1/21/2011

Wisconsin GOP makes Voter ID a priority, not jobs


On the national political scene, Republicans have their sights on repealing the healthcare bill. Here in Wisconsin, that same proposal has been discussed as well with the newly contolled GOP legislature. Now, this week, the GOP unveiled its plan to pursue voter ID requirements. What happen to the creating jobs agenda?

Several legislators mostly democratic are outraged at this agenda. State Representative (D-Milwaukee) Tamara Grigsby commented on the continued neglect toward struggling families and job creation by Wisconsin Republicans.

“This is not what the people of Wisconsin asked of us,” said Rep. Grigsby. “How many jobs are created through voter disenfranchisement? We are supposed to be putting people to work, not keeping them from the polls.”

Aside from being unrelated to economic recovery efforts in Wisconsin, Grigsby also noted the volatility and negative fiscal impact that a Voter ID proposal will have on the state. Authored by Representative Jeff Stone and Senator Joe Leibham, the soon-to-be introduced Voter ID legislation closely resembles a voter disenfranchisement law in Indiana, where it was struck down by an Indiana state court in September 2009.


Read more @ Milwaukee Courier

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Republicans are not about jobs, they are about gaining and maintaining power. Why else would voter registration be a top priority?

Roadkill said...

Those old pictures from the south, when the Democrat Party defended slavery, and, later, worked hand in hand with the KKK to segregate and terrorize their new black citizens, are chilling indeed.

As is this quote from Democrat President Woodrow Wilson:

"The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation ... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country."

Anonymous said...

Gee Golly Roadkill,
I wonder what party those with today's "Deep South" mindset might affiliate themselves with? Did you say Democrat? HA!!!!!!!!!!

Roadkill said...

Annonymous,

The so-called “deep south mindset” remains alive and well – in the Democrat Party.

It merely has taken a new form, replacing the old racist, slavery-based contempt of black Americans with the soft bigotry of Welfare and Affirmative Action. Whereas racist Democrats once used black Americans to advance their economic well-being, they now use them to advance their political aims. It’s the new Democrat-run plantation, one which features and promotes black victim-psychology and government dependency at the expense of an independent, self-reliant, and non-partisan black electorate.

Juxtaposing pictures of lynchings with articles critical of current GOP legislation is just another effort to maliciously and dishonestly associate Republicans with historical Democrat racism. It is a politically motivated canard, a big lie purveyed by liberal revisionists and their acolytes designed to confuse and mislead the general public by smearing Republicans with the sins of their own guilt-ridden Democrat Party.

Its disgraceful.

Anonymous said...

RK,
Now that your Von Mises buddies are back in business ( I wonder how many Rubbles it took for them to settle there account in Estonia ) I'll be you feel right at home there.

Thurston Howell III said...

Speaking of revisionism.. It was Lyndon Johnson, a Southern DEMOCRAT that passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Now Republican's are claiming Martin Luther King as their's? Conservatives need to put the "White Out" away and stop correcting history.

Roadkill said...

Anon,

You know, this is the very subject on which my “Van Mises buddies” and I part company. If you’ve been paying attention, you would know that.

Thurston,

No, you are wrong here as usual.

Johnson, the southern DEMOCRAT who passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, did so only after overcoming the strong opposition of his own Democrat Party. All the much-heralded arm-twisting he did was directed at southern DEMOCRATS, who had voted down virtually the same bill which had been introduced in 1957 during the Eisenhower administration, and which, despite its strong Republican support at the time, was voted down by the Democrats.

Johnson’s efforts in 1964 were extremely commendable, but again, it was not Republican opposition that made it a difficult – and ultimately historic – victory. Rather, it was overcoming the entrenched opposition of racist southern DEMOCRATS, let by Senator (and soon to be Democrat Senate Leader) Robert Byrd, which enabled this great legislation to become law. Look it up: Republicans voted in higher percentages for this Legislation than did the Democratic majority, which controlled both houses of Congress at the time. The idea that Republicans hampered the 1964 Civil Rights Act is nonsense.

