On Friday’s PBS NewsHour, liberal political commentator Mark Shields proclaimed “one of the great frauds that Republicans have perpetrated over the past generation has been this idea of voter fraud.”
After Shields detailed how since our founding our country has sought to expand the right to vote to millions of previously disenfranchised Americans, he quickly rushed to defend Clinton.
The liberal commentator touted how Clinton was “right on the issue” and accused the GOP of committing “fraud” over the issue of voter fraud:
And one of the great frauds that Republicans have perpetrated over the past generation has been this idea of voter fraud, that people are showing up, 31 cases in 14 years, Judy, of people stealing identity or voting improperly. So, I think she’s absolutely right. It is our responsibility to make voting available to as many people as possible who want to vote.
Earlier in the segment “conservative” New York Times columnist David Brooks hailed how voting rights is a “good issue” for Hillary:
It’s an issue that mobilizes a lot of people, especially in the minority community. She’s clearly trying to reorganize the Obama coalition. And to do that, she really has to get the -- at least similar turnout levels among African-Americans, among Latinos. And so this is a good issue for her.
For his part, Brooks did point out that despite Clinton’s speech on voting she has some “problematic” issues within her campaign that must be addressed but he did his best to act as an unofficial advisor for her campaign:
I would say that it’s still problematic in this one regard, that her last campaign suffered because it didn’t have an overarching theme. It had a bunch of series of targeted policies toward specific constituencies. And sometimes you can pay so much attention to the polls and pick out this issue to get that -- people and this issue to get that person, and that you lose an overarching theme.
And I say, now that she’s dropping in the polls kind of significantly now, at least for right now, that she needs some big, imaginative overarching theme to offer a new narrative, to counter the things that are dragging her down right now. And microtargeting in what looks like sort of a cynical way is not necessarily the way to get there.
See relevant transcript below.
PBS NewsHour
June 5, 2015
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, meanwhile, David, Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner, is out talking this week about voting rights, naming her Republican challengers one by one. Is this a smart tactic?
DAVID BROOKS: Yes. First, can I note -- Mark, did you say bobby socks appeal or…
WOODRUFF: He did.
MARK SHIELDS: I did. I did. I did say bobby socks.
(CROSSTALK)
BROOKS: ... are wearing bobby socks.
WOODRUFF: I was trying not to show that I recognized what he was talking about.
SHIELDS: Yes. That’s right. How about support hoes?
BROOKS: ... second baseman for the Red Sox. You know, I think Hillary Clinton, it’s a good issue for her. It’s an issue that mobilizes a lot of people, especially in the minority community. She’s clearly trying to reorganize the Obama coalition. And to do that, she really has to get the -- at least similar turnout levels among African-Americans, among Latinos. And so this is a good issue for her. I would say that it’s still problematic in this one regard, that her last campaign suffered because it didn’t have an overarching theme. It had a bunch of series of targeted policies toward specific constituencies.
And sometimes you can pay so much attention to the polls and pick out this issue to get that -- people and this issue to get that person, and that you lose an overarching theme. And I say, now that she’s dropping in the polls kind of significantly now, at least for right now, that she needs some big, imaginative overarching theme to offer a new narrative, to counter the things that are dragging her down right now. And microtargeting in what looks like sort of a cynical way is not necessarily the way to get there.
WOODRUFF: I want to get to the Republicans, but what about this voting rights that Hillary is talking about?
SHIELDS: I think David is right. It works politically. But I think she`s right on the issue, Judy. I mean, we talk about American exceptionalism. Our founding fathers limited the right to vote to white male property owners. Over the next 176 years, it was expanded to include free black slaves, male, and then eventually to women, and then eventually to African-Americans, and 18-year-olds, and we have expanded democracy.
And one of the great frauds that Republicans have perpetrated over the past generation has been this idea of voter fraud, that people are showing up, 31 cases in 14 years, Judy, of people stealing identity or voting improperly. So, I think she’s absolutely right. It is our responsibility to make voting available to as many people as possible who want to vote.
