Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 23, 2012

When the powerful want something, they get it.

You folks really believe this nonsense, don’t you?

Finally this is coming out in the open!

Then believe Black Panthers will meet White Tigers-soon!

Makes a welcome change from Islamophobia, at least.

The over/under line for number of comments today is 90. I bet ‘over’.

Apologies, but in the UK, I’ve never heard of James Crow.Google suggests he is a recently deceased Emeritus Professor of Genetics, whom I doubt would be a subject for GBT.Any succinct background information for non-US readers of Doonesbury.ThanksMike

Mike, meet Jim:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

Well, obviously the solution to the (nearly non-existent) problem of voter fraud is to take the vote away from tens or hundreds of thousands of (Democratic Party) voters! Especially in a key swing state such as Florida.

We do have voter fraud (coincidentally from the Democrat party) here in Illinois. We’ve had many elections here where we went to bed thinking a Republican candidate had won, only to have just enough Democrat votes show up overnight.

@James Lindley: Yeah, Chicago, like Texas, has a bad reputation for voting counting. But has it been organized by having false voters show up? Isn’t ballot box stuffing a more common technique? I ask for information, I don’t really know, myself.

However, I am convinced that this process of making voter registration difficult is aimed at voter disenfranchisement, there have been a few slip-ups where Republicans have admitted as much.

Voting doesn’t even matter anymore. The Corporations have won. I’m voting for Obama because I want some sort of health care even if it’s not what it could be. The Republicans offer me nothing but things I don’t care about, like guns, or things I don’t want to happen, like taking away a woman’s right to have a safe and legal abortion. Besides, can’t you take one look at Mitt Romney’s smug face and see the guy who always got his way and has stepped on or over anyone dumb enough to get in his way his whole adult life? Obama may be as arrogant as any big shot but he doesn’t look anywhere near as sledge hammer as Romney.

@Mike31g: “Jim Crow” refers to the practice of extreme racial segregation and discrimination against African-Americans that was the rule in the United States a century ago. Legally enforced segregation gradually decreased in the middle of the 20th century, not without considerable struggle.

One example, the US Army was racially segregated until the late 1940’s. During WW-II, even blood for transfusions was kept separate, not only by blood type, but also by skin color!

In some ways, many aspects of the extreme forms of US conservationism today stem from the anti-integration efforts of the Civil Rights era (1950 – 1980). See: White Flight by Kevin Kruse.

I took genetics from James Crow at Univ of Wisconsin in 1973. It was an excellent course – still remember it vividly. But I couldn’t believe anyone would name their kid that.

Gary Silverman of the Financial Times has a very interesting article on some racial ploys of the Romney campaign, including trying to portray Obama as part of “the other” by showing him singing a song written and sung by a Black musician. This despite the song’s having made #1 in the Pop Charts back in 1972!That’s another example of the situation 60 years ago. Back then, music written by African-Americans couldn’t really hit the mainstream unless it was performed by white singers. Some of us are old enough to remember how people and institutions like Motown Records succeeded in ending the form of discrimination back in the 1960’s.Link to FT article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b9950090-d18e-11e1-bb82-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz21Qbi55Ee

Funny the ugly things that come out in the open when we finally get an African-American president, huh?

White people only started complaining about government handouts when they were extended to people of color.

This is such nonsense. Whining about having to show you’re legal to vote by having identification proves Democrats are the perpetrators of voter fraud. They want votes from anyone regardless of whether or not they’re legal. You can’t drive a car, cash a check, go on an airplane, or do a score of other things without some form of identification. Typical disingenuous liberal crap.

He must be a Democrat then. That’s who perpetuated the Jim Crow laws anyway and remember, the Dems still love slavery…..

Do mug shots count as government-issued photo ID?

The ID laws affect women at a much higher rate than men, also. Name changes due to marriage and divorce can render their IDs invalid.

Here in the impoverished state of NM we have a reep guv, a woman, who has spent a couple of million on finding voter fraud…they ain’t found none. But the money went to good private investigators..I suppose it could have gone to school books, but you know how reeps are.

Huh?

And on another bewildered note…why is the crow green?

Why are Democrats scared of an ID?

Is Jim Crow related to Jim Beam??

