Pennsylvania Voter ID Is A Problem For Obama

Congrats Pennsylvania Republicans, you have for the time being undone everything that the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Right's Movement, and the 36^th President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson worked for.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the decision by a Pennsylvania judge (a Republican, surprise surprise) to uphold the ridiculous voter identification law that was signed into law earlier this year by Republican Governor Tom Corbett.

The law could disenfranchise over 750,000 people including minorities and the elderly. The law also has a disproportionate effect on the city of Philadelphia and it's surrounding areas, a huge voting block that basically delivered the state to Barack Obama in 2008.

Knowing the information I just sighted Judge Robert Simpson still refused to grant an injunction to stop the law from being enforced, clearly indicating how much of a partisan decision this was.

The Republican party after winning landslide majorities in Governorships and state legislatures in 2010 have set out to take away the vote from thousands who tend to lean left, rather than make a pitch to those same voters with their ideas. If you can't beat em' cheat em'

State Rep. Mike Turzai admitted as much when during a speech to the Republican State Committee in their summer meeting said “Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania , is done”. This is the equivalent of a guy knocking over a convenient store and then smiling for the security camera. Usually in those cases the judge throws the book at the guy.

As we have seen with Citizens United, and the Republican House of Representatives the GOP is committed to the defeat of Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats across the country, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's now famous quip about “denying the President a 2^nd term” is proof. The sad thing is they are willing to sink to all time lows to do so.

Voter ID, Republicans say will cut down on the amount of voter fraud that has allegedly taken place in elections over the years, yet many sources have described voter fraud as being “non existent.” Between 2002 and 2005 the George W. Bush administration made prosecuting voter fraud a priority, yet in those three years the DOJ found only 38 cases, yes folks 38 cases out of the hundreds of millions of votes that were cast.

The GOP remedy to this supposed problem is to take out a sledgehammer and kill a mosquito. They are willing to disenfranchise most in order to prosecute the tiny few.

I mentioned earlier that Republicans have a hard time selling their ideas, thus they trot out scams like Voter ID. That is absolutely true and 2008 was the eye opener. The GOP was horrified by what the saw in terms of the numbers that showed up to support then candidate Obama.

The demographics then as now are not on their side. Minorities, young people, and single woman all turned out in droves to vote Democrat in 08'. With Newt Gingrich persistently calling Barack Obama “the best food stamp President in history”, Mitt Romney telling college students they should “shop around for the best price” rather than looking to the government for help via Pell Grants and Paul Ryan being just as draconian on women's reproductive rights as Rick Santorum ever was, the GOP can't win unless they take out half of the supporters on the other side.

The question now is what do, not just Democrats, but people who believe in the fundamental right to vote do. With only two and a half months left before the election can groups get people the info they need and ultimately the ID's to have them vote in time.

The bigger question however may be can the President get himself re-elected without the state of Pennsylvania, let's hope we don't have to find out.