May 11, 2008, The "Show Me" State
It seems that Missouri wants to live up to its state nickname, by proposing to pass a requirement that prospective voters not merely show identification, but actual proof of citizenship not only to vote, but to register to vote.
Obviously, much publicity has surrounded the Supreme Court's recent upholding of Indiana's stringent photo identification law for voters, a rule which excluded a dozen nuns from voting there, but the war-to-make-sure-that-the-majority-will-never-prevails continues.
The beauty of the current initiative in Missouri is that, unlike the usual photo-i.d. initiatives that seem almost designed to favor "hard working WHITE Americans" (thanks for the expression Hillary) at the expense of, well, non-White Americans, the Missouri initiative can pretend that it is targeted at those pesky illegal aliens, who over the course of years, have voted in American elections by the... dozens? Kind of like the vast voter fraud driving i.d. laws... of which there seems to be no record. I know... details, details...
But you get the idea. At some point, of course, the government might just have to issue all of us a national i.d. card as a matter of national security that will solve these problems, and, rather than have Big Brother implications, it may well prove to be the only effective way we have of preserving our democracy. Because of which, we can probably rest assured that we will not have to suffer the indignity of any kind of national i.d. card (national security be damned).
In Missouri anyway, you'll just have to listen to that poll-gatekeeper, when he or she says "show me" those papers, unless of course, the voters of Missouri realize this for the mean-spirited disenfranchisement device it is, and send the proposed measure to a deserved ignominious defeat. THAT, I suppose is something that you will have to show me.