Scared of ID, no. But we do recognize that there are a large number of financially or mobility impaired people who do not have the required ID and for whom it would be a real difficulty to get one. These people tend to vote Democrat. The Republicans know this, too, they just don’t usually like to admit it out loud.

That it will be a massive problem for many people isn’t conjecture, it’s documented fact. To get a driver’s license in most states, you need a birth certificate. What if you don’t have one? This will do NOTHING to prevent the bogeyman of “voter fraud.” In every state these racist laws were promoted, they were asked to show this “fraud,” and not a single case was presented. This is about keeping black people from voting. By the way, even for those who can get this ID, it comes with a cost, and the SCOTUS has already said paying to vote is unconstitutional. These laws are not just an insult to justice, but are part of a long-standing and deeply unAmerican move on the part of the right and the GOP to prevent blacks, hispanics, and poor people from voting. Laws against felons who have completed their sentences, these voter ID laws, the lynching of ACORN, it’s all about the same thing that led to the murder of civil rights workers 50 years ago…you will not allow blacks to vote. Doonsbury is right. This is Jim Crow. Of course Jim Crow isn’t “back”, it never left.

This will bring the paranoid libs out in force! They will soon begin making up “facts” to support their agenda.

Stupid argument, especially when cable companies and the like demand proof of identity…how many of the poor who would be “disenfranchised” have cable?

Jim Crow is back? I didn’t know he’d actually left.

The current Repub voter suppression drive is also intended to keep young people from voting. They are often without a driver’s license, or as college students, don’t have a photo ID from the state in question.lol, wasn’t there a whole Fox-fabricated “Acorn Scandal” not long ago?

I know that in some states – technically – you need a photo ID to buy a gun, but not always, and not everywhere, correct?

Anything wrong with trying to keep dead people and citizens of Mexico from our election? Anything?

Not feeding because he isn’t yet trolling – GuardSGT has a point that Jim Crow laws are a blot on the Democrats escutcheon; the post-reconstruction South wasn’t exactly a hotbed of Republicanism. On the other hand, the passing of civil rights legislation was also a Democratic high point.

Oh come on ….I have to show my picture ID for anything of importance. Getting on a airline, doing any bank business, using my credit card, it goes on and on. Why then is it unreasonable to show it to cast a vote for an election? I mean, why would you not have ID? All 3 of my kids were born at home and all have ID. Do we just let folks, some 12-20 million undocumented aliens cast their votes for our elections?

LMAO! This is toooofunny! I don’t care who you are! Git’rdone!

Yes, that’s true. Segregation now and forever was the mantra of the old style southern Democrats. However some of them became Republicans. Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond are two examples. Others, including Richard Russell and Mendel Rivers, remained Democrats. And there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between those who changed parties and those who didn’t.

You do not need id to cash a check, banks take fingerprints now, nor use a credit card – I have been asked for id using my cc exactly once in my life…. You are missing the point though – these are not public activities. You are now putting a price tag on voting. You cannot get an id for free, therefore you must pay to vote. That is the violation.

I sippost that t gang of mixed whites and blacks would be called the Keyboard Gang?

Mitt R is not the solution; he’s part of the problem

I’ve read this comic since it was first put out. Used to seem relevant, now it strains desperately.

Jim Crow is back! Indeed! Thanks to the new efforts of the GOP to buy their way to win the elections in the form of a new poll tax. They want everyone to have a photo ID to vote. Many of the poor and elderly and students do not necessarily have a photo ID. This is because many of them do not drive since they don’t have the means to do so. The GOP will do whatever it takes. Voter fraud has been found to exist in less than .0000001% of the electorate. Making photo IDs needed to vote is a solution in search of a problem. In the olden days in the American South, there was a poll tax. People had to pay in order to vote. So it was a little more obvious but not much.

And yes, there were some Democrats in the south who supported this historically as well. George Wallace, the governor of Alabama and some others were examples of this. Doesn’t make it OK to bring Jim Crow back.

Can we get our terms sttraight? There is voter fraud, and then there is election fraud. Voter fraud is perpetrated by individuals, like the 7 people in Texas referred to by Tex Tech. Voter fraud is not a problem. Then there is election fraud. It is perpetrated by parties, corporations, etc, who administer elections. This is what James Lindley describes, and yes, it has happened, and all (you know, we have had more than two major parties over our more than two hundred year history) parties have done it. But stuffing ballot boxes is not done independently by individuals, particularly not in the middle of the night.

