Focusing direct attention on 4 out of 220 people and wording it as if those were the only people who did it isn’t a critisism, it’s a manipulation. It’s the same manipulation that was around for months before the election which lead to all this bullshit in the first place. For a median voter it makes this regular “both sides” bullshit, when in reality it’s 216 vs 4 people.

Been doing that since 2002. Doesn’t seem to do anything.

Pretty obvious from the election they want progressives kept of the ballots by all means, and mostly by the dems.
Can’t challenge the uniparty monopoly.

Nah, people running under the progressive name need to know we’re done fucking around.

I’d bet most conservative women didn’t vote to have their ability to vote taken away as well. Having to have a “real ID” license accepted in every state not be accepted to vote is pure ridiculousness.

Based on what I hear on local news, Perez at least probably is doing what her constituents want. She won a very red district as a Democrat by appealing to the people in her district. I don’t like her vote, but I get it.

Easier to paste my response to someone else that responded with the same thing:

I have a hard time accepting that just because, conserves are being conservatives, it’s seemingly fine that they do this shit. We’ll just all be outraged at the audacity of four idiot democrats that voted in lock-step with them.

All of them need to be held accountable. ALL of them.

But here, when all I see are people ignoring the villains, it makes me wonder why I ever bothered to question how we got here.

Conservatives have survived on their ability to never be held accountable for what they do. And seeing everyone focused on holding four democrats responsible for their joint effort with 16 conservatives and not even mentioning the assholes that drew this up to begin with-

I guess it all makes more sense now how thoroughly we are fucked.

It’s totally Democrats fault.

This is exactly the trick that has got us to this point, and you are giving the average news consumer way too much credit.

Yes, democrats being villains on this is novel and republicans being villains is not, but news reports bias our attention and skew reality. Viewers who are only exposed to this unconsciously end up completely turned around, saying in general democrats are the problem. This is how we end up with elections where voters stay home. And young people have internalized the disproportionate criticism of democrats, and that is probably helping give right-wing influencers credibility.

Objective and credible news should NOT just report on what’s novel. They should report on proportional responsibility.

I get what you’re saying… but have a hard time accepting that just because, conserves are being conservatives, it’s seemingly fine that they do villain-shit. We’ll just be outraged at the audacity of four idiot democrats that voted in lock-step with them.

ALL of them need to be held accountable.

But here, when all I see are people ignoring the villains, it makes me wonder why I ever bothered to question how we got here.

Conservatives have survived on their ability to never be held accountable for what they do. And seeing everyone focused on holding four democrats responsible for their joint effort with 16 conservatives and not even mentioning the assholes that drew this up to begin with-

I guess it all makes more sense now how thoroughly we are fucked.

It’s totally Democrats fault.

What do Democrats have to do with the left? Especially the Democrats in question.

Establishment Democrats have shived the left a million times and I never hear this pearl clutching about how they are “dividing the left” from folks like you. When a progressive primaries a corporate Democrat we get told that we shouldn’t mess with incumbents. When a corporate Democrat challenges a seated progressive, the establishment pumps tens of thousands of dollars into the challengers campaign.

We aren’t “dividing the left”, we are acknowledging a divide between the left and third way neoliberals. Establishment candidates want our votes and especially our donations, but then they want us to sit down and shut up.

Calling people who voted to disenfranchise millions the 'left" is an insult.

Havent you heard the term “It goes without saying”? I just don’t need to tell you that the sun rises in the east, 2+2=4, or Republicans are evil. But apparently, some of you insist on giving a pass to Democrats, who act like they’re on our side, but continually help make things worse.

The point is that it’s all kayfabe and just enough Democrats will vote to make things worse or prevent something from getting better. If you only blame Republicans, you’re not paying attention.

My partner kept theirs, and it tickles them pink when the systemic chauvinism gets reversed and I get called by their last name.

Same here. :)

But doesn’t this mean you now have to get a passport card if you took their last name?

It always seems to me that this wouldn’t be such a big problem if the US had a working bureaucracy.

As a European I have no expectation you’d had this nugget of US history, but I can fill in the gap. After slavery was outlawed in the entire USA in the 1850s (post civil war) racist bigots enacted laws preventing black Americans from using their newly gained Constitutional rights. There were lots of examples of this. In many of the southern state local leaders instituted poll taxes, which was a required fee that someone would have to pay before being able to vote, but these same laws gave exemptions to anyone whose grandfather had voted in a prior election. Because whites had a long history of voting they were exempt from these taxes. Because newly freed slaves whose grandfathers had not been allowed to vote hadn’t, the poll tax applied only to blacks. This disenfranchisement was deliberate on the part of white leaders with the intent to suppress black voting.

