Stevieslaw: More Votes for Decent Folks
The Republican legislatures in many states have been busy pushing voter identification laws. One was signed into law today in Pennsylvania by Governor Tom Corbett. The issue these laws claim to address is voter fraud, although no one seems able to provide any proof that this is a significant problem. At Stevieslaw, we recognize that these legislators are just being shy. What they are really addressing is larger voting issue identified by Joseph Heller, in Catch 22---in which the “educated Texan from Texas who looked like someone in Technicolor and felt, patriotically, that people of means---decent folk---should be given more votes than drifters, whores, criminals, degenerates, atheists and indecent folks---people without means.”
That’s what these voter identification bills are really about--- giving more votes to “decent folks.” Of course, the list of indecent folks may have changed slightly over the years. After all, Catch 22 was published in 1961. The current Republican list of indecent folk---people without means---includes all those who are “barely citizens”---the aged and infirm, the poor, women and minorities. All those, coincidentally, who might be more likely to vote for the Democrats.
We are not naïve. If the Democrats were in power they might do the same sort of thing. They might, for example, ban Corporations from voting. At Stevieslaw, we can live with that. I, for one, was hoping not to get behind GE on the long line at the polling station, while volunteers checked identity papers.