One example of election fraud would be disenfranching large groups of people in the name of preventing voter fraud. At least this has to be done in public.

Of course the scariest election fraud scenario is through programming of electronic counting equipment. Sworn testimony is available on this and I encourage all to read (and watch) up on it. It’s a far cry from fraud by individual voters and has absolutely nothing to do with identification of individual voters.

Yes, the Democratic party was once the party of the KKK. So? The Republican party was once the party of Lincoln. Neither is true today.

Nice to see at least on cartoonist brave enough to call it what it is.

The return of massive resistance!!! Unfortunately, the rest of the country is paying the price.

Anyone getting welfare should not vote. If you can’t pass a simple reading comprehensive test you should not be allowed to vote. If you don’t pay taxes you should be banned. How many have I pissed off so far?

If Willard wins in November and there is even the slightest hint that his win was due to Republican passed voter suppression laws, there will be rioting in the streets of America the likes of which have never been seen.

“By the way, Amish, who vote GOP en bloc, are also now disenfranchised because their religious beliefs disallow photographs.”Then I’m surprised they vote at all, since nobody in the Bible voted for Jesus. I guess when it’s to their benefit, that’s irrelevant.

Yes, LBJ turned southern Democrats (“Dixiecrats”) into Republicans. The parties have indeed “traded sides” on racial/ethnic/and religious issues to reward persecution of “minorities” that don’t “meet their standards”.

The simple fact is that driving is a privilege, not a right, in all 50 states, and requires a license, for which you pay. Cigarettes and a six pack are NOT a “right”, but a privilege if you’re old enough in your state to partake. Voting is a RiGHT, not a “privilege”, and POLL TAXES in ANY FORM have been adjudged unconstitutional, period. You cannot be charged to vote, or to register, or to provide “I.D.” to vote. The claims that “free” I.D.s are available in all states are false.

Try getting your state of birth to send you a free “certified” copy of your birth certificate, especially if you’ve moved from where you were born. When I got mine to get a passport, it cost me $50, plus $60 for the passport. Drivers licenses vary widely in price, as do those “non-driver” approved I.D.s that mandate a “certified birth certificate or other proof”. NO, the requirement for photo I.D. IS a “poll tax”, period. This is especially true where the I.D. is required to VOTE, not just register.

Lastly of course, the actual, PROVEN CASES of “voter fraud” are so inconsequential as to be absurd. Even back in the days when Nixon’s folks were complaining about the dead voting, and illegals, I remember distinctly it was the NIXON FOLKS on 4th Avenue outside Los Angeles paying folks to go in and vote. Not to excuse the practice, from EITHER party, but the statistical effect is ridiculously small, well except when states deny the vote, and SCOTUS appoints the President.

It should not be, “James Crow,” but, “Jim Crow.”

Jim Crow indeed. And I thought he was dead and gone decades ago.

This is the 99th comment.

And this is the 100th!

Seriously, I think setting 90 ans the over/under was lowballing. I’d suspect that (all other things being equal) Monday strips tend to run high in comments, since they introduce a new theme for the week and lots of people jump in with their expectations of where the week is heading rather than waiting to see how it unfolds…

If voting fraud is a nonexistent problem, how about uninformed voters voting? Instead of a voter ID why not have an informed voters test? Is there any reason why the poor, minorities, and women would be any more disenfranchise than say,Guard Sarge?

Did you happen to think that many people getting divorced or married tend to get a little busy? Do you think they might forget to change either their license, or, more likely, their voter registration? I know they do, with great frequency, because I have worked at a business that required ID. We were constantly having issues with mismatches of married and maiden names. A lot of these states have “no cost” IDs, but I don’t believe any of them provide the supporting documentation needed to get a license for free. I’ve seen fees up to $50 to get a birth certificate.

“An expired PA State Issued DL will allow them to vote” Yes, but what of the students who have never had a license? Many of the people over 80 I spoke of earlier haven’t driven in years, and probably don’t have even an expired license.

