It's not unusual for a president to use his bully pulpit to push the agenda of his party, but it's a sad situation when the falsehoods he spouts are flagrant. This week, President Joe Biden flew into Atlanta to push a bill for a federal takeover of voting by claiming it was a push for voting rights. While he was there, he labeled Senate Bill 202, which the state legislature passed and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed last year, as "Jim Crow in the 21st century." He went on to argue that the law was restrictive and that those who were for it would be on the wrong side of history.
"Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?" Biden asked rhetorically. "Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?"
Wallace opposed desegregation and supported Jim Crow policies; Connor oversaw the use of fire hoses and attack dogs against civil rights demonstrators; and Davis was a slave owner.
Ironically, all three of the men cited as being on the wrong side of history were Democrats.
The reality is that the Democratic machine is pushing propaganda and misinformation. This is leading to Democratic voter disinformation. Republicans need to continue to lay out the facts clearly.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, did this well Tuesday. "Our (Republicans') goal is maximum participation and zero fraud, period, not some fraud," he told reporters. "The Democrats' so-called election reform is not about protecting the right to vote. It's about making sure that they win elections. Democrats don't want free and fair elections. They want elections only Democrats can win."
Scott was joined by Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who labeled the Democratic bill the "Freedom to Cheat Act."
"They want to change the rules so they can ban voter ID even though it's very popular around the country, force taxpayers to fund their campaign ads, which nobody wants government to pay for campaign ads. So they're just a joke. They don't care about the issues."
Their goal is to "ban voter ID, even though it's very popular around the country, force taxpayers to fund their campaign ads, which nobody wants government to pay for campaign ads," Scott said. "They're not focused on inflation or unemployment or the crisis on the border or Americans still trapped in Afghanistan. They are very focused on how do they win elections."
This attempt to get rid of voter ID is the exact opposite of what the American people want. According to a poll released last July by Monmouth University, "support for requiring a photo ID to vote stands at 62% among Democrats, 87% among independents, and 91% among Republicans." Even their own party does not agree with getting rid of voter ID. While the Democrats continue to push the narrative that voter ID hurts minority groups, both nonwhite and white respondents (84%, 77%, respectively) supported requiring photo ID by overwhelming margins (810 adults, June 9-14, +/- 3.5 points).
Biden is trying to sell Americans something they don't want. Here's what Americans do care about, according to a Fox Business news poll: "The pandemic remains the top concern for Democrats (81%) followed by inflation (75%) and higher crime rates (67%) while for Republicans inflation (91%), crime rates (84%) and taxes (83%) round out their top three" (Conducted Dec. 11-14, 1,002 registered voters, +/- 3 points).
According to the most recent press release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this Wednesday, "The all items index rose 7.0 percent for the 12 months ending December, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1982 ... The energy index rose 29.3 percent over the last year, and the food index increased 6.3 percent." Inflation is hitting everyone hard.
And inflation's not the only concern. Crime is up in major cities. Less than a day after and a few blocks away from where Biden held his news conference, a man was shot and killed in his car. According to local TV station WSB-TV, "investigators say details are limited, but it appears to be a targeted incident where multiple rounds were fired." Atlanta has experienced elevated crime levels in the past two years, leading many residents of the city's Buckhead community to push to secede from Atlanta.
The Biden administration is so out of touch with the mainstream of both parties that Stacey Abrams, the presumed Democratic nominee for the Georgia governor's race, did not attend the news conference, citing a scheduling conflict. Clearly, had she wanted to rub elbows with the president, she could have made it work -- a sure sign of just how out of touch Biden really is, even with members of his own party.
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