I rarely write about politics. It’s not that I lack concern or courage; it’s more that I lack the strength to continue yelling, “Fire!” when the majority of the world has already jumped feet-first into the raging inferno and refuses to acknowledge how hot those flames really are.
I mean, let’s get real. The routine life of the average American is getting tougher to navigate financially every single day. As blatant proof of this fact, all a rational person would have to do (if memory fails them) is pull up their online Walmart (or any other store) shopping history and compare today’s grocery prices to those of four years ago. It’s absolutely insane how much prices on even the simplest of items have skyrocketed.
With some basic food staples more than doubling in price, that daily economic situation alone should be enough to shock people into reality at the polls. But I am just not sure that it will.
So, I hesitate to even bother writing or speaking about politics outside of my day-to-day sphere.
But here I go. I can’t help it.
To begin with, I just have to address the glaring and ridiculous inconsistencies I keep seeing as the Democrats march along to the November election.
But for my own sanity, I am steering clear of the biggest contradiction of all – the historically and legally perplexing way that a political party basically installed a national candidate without one vote being cast for said candidate. How is that democratic by any measure?
Instead, I am only going to address one of the zillion inconsistencies and contradictions I have read and heard over the past four years, including issues involving everything from genetics to taxes to pre-born babies. And let me go ahead and say that this latest bout of “Do as I say, not as I do” really hit me hard. It would almost be comical if it were not so absolutely ridiculous.
Did you know that those attending a Phoenix-area Democratic campaign event on Friday, August 2, at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, could only be admitted to the venue after showing a government-issued photo ID?
Let me repeat that one more time for those not yet fully engaged in this blog: A government-issued photo ID was required to enter a Harris-Walz campaign event.
Wait … isn’t this the same party that firmly believes it is wrong (“overburdensome” is their exact terminology) to require American citizens to present a government-issued photo ID in order to enter a polling booth and vote?
So, let me get this right ... it is overburdensome for Americans to present an ID when voting for a candidate, but it is NOT overburdensome for Americans to present an ID when visiting with a candidate?
Is that the basic gist of this glaring Democratic inconsistency? Did I get to the heart of it?
Now, granted, after the horrifying (and televised) attempted assassination of the opposing presidential candidate and the unbelievably inept protection of said candidate, I heartily understand the VP’s very valid concerns for safety at this campaign event that took place recently in Arizona.
But again, is that same concern for safety negated when it comes to the everyday citizens who volunteer to man our election voting places throughout America? Do their lives and the lives of millions of voters not weigh equally important as the lives of those named on the ballots at our voting precincts?
Perhaps it is simply overburdensome for me to understand this blatant inconsistency. Maybe my bucolic brain just cannot handle the hypocrisy enough to explain it away with political nonsense.
After all, I am one of those “rural” people that VP Harris referenced in 2021 during one of her first interviews as Vice President when she spoke to Soledad O’Brien on BET about voter ID laws:
“I don’t think that we should underestimate what that could mean,” explained Harris. “Because in some people’s mind that means, well, you’re going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove you are who you are.
“Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don’t – there’s no Kinko’s, there’s no Office Max near them.”
Oh … that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the clarification.
This August campaign rally took place near Phoenix, Arizona, a big city where they have plenty of stores like Kinko’s and Office Max.
Of course, perhaps VP Harris forgot that Kinko’s stores have not really existed formally since 2004 when FedEx bought the franchise. Or maybe she thought it was not pertinent to note that by 2008, FedEx had fully dropped the name of Kinko’s and simply merged all the former company’s services into their own. After all, that was a moot point for us poor, uneducated rural folks.
I mean … we poor backward people here in places like rural Mississippi have never seen a copy machine, much less had access to one at our local town halls, churches, libraries, schools, police stations, medical clinics, or our places of work. Nor have we ever seen a copier (or needed one, I’m sure) at the nearby County Health Department, Social Security Administration, Driver’s License Bureau, or Circuit Clerk’s Office.
And for those among us who are homebound due to age, transportation, or health issues, I am certain that no other family member or neighbor would know where or how to get some of those high-tech copies made for voter IDs. No, especially not here in the Hospitality State!
So, the VP is right! Government-issued IDs are just overburdensome for us poor, ignorant, rural people. But for those educated and erudite, sophisticated folks from Arizona, it was no burden whatsoever to procure and present a government-issued ID for admittance into the prestigious Democratic campaign event at the Desert Diamond Arena.
I feel so much better now that we have cleared up that glaring contradiction.
But I do have one remaining concern!
During the Democratic National Convention next week, surely my fellow rural friends who are delegates from states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, or any other rural spot will NOT be required to show any form of ID to get into this all-important event.
After all, that really might be overburdensome for them.