This is obviously fairly fucked up way to run a country, so the people of the USA passed an amendment to the US Constitution banning poll taxes on everyone. This is the 24th Amendment (passed in 1964). Better late than never.

So this new requirement on married women to pay at least $30 to get a passport card is a de facto poll tax which is outlawed by our Constitution (24th Amendment) also because it violates the 19th Amendment (the one that gave women the right to vote) as this law specifically targets married women (and not married men).

Those in power absolutely know these things but making things more difficult is the actual point. Voter fraud is extremely rare. The justification is all bull shit.

It’s ultimately about preventing people who might vote Democrat from voting. If it affects a ton of Republican voters that’s fine so long as it hits disproportionately more Democrats.

To the GOP it’s just rough paper to wipe their asses.

They could do that but besides still being shitty, it may not satisfy the 19th Amendment. The text of the Amendment read:

• The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

source

Making married women jump through the arduous hoops of obtaining a passport card (and indirect costs associated with it such as postage and photography costs) could still be possibly considered “abridged” in violation of this Constitutional Amendment. This is especially true when this new bill effectively singles out married women. Married men don’t have to do any of this so it could also still be a violation on the “on account of sex” portion of the Amendment.

How about making Bubba from bumble-fuck Arkansas have to drive to some major city to register for his right to vote?

See how that can be seen as an undue burden on voting?

Is there an amendment that bans a tax on gun ownership?

If not, then your argument has no standing

one cannot tax one right and hand wave another

Clearly you’re wrong because ones been being taxed and the other hasn’t. There’s a direct ban on poll taxes in the constitution, there is no such things for guns

So which amendment bans taxes on gun ownership. Must have missed that one.

Oh shut the fuck up.

Dont stop! I’m playing sad violin music to back you up! keep typing, think of the children who wont get to fire guns without your continued effort.

Removed by mod

There’s been a tax on the second amendment for decades. Having to pay the fees for licensing, and the classes, means there’s a cost to exercise the right.

I looked at the receipt for a recent gun purchase, a rifle, and there are zero taxes or fees on it except sales tax which applies to nearly all items (such as video games or automobiles) for sale. There were no required licenses or classes to purchase or own this firearm.

I have multiple guns. Never paid for a class, don’t need a license. Only cost was in the guns and ammo. Now, I WAS taught at an early age how to handle guns safely, and am damn near brainwashed to handle them thusly (I never leave a bullet in chamber and I still clear my weapons every time I even touch them.) That said, I do need to stop being a lazy ass and finish building my ak47 instead of leaving it half assembled. Still needs a couple of American parts and I will not risk being dinged with an illegally built firearm.

It fucking should be news, and anyone trying to shift blame to Democrats is a goddamn shill.

the fact that any Democrats supported it is

No one paying attention would have expected anything different. Its been 13 years since the VRA was struck down and democrats have done nothing meaningful, other than fundraise, off protecting voting rights. Doing nothing is worse than taking rights.

I’m fine calling out the 2% of Democrats that vote against their own constituents interests. But what I find hilarious, is the total lack of focus on the fact that 100% of Republicans are behind this.

This is what Chomsky was talking about when he wrote manufacturing consent. The framing here is massively deceptive, to the point of being completely backwards…and folks just eat it up this way. They swallow this narrative whole, and spit it back up for others to swallow.

What’s Anyone doing to hold Republicans accountable?

The headline should read 216 Republicans ensured passage of this bill.

My God, part of everything we deal with these days is no one holds Republicans accountable. Media, voters, commenters, etc. Maybe try that for once instead of focusing on 4 Democrats who DON’T MATTER.

They never will. They will defend them because even when they vote in agreement with stripping the rights of Americans because of Trump, they’re on the blue team, so it’s always valid and justified.

Try to primary them and see how fast the Democratic establishment is to come to their defense

Who fucking cares what the establishment says. The nominees is whoever won the primary vote.

It really shouldn’t be news, but remember…there are most likely a lot of morons out there who would still be shocked to hear about it. The ones who don’t like to talk or read about politics, the uninformed voter. These are Americans we’re talking about.

This explains it so well.

So the trick to getting away with doing shit like this is to just be open about it? Weird. If that was the case, then why not give these Democrats a pass, as well? They aren’t exactly hiding it either.

Or are you just getting these four mixed up with the 200 others that didn’t support this legislation?

It passed 220-208, so no it wouldn’t have changed anything.