On Second Thought...

I sent my idea about having digital video cameras provide deterrence against voter fraud to a local conservative blogger. I tried hard this time to present a coherent, reasonable alternative to Voter ID that would leave the liberals without a club with which to beat us. After I sent it, I was anticipating once again, that I would not receive a response. I began to think of who it was to whom I could send this. Then it hit me. I should send this to any member of either party, who was most interested in that thing that they all claim to be in favor of. Almost all of them claim to be looking to for ways they can compromise with, or reach out to, the other side. All I had to do was identify the politician who was more interested in finding common ground on an issue, as opposed to preferring the intractable standoff. There was just one problem: there are none of those.

Originally, I was thinking that each side preferred to reap the cynical benefits of this game. For the Democrats that would be all the fraudulent votes they were likely to receive. For the Republicans, it would be the voter suppression they would surely cause. That was close, but just a smidgen off. I now believe it's more the argument they don't want to give up. What they can't bring themselves to let go of, is the opportunity to make the other side look bad, or at least worse than they think they look. The Democrats are convinced that Voter ID makes the Republicans look like racists, and the Republicans think opposing it makes the Democrats appear to support voter fraud. And they'd both rather have that fight than they would like to find a solution.