If you think requiring some form of identification to vote is perfectly fine, you are racist!
At least that’s the current spin from liberal journalists, as they’ve labeled recent Republican efforts to require an ID to vote as “Jim Crow 2.0.”
It’s not just Georgia, and it has nothing to do with the “Big Lie.” A quick search of the MRC's archives shows the Democrat-friendly media have been trashing Republicans as racist vote suppressors for the better part of ten years, disparaging sensible regulations as “downright evil.”
The left-wing media have shown particular hostility to the idea of voters showing identification at the polls to prevent fraud, even though polls show majorities of Americans (including non-whites) are in favor of such a requirement.
A 2016 Gallup poll showed overall 80 percent of Americans were in favor of photo identification. The poll also found 77 percent of non-whites were in favor of identification. A 2012 Washington Post poll showed 74 percent of adults support requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The Post poll also found 65 percent of African-Americans and 64 percent of Hispanics supported voter ID.
But this broad base of support for voter ID laws has been ignored by lefty journalists who’ve spent the better part of the past decade painting GOP election reform efforts as blatant attempts to “kill the black vote.”
The following are just a few of the ugliest examples (as culled from the MRC archives) of lefty hosts and reporters labelling Republican-backed voter ID laws as racist:
GOP Wants to “Slaughter” and “Kill the Black Vote”
“Killing the black vote….This is rotten stuff, isn’t it? The Republican effort to kill the black vote in state after state: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Texas. We can all see what they’re doing. Believing they can’t convert the African American vote, they’ve decided to slaughter it....This is murder in broad daylight.”
— Chris Matthews opening MSNBC’s Hardball, October 21, 2014.
An Attempt to “Murder Black People’s Ability to Vote”
“Although we know it’s not legally permissible, it feels as though it has been legally permissible to murder Trayvon Martin, to murder Michael Brown, and then, of course, what follows up next is to murder black people’s ability to vote....If you have to provide ID, and you don’t have access to ID, it is another way of killing black America and relegating us to a permanent underclass. It’s awful.”
— MSNBC contributor Michelle Bernard on MSNBC’s Hardball, October 21, 2014.
Linking Voter ID to Andrew Johnson Days
“Romney stood by last year as Republican-controlled state legislatures passed voter-identification laws, making it harder for people of color, senior citizens and people with disabilities to exercise their fundamental right to vote.”
— Washington Post editorial writer Colbert I. King in his November 3, 2012 column, “Mitt Romney could be the next Andrew Johnson.”
Voter ID Laws as “Designed to Keep Some Minorities” From Voting
“North Carolina had put in one of those you-have-to-show-an-I.D. rules which, so often in Republican states, are designed to keep some minorities from coming out and being able to vote and they’ve tried to reduce the number of voting days. The U.S. Court says that will not happen. Those rules will not go into effect in North Carolina this cycle.”
— Host Shepard Smith on FNC’s Shepard Smith Reporting, August 31, 2016.
“Do you understand what some African Americans believe — [that] these voter ID laws end up being a way to single them out or disenfranchise them?”
— Moderator Chuck Todd to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on NBC’s Meet the Press, July 12, 2015.
Why Is the GOP “Compelled” to Deny “People the Right to Vote?”
“Someone should ask Reince Priebus, him being the leader of the Republican Party in this country, why his party is so compelled to deny people the right to vote. Wasn’t it Abraham Lincoln — who would run the risk of being called a Republican-In-Name-Only today — who won the Civil War so people, especially African Americans, could be regular voting citizens?...Doesn’t it [the Republican National Committee] have a responsibility, a moral responsibility, to tell the parties across the country that the party of Lincoln shouldn’t become the party of Jefferson Davis?”
— Host Chris Matthews wrapping up Hardball, February 13, 2014.
“Downright Evil”
“You know, having grown up in the Deep South in the era of Jim Crow, the difference is dramatic. And the fact that Andy Young was Mayor of Atlanta and John Lewis is a member of Congress from Georgia, is a great testament to the fact that when you do something like pass a voting rights bill, that it makes a difference. Which is why, at the moment, what’s going on about voting rights is downright evil, because it is something that really needs to keep going forward, not backward.”
— ABC’s Cokie Roberts on This Week, August 25, 2013.
Voter ID = “Reigniting” “Old Prejudices”
“With America’s first black President up for reelection this November, the conversation about voting rights has been reignited. Thirty states are currently enforcing some form of voter ID law, which many civil rights advocates say is an effort to suppress the minority vote....Do you think that having an African-American President is actually reigniting some of these old prejudices?”
— CNN’s Zoraida Sambolin to Carter-era UN Ambassador Andrew Young on Starting Point, August 6, 2012.
Using Selma Anniversary to Bash Voter ID Laws
“What do you make of these Republicans who even though some of them are going to show up with you as your colleagues this weekend down in Selma, they’re out there pushing all these voter suppression efforts, these voter ID card requirements in states like even Pennsylvania, where you have the leadership of the Republican legislature, which dominates the legislature, openly saying we’re doing this to win votes, because we can keep the African-American from voting, especially older people, it’s going to help us win statewide elections. I mean, that seems to me completely in violation of the purpose of the Voting Right Act, this game they’re playing about voter I.D. cards.”
— Host Chris Matthews to Democratic Representative James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on MSNBC’s Hardball, March 5, 2015.
GOP Has “Taken the Place of Jim Crow”
“Fifty years ago, the March on Washington focused on ending Jim Crow, a disgusting villain that hid behind the law to deprive people of their votes, and sometimes their lives. Fifty years later, we have no Jim Crow and without a villain to focus on, it’s hard to get people fired up. Congratulations, Republicans. You have taken the place of Jim Crow. You are now the people conspiring to keep folks from voting.”
— Co-host Krystal Ball wrapping up MSNBC’s The Cycle, August 27, 2013.
Beware of North Carolina’s “Nefarious” Republicans and Their “Greatest Hits” of Suppression
“The gerrymandered right-wing [North Carolina] state house cranking out legislation that looks like what you would expect if you handed over the reins of state governance to Red State commenters….But perhaps the most nefarious of all is the slew of voter suppression bills being churned out by state Republicans. Everything from a voter ID bill that has passed the house, to proposals to cut early voting and same-day registration.”
— Host Chris Hayes on MSNBC’s All In, April 30, 2013.
Host Lawrence O’Donnell: “Nia, they are really trying to discourage students from voting. They say it has to be a government-issued ID, but they will not accept any IDs issued by their government-run universities and colleges in that state [North Carolina]….And the targeting there is pretty obvious, isn't it?”...
Washington Post reporter Nia-Malika Henderson: “So I think [Hillary] Clinton is right. Clinton was giving a speech on voter suppression just as this bill was being signed into law. She called it the greatest hits of voter suppression. It’s so vast and broad. And it really covers so many different types of people, students, African-Americans as well.”
— MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, August 12, 2013.
