GOP Strategist Royal Masset Speaks Against Voter ID Bill

The Quorum Report has a good piece (subscription needed for full article) by GOP strategist Royal Masset on the injustice that might be created by HB 218. That bill is up for consideration today in the Texas House. Masset talks about the discrimination this proposal would cause to his 91 year old mother, as an example of what it might cause to others.

"Many proponents of HB 218 talk about how easy it is to get photo ID. In doing so they show how out of touch they are with many Americans such as my mother. If any of them ever cared for an invalid family member, besides talking a good game, they would know invalids don't have recent ID cards and may not even pay bills. When voting in America is only allowed to healthy and wealthy people than the America I know is far sicker than my mother. HB 218 is a direct descendant of poll taxes, and of allowing only white male property owners to vote. In its effect it is racist, barbaric, antidemocratic and contrary to everything that made America great. My mother has sacrificed her life raising my severely handicapped sister and I and making this a better country. She and all mothers like her deserve the right to vote."

As the state changes demographically and as the fears brought on by globalism increase this is the sort of proposal that gives some citizens a false sense of comfort. My experience in politics on the border is that we do not have hordes of illegal aliens from neighboring Mexico voting in our U.S. elections. Heck we have a hard enough time getting Americans to get out and vote. This proposal is unnecessary and is symbolic of our fears rather than what is best in this country and our people.

I would hope that my colleagues see the wisdom in Masset's arguments. They are good ones firmly implanted in the fundamental principles of our democracy. Let us hold firmly to those principles by rejecting the false comforts of these proposals.