Nationalizing Our Elections! Oh My!

I wasn’t going to write about this because I don’t want to be accused of picking on Mark Levin, but then it got mentioned, so what the heck. Levin is “outraged” that Obama is trying to “nationalize the country’s elections!” Yep. And he’s right! To the bunkers! ...... Ok, for those of you still here, let’s talk about this because Obama did something interesting and we should think about this logically.

Here’s what happened. Two weeks ago, Obama signed an Executive Order establishing a Presidential Commission to deal with “election administration.” According to the Order, the Commission “shall identify best practices and otherwise make recommendations to promote the efficient administration of elections.” The commission will look at how to train and recruit poll workers, how to manage voter rolls, voting machines, ballot simplicity, English proficiency and absentee ballots.

Levin reacted angrily saying Obama used “falsehoods” about long lines “to nationalize elections” in a power grab to “further weaken our voting system at the state level.” Some election law expert even called this “a solution in search of a problem.” Are they right?

No. A commission like this has zero power. Presidents cannot make law and election laws cannot be overridden or amended by a commission like this. It takes an act of Congress to change election law and even their power is limited by various Supreme Court rulings. Thus, Obama’s commission is basically a “for entertainment purposes only” gimmick. . . like most of his agenda. So forget Levin because he doesn’t understand how our government works.

And what about this idea that this is a solution in search of a problem? Well, that’s wrong too. For one thing, this is not a solution since it’s powerless to do anything. Secondly, there is a problem here. Think back on the whining about voter fraud since 2000. The left squealed that Bush stole the election. The feds responded by giving money for electronic voting machines, which the left claimed were pre-programmed to vote for Bush. Starting around 2006, the right decided that the same voting machines were spitting out votes for Democrats. At the same time, the right became obsessed with illegal aliens and criminals stealing elections, black people voting without IDs, Black Panthers blocking polls, and so on. Blacks whine that they are kept from voting. Absentee ballots get delivered late. Etc. etc. For the past 13 years, we’ve all be screaming that we’re worse than a Banana Republic. So saying there is no problem when election integrity is vital to a democracy is pretty stupid.

Still, we should fight this, right, because Obama proposed it?

Well, let’s think about this. Right now, our election laws are about as rigged as they can possible get for the left. There are no requirements to vote. You can register anyone. You don’t need to show an ID. Liberals are constantly getting caught talking about voting multiple times and never get punished. Liberals are big on “finding” ballots to win elections, cutting off elections to stop conservatives from voting, keeping military ballots from counting, and getting recounts in liberal strongholds. What more could they possibly do to make things worse?

Moreover, when conservatives try to fix this, realize two things. First, the only states where they can fix things are states they already win, so the effort is pointless. Secondly, because those states are basically Southern states with a racist past and because conservative rhetoric has focused on “illegals stealing elections” and blacks committing voter fraud, the Democrats have been able to sell the idea that this is just conservatives trying to suppress minority votes.

Now imagine if rather than just attacking Obama’s commission, what if conservatives embraced a commission like this and forced their way onto it. Not only could they move election laws and administration to the right – since they can’t really go further left – but we could get things like Voter ID laws endorsed nationwide through the Congress without having to go state by state. That means we can reach the states we couldn’t normally touch because we aren’t even close to competitive in those states, and it means we can make this very rational change without facing the constant drumbeat that this is an attempt by Southern whites to control minority populations.

This is one of those things where conservatives need to stop thinking with their knees and work through whether or not this makes sense. It might not. I admit that. It could be there are some hidden dangers I don’t see. But from what I see right now, embracing this and joining it could only be very good for us.

Thoughts?

Oh, and obey the Hypno-toad.