Three noteworthy items today on voter fraud. First, over at PJ Rule of Law I have this post documenting how Charlie Savage and the New York Times got caught in a couple of demonstrable falsehoods in covering the Holder Justice Department and voter fraud.
Second, I have this piece at the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Black Panther voter-intimidation debacle still gnaws at nation’s values.”
Philadelphia was not the only place where this nasty hostility toward race-neutral enforcement of election laws scuttled or impaired Justice Department investigations. As I document in my book Injustice, it has also happened in Alabama, Mississippi, and elsewhere.
Yet the Black Panther case was about much more than two racist jokers strutting in front of the Guild House. It is about what sort of nation we want to be.
The most tragic part of the Panther dismissal is how it erodes the precious principle of equal protection. No part of our Constitution was purchased with more blood and treasure than the Civil War Amendments – the 13th, 14th and 15th.
The 15th Amendment secures the right to vote free from racial discrimination and is the basis of the Voting Rights Act, under which the Panthers were sued. These amendments stand for the principle that the law treats everyone equally, regardless of race. People continued to die for this precious idea in places like Selma and Philadelphia, Miss., even a century after the Civil War ended.
Third, this editorial in today’s Sunday paper sparked a nastygram from [email protected] (ever notice the nastier they are, the less likely they are to use their real names). [email protected] emailed me: “Will your next column be about the MILLIONS denied their right to vote by new GOP voter-suppression tactics?”
Wow, perhaps my next post would involve that topic. Millions are certainly worth writing about. So I asked 6099233124 if he (or she) happened to have some data on the millions so I could write a piece. I even offered to write it “within the hour.” The response:
“You want me to ‘send you data’ about GOP voter-suppression? That alone speaks volumes about your agenda. Wouldn’t waste my time.”
All I wanted was a link, some real data on the “millions of people” being disenfranchised by the GOP. Glad to cover it.
But then 6099233124 proceeded to waste more time: ” Stop your stupid games. I know what I’ve heard, but it’s not my job to inform you. Do your own homework if you’re really interested.”
These disputes in nastygrams follow a familiar pattern – big claims, no data. Not even a link to someone else who might have data. But it sure does excite the base. Still waiting 6099233124 for that data.
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