It was Democrat Senator Robert Byrd who was the chief obstacle to the Republican-backed Civil Rights legislation of 1957 and 1964, and who staged a classic one-man filibuster of the bill during Senate debate on the issue. No Republican joined him.

What’s more, Democrat Senator Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klansman, did not suffer from his racist background in the Democrat Party as he became Senate Majority Whip from 1971 to 1977. Later, he led the Democratic caucus as Senate Majority Leader from 1977 to 1981 and 1987 to 1989, and as Senate Minority Leader from 1981 to 1987. From 1989 to 2010 he served as the President pro tempore of the US Senate when the Democratic Party had a majority, and as President pro tempore emeritus during periods of Republican majority beginning in 2001. Democrats looked up to this guy as a leader.

In 1944 lifelong Democrat Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Bilbo:
“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
And as late as 2001 Byrd used the epithet “White Niggers” publicly to describe people he did not like.
Not only are you smears of Republicans a great lie, but you cannot face the historical facts as they are. It is Democrats who have been the great racists in this country, and it is you who is confused. It would be a service to anyone who reads this blog if you could get your history straight.

Sunny B. said...

RK:

Does it make sense that the "Party of Lincoln" would be sponsoring this Voter ID legislation? Afterall, the Republican Party was founded by zealous, anti-slavery advocates who broke federal pro-slavery laws to help slaves escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

These same Republicans who fought for social justice pushed through the three Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution to protect the blacks and give them the vote. It was the Democrats in the South who tried to suppress the vote via literary tests, poll taxes and the frequent hanging of blacks and Republican whites.

None of the Confederate states voted for Republican Lincoln and, coincidently, none of those Confederate states voted for Democrat Obama in 2008.

It is interesting to note that, in addition to the anti-slavery plank in the 1860 Republican platform, the two other main planks where increase tariffs on trade (anti-free market) and increase government spending on the transcontinental railroad.

In 1860, the Democrats were against these big government boondoggles like the transcontinental railroad and for expanding slavery through out the country (free-market)and lowering tariffs.

It's like the two parties have flipped geographically and ideologically. The LBJs Southern Democrats are today's Republicans.

Roadkill said...

Sunny,

As usual, your history is flawed.

Republicans, as a party, were not lawbreakers. On the contrary, they established a political party to change the law that was then in effect and enforced by southern Democrat slaveholders and their minions in Washington. While the civil war was all about slavery, the spark that ignited the conflagration was southern secession – not Republican revolt or lawbreaking.

Regarding the 2008 election, Virginia, N. Carolina, and Florida all voted for McCain. Not a big deal, since President Obama won big, but it highlights your poor grasp of history.

My understanding is that the tariff issue was used by the 1860 Republicans to diminish the slave-labor derived wealth of the southern cotton magnets, whose trade with Britain was their sole source of revenue. It was a form of sanction. There were few if any manufactures in the south; it was a commodity economy, and increased tariffs cut into their profits.

The transcontinental railroad was something else, and should more properly have been built with private funds. The scandals of the post-war building of the line bear this out. So I agree with you there – the GOP was off-base with that plank.

But one mis-step from 1860 does not support your wishful thesis that the parties have somehow flipped regarding race and the dignity of black Americans. Republicans stood for the independence and self-reliance of the black man in 1860, and still so stands today. The only flipping that has been going on is within the Democrat Party, and that for bald political advantage only.

Sunny B. said...

As individuals, there were founding members of the Wisconsin Republican Party who broke laws related to fugitive slaves. The Republicans hoped to contain slavery, at least, and eliminated at best.

Not sure what your point is about the 2008 election. Generally speaking, the southern states that didn't vote for Lincoln and became the Confederacy didn't vote for Obama. In 1860, they were Democrats and in 2008 the were Republicans. Generally speaking, this is historically accurate.

The quiet arm of the newly born Republicans were Whigs...commonly associated with big business. There were Free Soilers and Democrats in the mix to.

From a high level, I think my thesis about the flipflops is pretty accurate. To tell me that the Republican Party of 1854 is the same (and stands for the same time) as the Republican Party of 2011, is off the reality track.