Defenders of Overly Loose Voting Rules Offer Poor Arguments | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Mitch Kokai.

    Kevin Williamson of National Review Online rebuts critics of his earlier writing on protecting the democratic process.

  • I don't normally cite random idiots on Twitter to make a point, but, since my subject is the American voter and the random idiot on Twitter is a pretty good stand-in for the random idiot in the voting booth, indulge me. Jabroni No. 1 (@hoosieraaron) responds: "Voting is good. Full stop." This is precisely the unsupported, unargued, simply asserted claim that my column is about. The British "full stop" is, I suppose, more emphatic than "period," but it doesn't actually make an argument. And even if it did, it would not address the further argument in the piece, that even if more widespread voting were in and of itself a good thing, it would not be the only good thing and would involve tradeoffs with other goods, such as verifying eligibility and preventing fraud, which, contrary to the claims of our progressive friends, does happen pretty often. Jabroni No. 2 (@J_Hurstman) makes the same argument in almost the same words (though not, I think, in response to me), writing: "If 'easier voting is good,' then any law that makes voting harder - which the GA law does, in multiple ways-is bad. Full stop." (Again with the "full stop.") That isn't an argument against what they're doing in Georgia - it's a law against, among other things, voter registration and eligibility requirements. Again, you might think that more voting is good, but that doesn't make it the only good. ...
  • ... The emotional incontinence of the responses and the accompanying lack of anything that might be considered a genuine argument is further confirmation that what we are dealing with here is not a political idea at all but instead that very American form of idolatry: democracy as a religion - the supernatural belief that "voting is sacred." ...

Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




Britons See an Upside From Brexit John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics Pence Could Run as ‘Heir to Trump’


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

Biden abuses power to turn statute on its head; womens groups to sue
The Missouri Senate approved a constitutional amendment to ban non-U.S. citizens from voting and also ban ranked-choice voting.
Democrats prosecuting political opponets just like foreign dictrators do
populist / nationalist / sovereigntist right are kingmakers for new government
18 year old boy who thinks he is girl planned to shoot up elementary school in Maryland
Biden assault on democracy continues to build as he ramps up dictatorship
One would think that the former Attorney General would have known better
illegal alien "asylum seeker" migrants are a crime wave on both sides of the Atlantic
UNC board committee votes unanimously to end DEI in UNC system

HbAD1

Police in the nation’s capital are not stopping illegal aliens who are driving around without license plates, according to a new report.
Davidaon County student suspended for using correct legal term for those in country illegally
Lawmakers and privacy experts on both sides of the political spectrum are sounding the alarm on a provision in a spy powers reform bill that one senator described as one of the “most terrifying expansions of government surveillance” in history
given to illegals in Mexico before they even get to US: NGOs connected to Mayorkas
committee gets enough valid signatures to force vote on removing Oakland, CA's Soros DA
other pro-terrorist protests in Chicago shout "Death to America" in Farsi

HbAD2

Only two of the so-called “three Johns” will be competing to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as leader of the Senate GOP.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) is looking into whether GoFundMe and Eventbrite cooperated with federal law enforcement during their investigation into the financial transactions of supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Turkish diplomatic sources say he did
Popularity of government leader crashes, even among his own party members.
Wisconsin voters ban private money, nonprofits from the election process after 2020 ‘Zuckerbucks’ controversy; spotlight now on 22 states that still allow it.
6 month old baby fighting for life after mother killed; policewoman finally arrives, shoots knifeman

HbAD3

 
Back to Top