Why Republicans Will Rush Voter ID, Other Draconian Bills Through The Legislature

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board today correctly slaps Wisconsin Republicans in the legislature who want to immediately adopt voter photo ID.

Look for the bill, and companions to eliminate early voting, and same-day registration - - to sail through the legislature next year for Gov. Scott Walker's signature as fast as the process can happen.

Why?

Because they can.

Governing from the center has no appeal for them.

And because elections are about many things, and for the winners, it's about consolidating and extending power.

So in the 2011 legislative session, the first order of business is self-preservation.

Then the public business - - with grateful 'real' voters in Republican strongholds assured that their rights are no longer in jeopardy.

What a crock.

Republicans and talk show hosts locally and nationally have been concocting the phantom "voter fraud" issue for years, ginning up and then chasing their propaganda that, for example, John Kerry stole Wisconsin from George W. Bush in 2004.

And that illegal voting is rampant.

They even accuse each other of fraud when elections or a recount are not going their way. I'm looking at you, Tea Partier/Republican goof Joe Miller.

For Wisconsin Republicans, the fake issue is 100% political. It's intentional fear-mongering, stirring up the suburban and small-town, out-state base to believe that in the cities - - those dens of iniquity - - bad things are taking place at the polls.

In reality, this is the equivalent of headless bodies in the Arizona desert.

I was a voter protection observer at a downtown Milwaukee polling place during the recent election, and a Republican observer from out-of-town was somewhere surprised and just plain happy to see how efficiently the polling place was run.

The self-induced expectation of shady, slippery voting never took place.

The observer had no one to challenge.

A handful of idiots were found in past elections to have either voted twice or falsely entered names on registration forms to earn a few extra, per-head bucks in a practice now completely discredited and gone.

Those people were caught - - the system works as is - - and severely punished - - which is a good thing. No one should tamper with voting - - and that includes legislators who can meddle with the system from their official, insider posts.

What the GOP will do in Madison is worse than anecdotal voter fraud that is more a product of poverty or confusion or individual sneakiness.

The GOP goal is to erect barriers to voting against people who move frequently, like students or low-income residents, or who will not be crisply organized prior to election day and and had obtained whatever ID the Republicans say is sufficient in the "papers, please" state they are hell-bent on creating here.

Any surprise that an Arizona-style anti-immigration bill is already being prepared by the same hard-core, right-wing GOP legislative caucus?

In a city like Milwaukee, the obstacles will tamp down voting among minorities - - and that's fine with Republicans, because most of those voters are Democratic.

Combine a strategy to depress the vote in Milwaukee, and in college towns, with the new advantage in fund-raising handed to Republican-leaning corporations by the US Supreme Court in the Citizens United case and you have at least the opportunity for solidified GOP rule in Wisconsin for some time to come.

In partisan politics, an uneven playing field is usually a dream.

In Wisconsin, The Fitzgerald brothers, Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC)  are going to take turns running the bulldozer to regrade and degrade the political environment to their advantage.

The newspaper editorial reminds Republican legislators that jobs is the number one issue in the state. - - as Republican candidates frequently said during the campaign.

Well, don't believe everything you hear.

For legislators, securing their own jobs is always the first priority, a political necessity dove-tailing with denying those positions to the opposition.

All made easier if the opposition's voters are turned away at the polls by legislative scheming that is downright immoral.