Wow, you can be severely lacking in logic skills. Without even looking at the video, I can tell you that the most it can prove is that some Democrats were racist several decades ago. Stretching that to declare that it is “proof that Democrats are racist” is beyond idiotic.

When does the Bull come out in the open?

way to go, Doonesbury! You keep the humor flowing while bringing up things we NEED to think about. I’ve been a reader since this strip started and have always been a grinning — and thinking — supporter.

“Why are Democrats afraid of Republicans voting?”

The Dems aren’t trying to pass laws to prevent GOP voters from voting. The GOP is clearly trying to reduce the numbers of poor and minority voters who will vote Democratic this time around.

Personally, I do have what might be called a “fear” concerning Republican voters. So many of them have been watching Fox and listening to those hate-spewing talk show hosts, and now are headed to the polls with a very one-sided and inaccurate view of the world. Still, I’m not advocating laws that will take their votes because I disagree with them.

true — and funny, your last line (as in dark humor)

“The truth is just the opposite. It is Democrats that don’t want conservatives to have their votes fairly counted.”

Once again, not a shred of evidence. What are you talking about? What laws have Dems backed that will take away anyone’s ability to vote?

Who stops Republicans from voting? It is only Republican governors who hire Republican-owned companies to strip the rolls of those they consider ineligible to vote, depriving valid voters of their right to vote. They are given “provisional ballots”, which I suspect are thrown out as soon as they leave. See Florida, 2000 election. Also, Democrats don’t put police roadblocks between Republican districts and the polls – see Florida, 2000 election again.

“So you point isn’t valid "

Actually, you missed my point entirely. I never said anything about disabled vets and IDs. I was replying to a post that suggested no one be allowed to vote unless they pay taxes. Please read carefully enough to know what my point is before you dismiss it.

Wow! Thanks for putting your racism on such obvious display for all to see!

It’s fair to say the Civil Rights Act would not have passed without Republican support. On the critical vote to end the filibuster by Southern Democrats, 71 senators voted to invoke cloture. With 67 votes needed, 44 Democrats and 27 Republicans joined together to bring the bill to a final vote. The two parties were already headed in opposite directions on Civil Rights.

I’ll leave with this last parting shot- How many of the Conservatives here blasting Democrats for opposing the Civil Rights Act, actually support that law? I suspect most share Rand Paul’s ill concealed distaste for that legislation. Hypocrites.

Just like Philly last time, when the polls were monitored by Black Panthers? Stop drinking the Kool-Aid, Clark-o.

Some say that he never left…

At least in Cook Co. being dead does not stop your right to vote.

It’s like immigration, as any attempt to actually enforce the law is BOUND to offend those who are breaking it. I’m disabled and housebound, yet have 3 forms of Photo ID, my birth certificate, my military discharge papers, so . . . if I have all this ID, there’s not much excuse for complaining that people identify themselves before voting now is there?

Jim Crow doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s about purging voter roles of those ineligible to vote, and to insure everyone gets to vote at least once and doesn’t have their vote taken away by a “yeah that’s me” type just wanting to cast his ballot at whatever precinct but can’t be bothered to look seriously to see if he is who he SAYS he is.

Don’t think finding 9% of suspect voters being illegal aliens ineligible to vote is troubling. That amounted to over 1500 people in Florida alone, a state carried in the Bush Gore election by only 600 or so votes. Fraud matters.

The Wynn Las Vegas told me that the security cameras showed that I had a “system”. They accused me of “comment counting” and escorted me off the premises. They just feel stupid because their line of 90 comments was so low.I think I’ll go over to Mandalay Bay and put a bet down on Romney’s dressage horse to win silver in the Olympics.

"new black panther party . . . fascist democrats . . . democrats that support the killing of one in three black children . . . "I wonder if this is a new echo chamber disciple, or an old one in disguise?

@Guard SGTUh Sarge… just to let you know, it’s the DEMOCRATIC Party, not ‘Democrat’ Party – but I guess words of more than 3 syllables are a little hard for you to grasp.

REMF; I had to present birth certificate or passport last time " to renew my drivers license, they would NOT ACCEPT my VA I.D. that is picture, and says “Service Connected”, as in disabled. Maybe because they no longer put your SSN on them?

To My Fellow Doonesbury Readers;

Earlier today I said I was taking rest of the day off. After posting my fifth comment, (you owe me Corzak) I felt I was done. But now I feel the need to reply to a comment posted by rightisright.

