H.R. 1: You Can Run, But You Can't I.D.

April 22, 2021

Senate Democrats worked themselves into a fury dressing down Georgia's election law in a hearing this week. They claimed the bill was thoroughly racist, and that 380 bills introduced in nearly every state were designed to suppress the minority vote. They insisted the only solution that would adequately counter this groundswell of racism was their federal election takeover, H.R. 1. Of course, they're reaching. They're being aided by the media, because they know that most of these election bills actually contain much-needed reforms for a system ripe for abuse, as the 2020 election demonstrated. The Democrats want to tilt the playing field in their favor, but they're doing everything they can to build the narrative that they're really setting it straight.

Fortunately, the American people aren't buying it. In fact, Democrats only succeeded in demonstrating how disconnected they are from the American voter -- the kind of disconnect where they drove the truck to the lake and left the boat at home. Take the voter ID provision in the Georgia law, which the Democrats repeatedly condemned in the hearing. A McLaughlin & Associates poll last week found likely voters support requiring "voters to present a valid government issued form of identification to prove that they are who they say they are when casting their vote or requesting an absentee ballot," as John McLaughlin described on radio, by a whopping 61 points -- 78 percent to 17 percent. Far from the racist "Jim Crow" relic the media describes, voter ID is even popular with African Americans (72 percent support, 18 percent oppose). Even Democratic voters overwhelmingly support voter ID (68 percent support, 24 percent oppose). Significantly, the survey includes voters in Arizona, Maine, Montana, and West Virginia, states with Democratic senators that might face electoral consequences if they support H.R. 1.

With such overwhelming support, voter ID is the type of slam-dunk issue that politicians dream about. I mean, in this divided world in which we live, I doubt you could get 78 percent of people to say ice cream is good. There is no category of voters that solidly opposes voter ID laws, nearly every group overwhelming supports them, despite the media's efforts, because they're just common sense. In fact, the numbers are so shocking I had to read it twice. At first, I thought maybe McLaughlin only surveyed conservatives. But no, American voters, are really that much in favor of a commonsense election requirement that Democratic politicians are trying to abolish.

That raises the question, why are Democratic politicians so keen on spinning such an unpopular issue to rewrite U.S. election law? The answer is: money and power. If Democratic politicians can push through H.R. 1, they will permanently rig the election system to make it easy to cheat, ensuring that Republicans never win again, explained McLaughlin. They will also institute "taxpayer funding of campaigns," and then proceed to "pay themselves a salary from the campaign with taxpayer funds." That's why the name "For the People Act" is misleading. It should be called the Corrupt Politicians Act.

The good news is, Americans are fed up with extreme policies and aloof manner of Democratic politicians. As a pollster, McLaughlin keeps his finger on the people's pulse, and he believes we're already seeing the pushback in the resentment towards liberal stars Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo. Perhaps Democrats in Congress will see the same backlash in the 2022 midterms.