By Hank Beckman -
In light of the controversy over Georgia’s recent overhaul of its election system, liberal Democrats need to answer a critical question.
Are they and their public relations advisors in media satisfied with continuing to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of African Americans by requiring photo IDs for legal gun purchases?
That would appear to be the case, at least in the State of Illinois.
The Land of Lincoln mandates that residents provide photo identification when applying for a Firearms Owner Identification Card. Exceptions are granted to out-of-state residents who are legally allowed to own a firearm in their home state, but if an Illinois resident wants to live on the right side of the law—and avoid the penalty of up to seven years in prison—they damn well better provide that photo ID to get the required FOID card.
Democrats and other leftists have long argued that requiring photo ID to vote is effectively racist because blacks and other minorities are less likely to possess photo IDs. The reasoning is yet another use of the disparate impact argument; a law might not specifically discriminate against a particular group, but if the impact of the law disproportionately affects that group, it’s effectively discriminatory and legally suspect.
There are other issues the Left has with the voter reform law recently passed by the Georgia legislature, but the required photo, as usual, is the issue most often cited.
One prominent Democrat, attorney Marc Elias, had the nerve to suggest that recognizing a person’s driver’s license number might be too challenging for African Americans to master. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations!
There is no avoiding or spinning away the contradictions in this particular policy preference of the modern Left. If it’s unfair to require a photo ID to vote because blacks are less likely to be able to obtain one, then it’s unfair to require them before they can legally obtain a firearm.
We should always be sensitive to the possibility that African Americans, or any other group might be disenfranchised, whether or not it was the intention of a particular change in voting law.
But that issue is complicated enough that it would take several columns to even begin to address it, and there would still be disagreement among honorable people who view the issue differently. But a quick internet search would reveal that there are municipalities around the country that have long required photo IDs to exercise the franchise.
A good example is the State of Wisconsin, which instituted a photo ID requirement in 2015. Did Democrats not know about the ID requirement before the party held its convention there last summer? If so, shouldn’t they have boycotted the state because it practiced voter suppression?
It’s also true that there are any number of activities where a person is required to prove who they are by means of a photo ID before being allowed to participate in said activity. Want a passport? Produce a photo ID, or kiss goodbye the dreamed-of pilgrimage to Liverpool to walk the streets once walked by John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
One could go on forever listing the instances in which U.S. citizens must produce a photo ID; it varies from state to state and business to business. The salient point is that unless one is making the argument that engaging in many of the routine activities of daily life is disproportionately off limits to blacks because they can’t obtain a photo ID, and because of that they shouldn’t be required to produce one, then there’s no legitimate reason to require photo ID for anything.
To be consistent, leftists need to consider how many law-abiding African Americans have been denied the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights in Illinois because of the supposedly restrictive photo ID requirement.
While many (most?) on the Left are unlikely to lose sleep over denying a law-abiding citizen of any race the constitutionally-protected right to bear arms, it might surprise our progressive friends to know that growing numbers of African Americans are concerned enough about their safety to arm themselves.
A recent Chicago Tribune article cited research done by the Institute for Policy Research that showed blacks 1.7 times more likely to become new gun owners than whites. The same article also pointed to gun industry surveys showing the same pattern and quoted several African Americans residents of Chicago who chose to arm themselves legally, citing fears of rising crime.
What presents the more daunting challenge for the honest working stiff on the West Side of Chicago—obtaining a photo ID to vote, or protecting himself and his family from criminals in a crime-infested neighborhood? If Democrats were honest about their supposed concern for black lives, they would explain why they are “suppressing” the rights of blacks to bear arms.
And leaving personal safety aside, this obsession of leftists to ban the photo ID requirement to vote runs counter to the policy preferences of many African Americans.
A recent Rasmussen Reports survey showed whites approving of requiring photo IDs to vote (75 percent); blacks approved of photo IDs by an solid margin (69 percent); other minorities agreed that a photo ID is necessary (82 percent).
Moreover, the survey shows support for photo IDs increasing since 2018.
If they want to retain a shred of credibility, Leftists in Illinois have a choice to make. Either call for the end of the photo ID requirement for the FOID card and make it easier for African Americans to legally own firearms, or acknowledge the preferences of 69 percent of the black community that photo IDs are critical to conducting fair and honest elections.
If the requirement for the FOID car addresses a compelling public safety issue—and most believe it does—then take the time to restate the case for it; you’ll likely get the support of most citizens, regardless of race or political bias.
But don’t insult our intelligence by asking us to believe that obtaining a photo ID for a FOID card is easy-peasy, but suddenly becomes an insurmountable obstacle when it comes to registering to vote.
Of course, just spitballing here, but it could also be that Democrats have other reasons for doing away with requiring photo IDs to vote. Living in Cook County my whole life, I’ve heard rumors that there might have been a few voting irregularities in Chicago, a town dominated for decades by Democrats.
Maybe Democrats just want to make it easier to “find” votes when needed, or allow people to vote that aren’t legal citizens, or eliminate any voting requirements at all. Maybe their real motive is just to cheat and steal elections.
But you already suspected that, didn’t you?