First a little background: About 2 weeks ago, rightisright and I engaged in an animated discussion regarding the origins of the US Constitution. Even though he and I disagreed, I found the discussion enjoyable, and at that time I respected his intellect.Whatever respect or good feelings I had toward him have disappeared today.

He said earlier today:

With the arrival of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, unpopular legislation which the psychotic LBJ and fat drunk philanderer ted kennedy passed while promising “not to change the demographics of America”, we’ve since been flooded with 3rd-worlders who naturally vote for taxocrat gimme-gimmes. Immigration from educated Europeans who know socialism is a joke have been slowed to a trickle.

I came to the United States from India when I was 7 year-olds. My father was considered qualified because he had a Masters degree. My first 3 loves in the US were The Flintstones, American history, and baseball. All my heroes- Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, George C Marshall, and Martin Luther King- have been American.Both my parents worked hard to take care of my 2 brothers and me. One brother went to medical school and the other to law school. My parents became US citizens as soon as they met the legal requirements.In the process my brother and I became US citizen (my youngest brother was born in New York). My parents never excepted welfare, food stamps on any other assistance.My mother worked for 33 years as a preschool teacher in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

The brown people who have come here in the last 50 years come with the same dreams and aspirations that the European immigrants that came in the past. Rightisright says, “we’ve since been flooded with 3rd-worlders who naturally vote for taxocrat gimme-gimmes. There are 2 Indian-American governors in the US today- Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana- and both of them are conservative Republicans. Like the rest of America, we brown Americans have political views the span the spectrum from left to right

Yet rightisright pigeonholes into a bunch welfare receiving parasites. He doesn’t recognize that immigrants are more likely to start a small business or there were neighborhoods in the cities of this country that were literally dying until an influx of immigrants revived them (check Flushing NYC), The biggest problem he seems to have is that the demographics have changed. The reason the immigration law was changed was that Europeans stopped coming here. Immigration is considered a boon to the economic development of a nation (from 1903 to 1940 the INS was part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and then Department of Labor). The demographic changes are more visible because of skin color but the changes are no different than the changes that occurred in the 1800s with the influx of European immigrants. The US went from being almost an exclusively Protestant nation to one having a significant Catholic population. The attacks that those immigrants faced are no different than the ones being launched by rightisright against the new immigrants.

Finally, in his post rightisright has revealed himself to be a racist. Since as a matter of personal principles I do not engage in conversation with racists, I will no longer engage in conversation or respond to posts by rightisright,

Regards,LWP

The legal voting age is 18. A 18 year old that can not afford a car wouldn’t have a need for a driver’s licence. When I posted this before I was informed that he would need id to buy beer. The drinking age is 21. I was told that he would need id to fly. If he can’t afford to drive, where would he be flying to? The need for id would only apply to voting. He would need to miss a day of school to go to the DMV. Some would ask what is wrong with this person having show more effort to vote than others? It is that it is not a fair right if he has to work for it while others don’t.

a) Asian immigrants to U.S. now surpass Hispanics.b) We need immigration to pay for the burgeoning retired population – Europe, Japan and now even China face severe demographic problems because they are “top-heavy” with seniors.c) EVERY wave of immigrants to this country has been treated with the same scorn and invective – almost word-for-word. Ever since the Dutch of New Amsterdam were infuriated by the first boatloads of dirty English Jankees. Within a generation they amalgamate and add to the vitality of the nation.d) As a white 3rd generation American of European descent, I think the sooner people like ‘rightisright’ become a marginalized minority – the better.

Considering your poor track record on this site, I’m highly skeptical that Freeman ever said any such thing. At any rate, neither you nor Freeman gets to make that judgement. “Black” equals “African-American.” Obama’s father was from Kenya and was of the Luo tribe, which makes his son African-American.

Even after women were allowed to vote, my grandmother didn’t. She had opinions, but they could not afford to pay poll tax for her and my grandfather. So, disenfranchising poor and middle-class white people isn’t new either.

@James LindleyAnd of course that HAS to be fraud, not certain districts reporting late, or any of several other legit reasons. Right?

And the failure to actually prove said fraud means it absolutely must be true fraud.