Why do I ever try to talk to my father?
So.
I came back from class to an email entitled: "Your comment about the use of false IDs not amounting much"
Which was... supposed to be in relation to what I had said about voter ID laws in a conversation a few weeks ago. I don't think he really got the message seeing as I'm 100% certain the term "false IDs" never crossed my lips, nor does it have anything to do with what I was talking about, but OK.
Also, just to be clear, when you get to it, I'm not meaning to say Romney supporters are racist, sexist, and homophobic. I don't believe that at all. I know there are some, just are there are some crazy and awful people behind every politician. I wouldn't have even brought that into things if it weren't for the fact that my dad is racist, sexist, and homophobic. What I'm saying is that a lot of the message from the GOP was rooted in the same ideologies from decades past when those things were entrenched in the culture, and the GOP played on the fears generations of people were brought up to have despite the fact that they are grossly unfair and unfounded.
Alright. Down the rabbit hole we go:
On Nov 20, 2012, at 9:45 AM, My Father wrote:
Look up St. Lucie Florida election results. It seems that 280% of the voters in the district voted.
- Dad
From: Me
Subject: Re: Your comment about the use of false IDs not amounting much
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:42:01 -0600
To: My Father
I have to say my first reaction to this email was: Oh my god, Florida is having problems with the vote count? Shocking! It's not like there's a precedent for Florida... having vote counting problems. Clearly it must be an obscene and unprecedented amount of voter fraud.
If it is, in fact, a matter of voter fraud then it is unprecedented, at least according to the ACLU and a few other reports I saw when the voter ID issue was hitting Texas.
It may well be a horrible amount of voter fraud, but considering it's Florida, who's had some sort of MASSIVE voting failure every major election since I'm old enough to remember, I'm inclined to hold off on definitively believing that it must be voter fraud-- especially since that's such a hot button issue right now that I'm sure there are A LOT of people gleefully jumping to conclusions about what happened without all of the information.
I wasn't talking about false IDs at all, for the record, though. I was saying that from what I'd read, voter fraud was being blown out of proportion-- being turned into some sort of rampant problem corroding the US -- when the evidence has not been there to back it up. That supposedly a lot of the voter fraud that does exist has been found to not have been willful but the result of voters' mistakes or mistakes made by others. That while it might be a problem, it is not the epidemic people were making it out to be in the year before this election. Which means it does not come close to justifying the creation of a form of poll tax-- which is ILLEGAL. Requiring state IDs, which cost money (and can take a ridiculous amount of time to procure -- at least mine did) creates a poll tax. You can't have a functioning democracy while requiring people to pay to perform their civic duty. The fact that a politician in PA actually came out and said, point blank, that voter ID laws would "win the state for Romney" shows that they knew that this law would disproportionately effect certain population groups and propel their own political agenda, directly flying in the face of the purpose and function of democracy, and that voter fraud was not the main target driving their actions, but a desire to suppress voters. The only way a voter ID law should be able to pass in this country is if state IDs are free, which I don't think is something that states can exactly afford. So even if this was a case of massive voter fraud, and even if there turns out to be a lot more of this this election and voter fraud becomes a real, pressing issue, they're going to have to find a different way to deal with it.
Basically, this is awful, but it's also ultimately irrelevant to the issue of voter ID laws.
On Nov 20, 2012, at 4:01 PM, My Father wrote:
OK , everyone in the world is good and they do not do such things. The guy is right. If illegal aliens were not voting Romney would have taken 350 plus votes.
- Dad
Then I replied:
Ok, everyone in the world is a white person holding onto the ideals of a racist, sexist, and homophobic generation while clutching their copies of "Atlas Shrugged" close to their patriotic little hearts. If it weren't for you meddling illegals...!
Believe what you want to, Dad. You can belittle my beliefs until kingdom come, but they're not going to change for it. The country that I, and the vast majority of my generation, want to inherit looks nothing like the white bread horror show that the GOP was trying to serve us. Maybe you and Fox News should step down from your high horses and think about how Romney's message failed and why instead of just looking for other people to blame.
I love you. I'm sorry if I sound like a petulant kid to you, but this is how it is. My world view is hardly the rose tinted candy land you seem to believe it is, but okay. I'm afraid you're rather alone in your beliefs among your daughters.
