bonus show: are
we secretly arming Libya's rebels, and by we, I mean the U.S.? Scientists supposedly
have discovered alien life, but is the story a hoax? And also, the NAACP is boycotting
Kid Rock. We'll also hear the latest about Louis's big metal band concert coming up,
and we still have the Louis special on membership, www.DavidPakman.com/Louis, L-O-U-I-S. Blowing
up, Louis, since we announced it on the last show. We'll take a break, be back after this.
Announcer: The
David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations,
captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex
at subscriptorium@gmail.com.