North Carolina has long had the image of being a modern, forward looking state, one of the most advanced in the old Confederacy, despite the fact that Jesse Helms was one of its Senators for three decades.
It actually had signs of having escaped the Confederate mentality, and had pride for its Research Triangle—Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham, and its top rated universities, including, but not only the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Duke University.
But now North Carolina has been hijacked by a right wing Republican Party, and is being systematically destroyed as a state of change and positive images, looking more like Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, all of which it had far surpassed in every way possible, but now all lost by the lack of understanding of its voters as to what they were doing in electing a Republican legislature and Governor.
So just in the year 2014, eight months so far, the North Carolina Republican government has done the following:
Massive tax cuts and cuts in business regulations, which will make the state poorer and more subject to corruption
Stricter regulation of abortion clinics
The end of teacher tenure
Refusal to expand Medicaid
Dramatic cut in unemployment benefits
Making the death penalty easier to apply
Allowing concealed guns in bar and restaurants
Strict Voter ID requirements, including prohibition of same day registration and cutting early voting
These are the results of the Republican Party gaining control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in a century, along with electing a Republican governor, Pat McCrory.
So North Carolina goes to the Right, and those who are not upper class will suffer in the process, and North Carolina moves backward to the 19th century mentality of the Confederacy!
What do you mean by “stricter” voter photo ID requirements exactly? Is there a “lenient” type of photo ID requirements? Like , “this doesn’ t look like you, as a matter of fact you have a photo of a woman and you are a man. But that’s ok , go ahead and vote anyway.” Or would strict be, “Hey, you’re black, so you don’t get to get an ID, even though it’s free.” Or “I’m poor , I can’t pay for an ID.” “Don’t worry it’s free.” “But I don’t have time or feel like going to the DMV to get one.” “Don’t worry, you can apply online and we will mail it to you.” “But , I don’t have a computer.” “Don’t worry you can call.” “But I don’t have a phone.”.”Then get a damn Obama phone!” “Hey you’re racist!” “But you’re white!”
You Know Who In Disguise just doesn’t get it!
Exactly Jane Doe! An example of someone whom stricter voter IDs would hurt would be my neighbor. She’s an elderly white lady with no driver’s license.
State ID doesn’t mean drivers license only.
@Jane Doe –
You Know Who In Disguise’s post strikes me as having no empathy.
http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-know-about-voter-id-laws.
An excellent excerpt from the article:
Why are these voter ID laws so strongly opposed?
Voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome, with even free state ID requiring documents like a birth certificate that can cost up to $25 in some places. According to a study from NYU’s Brennan Center, 11 percent of voting-age citizens lack necessary photo ID while many people in rural areas have trouble accessing ID offices. During closing arguments in a recent case over Texas’s voter ID law, a lawyer for the state brushed aside these obstacles as the “reality to life of choosing to live in that part of Texas.”
Attorney General Eric Holder and others have compared the laws to a poll tax, in which Southern states during the Jim Crow era imposed voting fees, which discouraged blacks, and even some poor whites — until the passage of grandfather clauses — from voting.
Given the sometimes costly steps required to obtain needed documents today, legal scholars argue that photo ID laws create a new “financial barrier to the ballot box.”
Thank you for posting that excellent article Princess Leia.
Here’s an excellent comment in response to that article:
Commenters who sneer at those who question the legitimacy of voter ID laws simply overlook the truth: there are elderly people who can’t get to the places that issue IDs; there are people who can’t access their birth certificates because the documents no longer exist; there are people who don’t have drivers licenses because they can’t afford a car.
Please read this piece, which provides two specific cases where, though no fault of their own, eligible voters cannot get valid voter IDs:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/us/politics/tougher-voter-id-laws-set-off-court-battles.html?ref=politics
This piece describes how the Wisconsin voter ID requirements will compel an 84-year-old woman who has been voting for 63 years to pay a fee for a birth certificate and an additional fee to correct a misspelling on her birth record. Although the story may exaggerate when it says the woman could end up paying $200, the point is this: why should she have to pay anything at all?
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/05/381885/wisconsin-voter-id-law-may-force-84-year-old-woman-to-pay-200-to-get-a-voter-id/
Simply saying, as so many of you have, that ID cards are a fact of life does not make it so. It may be true for you and everyone you know, but studies and specific cases show that some people who have every right to vote will be disenfranchised by these voter ID laws, and for some people, they impose an unfair financial burden.
That comment by NER is exactly right!
Cost of ID in N. Carolina $10. 100% of the countries south of the border from Mexico to Chile require foto ID to vote. Voting in those countries is not only a right but an obligation and you have over 80% participation rate on average. Yet we are too believe that the elderly, poor and minorities in the USA have aun unfair financial burden when compared to other countries that require it? There are many states that even give out free ID for the elderly or poor. I find it really odd that the same people who have no issue with the government forcing people to buy health insurance or else you pay a fjne and thd IRS goes after you , are appalled when some states require people to get a photo ID to vote! Even if it’s free!
I have chosen to sit on the sidelines and watch the fight without getting punched! LOL But one comment: Why is it only GOP state legislatures have suddenly changed the rules of voting when it has been shown there is NO VOTER FRAUD, that it is a conspiracy myth being spread by the right wing conservatives?
And Robert, why should states prevent same day registration and early days for voting, when it makes it so much more convenient for many voters, and prevents long lines for hours on Election Day? What reason for that except it prevents minority, poor, and elderly voters who cannot all vote on one day, along with others as well! And if you have a conscience, you know the answer!
The fundamental right that makes a democracy a democracy is the right to vote. Any law that makes it more difficult is therefore, by definition, undemocratic.
The only purpose of these voter ID laws is to suppress Democratic votes: http://truth-out.org/news/item/11461
Exactly right Rustbelt. Any claims to the contrary are absolute nonsense.
@Jane Doe
That’s exactly why we need to fight these laws!
If you think Obamacare is taking away your “Freedom,†then you don’t realize that you are already paying for hospitals to treat broke people: that means you are already “not freeâ€, and your only choice is to pay more (without Obamacare), or less (with Obamacare).
You are absolutely correct, Rustbelt Democrat, as we all end up paying for others who cannot pay for health care, whether we like it or not. Life is not only paying for what you wish to pay for, but what you HAVE to pay for. And it is also the religious spirit to care about and help others, whether Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist, or whatever religion one is brought up to believe!