Please punch me in the face.
I came back from class to an email entitled: "Your comment about the use of false IDs not amounting much"
Which was... supposed to be in relation to what I had said about voter ID laws in a conversation a few weeks ago. I don't think he really got the message seeing as I'm 100% certain the term "false IDs" never crossed my lips, nor does it have anything to do with what I was talking about, but OK.
Also, just to be clear, when you get to it, I'm not meaning to say Romney supporters are racist, sexist, and homophobic. I don't believe that at all. I know there are some, just are there are some crazy and awful people behind every politician. I wouldn't have even brought that into things if it weren't for the fact that my dad is racist, sexist, and homophobic. What I'm saying is that a lot of the message from the GOP was rooted in the same ideologies from decades past when those things were entrenched in the culture, and the GOP played on the fears generations of people were brought up to have despite the fact that they are grossly unfair and unfounded.
Alright. Down the rabbit hole we go:
On Nov 20, 2012, at 9:45 AM, My Father wrote:
Look up St. Lucie Florida election results. It seems that 280% of the voters in the district voted.
- Dad
From: Me
Subject: Re: Your comment about the use of false IDs not amounting much
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:42:01 -0600
To: My Father
I have to say my first reaction to this email was: Oh my god, Florida is having problems with the vote count? Shocking! It's not like there's a precedent for Florida... having vote counting problems. Clearly it must be an obscene and unprecedented amount of voter fraud.
If it is, in fact, a matter of voter fraud then it is unprecedented, at least according to the ACLU and a few other reports I saw when the voter ID issue was hitting Texas.
It may well be a horrible amount of voter fraud, but considering it's Florida, who's had some sort of MASSIVE voting failure every major election since I'm old enough to remember, I'm inclined to hold off on definitively believing that it must be voter fraud-- especially since that's such a hot button issue right now that I'm sure there are A LOT of people gleefully jumping to conclusions about what happened without all of the information.
I wasn't talking about false IDs at all, for the record, though. I was saying that from what I'd read, voter fraud was being blown out of proportion-- being turned into some sort of rampant problem corroding the US -- when the evidence has not been there to back it up. That supposedly a lot of the voter fraud that does exist has been found to not have been willful but the result of voters' mistakes or mistakes made by others. That while it might be a problem, it is not the epidemic people were making it out to be in the year before this election. Which means it does not come close to justifying the creation of a form of poll tax-- which is ILLEGAL. Requiring state IDs, which cost money (and can take a ridiculous amount of time to procure -- at least mine did) creates a poll tax. You can't have a functioning democracy while requiring people to pay to perform their civic duty. The fact that a politician in PA actually came out and said, point blank, that voter ID laws would "win the state for Romney" shows that they knew that this law would disproportionately effect certain population groups and propel their own political agenda, directly flying in the face of the purpose and function of democracy, and that voter fraud was not the main target driving their actions, but a desire to suppress voters. The only way a voter ID law should be able to pass in this country is if state IDs are free, which I don't think is something that states can exactly afford. So even if this was a case of massive voter fraud, and even if there turns out to be a lot more of this this election and voter fraud becomes a real, pressing issue, they're going to have to find a different way to deal with it.
Basically, this is awful, but it's also ultimately irrelevant to the issue of voter ID laws.
On Nov 20, 2012, at 4:01 PM, My Father wrote:
OK , everyone in the world is good and they do not do such things. The guy is right. If illegal aliens were not voting Romney would have taken 350 plus votes.
- Dad
Then I replied:
Ok, everyone in the world is a white person holding onto the ideals of a racist, sexist, and homophobic generation while clutching their copies of "Atlas Shrugged" close to their patriotic little hearts. If it weren't for you meddling illegals...!
Believe what you want to, Dad. You can belittle my beliefs until kingdom come, but they're not going to change for it. The country that I, and the vast majority of my generation, want to inherit looks nothing like the white bread horror show that the GOP was trying to serve us. Maybe you and Fox News should step down from your high horses and think about how Romney's message failed and why instead of just looking for other people to blame.
I love you. I'm sorry if I sound like a petulant kid to you, but this is how it is. My world view is hardly the rose tinted candy land you seem to believe it is, but okay. I'm afraid you're rather alone in your beliefs among your daughters.
Please punch me in the face.