Don’t Confuse “The Left” or the “Woke Mob” With the Facts

I remember one of President George H.W. Bush’s addresses to Congress where he talked about cutting the capital gains tax.  Democrats hissed.  Bush retorted with a line like “never has an issue been so demagogued as this one.”  Bush was referring to Democrats carping that the tax cut helped only “Fat Cats” and “the rich” as they ignored the across-the-board benefits to the economy as a whole.

Fast forward to 2021 to find Georgia’s new voter integrity law being demagogued by “The Left.”  President Biden personally intervened to suggest that Major League Baseball (MLB) pull their All-Star Game out of Atlanta.  And pull the game it did.  That’s the new way to show the woke mob you mean business— stand with them despite hurting businesses and workers, including many minorities.

Off to Denver, Colorado, the game will go, a state with fewer early voting days and near-identical voter ID laws to Georgia for absentee ballots, at least for the first request of one.  The woke mob appears gleeful, even though the game will now be played in a city with a 9.2% black population compared to Atlanta, which is 51% black.  Some have even referred to Atlanta as a modern-day Black Wall Street.  Think Tyler Perry Studios.  Yet Biden appears thrilled at the move, too, despite the fact that his home state of Delaware has zero early voting days.  Zero.

No matter.  Wokers adamantly refuse to be confused with the facts.  The new Georgia law was declared “Jim Crow,” and voter suppression by leftists before the ink was even dry on it.  And their allies in the media mob have been repeating the lies ever since.

CEOs from Georgia companies like Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola weighed in with their own condemnations of a law that clearly no one had read.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell cautioned businesses to stay out of politics, a world about which they appear to know so little.

Perhaps baseball’s top brass and CEOs alike might think before they speak next time, as their hypocrisy is apparent to everyone.  You need an ID to pick up baseball tickets at a will-call window.  And don’t think for a minute that you’re getting into a Delta or Coke annual shareholder’s meeting without proving who you are with a photo of yourself.

Voters across the country have consistently shown strong majority support for showing some sort of identification in order to vote—75% overall and 69% among black votes, according to a March 2021 Rasmussen poll.  A majority of states already have voter ID laws.

Consider these 25 things for which a photo ID is required, published by The Washington Examiner nearly eight years ago:  alcohol; cigarettes; opening a bank account; applying for food stamps; applying for welfare; applying for Medicaid or Social Security; applying for unemployment or a job; renting or buying a house; applying for a mortgage; to drive/buy/rent a car; to board an airplane; to get married; purchasing a gun; adopting a pet; renting a hotel room; applying for a hunting license; applying for a fishing license; buying a cell phone; visiting a casino; pick up a prescription; holding a rally or protest (legally); donating blood; buying an “M” rated video game; purchasing nail polish at CVS; and purchasing certain cold medicines.

Still, wokers say no ID to vote, even though Georgia will give a free state ID to anyone who wants one.  When wokers say requiring an ID disenfranchises minorities, they implicitly state that they believe minorities are too stupid to obtain one or that minorities do none of the aforementioned 25 things that require an ID.

But there’s more.  The new Georgia law actually has other ways to prove who you are when applying for an absentee ballot.  Voters without ID can use the last four digits of their Social Security number, a utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or another government document with their name and address on it, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.

Again, wokers refuse to be moved by any facts, even when they are so apparent to the rest of us.  Well, maybe not to the commissioner of MLB and a few fearful corporate CEOs.

Jeff Szymanski works in political communications for AMAC, a senior benefits organization with 2.4 million members.