In recent months there has been much debate about the voter ID issue. Vice President Biden went so far as to suggest that if you support photo ID to register and to vote you must either be a racist, hate poor people, or both. This is a common view among many prominent Democrats including our governor.
On a recent family trip to Florida I started to think that Biden may just be right. As I approached the ticket counter at the airport the first thing they asked me for was a government issued photo ID! As I moved on to the security checkpoint the TSA agent asked me again for my photo ID. This must be government sponsored discrimination. I was lucky that I was not flying overseas as I would have been required to have another form of government issued photo ID designed to discriminate against minorities and immigrants called a passport! I wonder what would have happened if I told the TSA agent that I did not have a picture ID.
Well we finally landed; I went to the car rental counter and guess what? They asked me for a photo ID. Ha-ha, it’s a conspiracy! Same thing happened at the hotel. They asked me for a photo ID; they also wanted a credit card and even the license plate of my rental car.
But, my friends, any doubt about the point that people like President Obama, Gov. Malloy, Al Sharpton and, yes, Vice President Biden make was erased when I tried to buy tickets to get into Disney World. They asked me for a government issued photo ID! They even scanned my fingerprint before they let me in! If you don’t believe that institutionalized discrimination is prevalent throughout this country, go to Orlando and just try to buy an entrance ticket to any amusement park without a government issued photo ID. Where is the outrage?
My fellow citizens, on Election Day in the State of Connecticut an individual can walk into any town hall with a piece of junk mail plus a utility bill and register to vote (as per the Registrar’s Office). No proof of citizenship required. That same person with the same ID could not fly, rent a car, rent a hotel room, buy a beer, or get into Disney world, yet in Connecticut they can vote.
However, there are citizens that have legitimate issues with getting a photo ID: the elderly, the disabled and the truly disadvantaged. Other states have programs where these individuals will be visited and issued an ID at no charge.
We need to protect the integrity of our election system. Ultimately the only control we have over our government is the ability to fire the people that we elect to represent us. If we allow this system to be manipulated and vulnerable to fraud, we will lose that control and those in power will become entrenched. At that point we will cease to be a free people.
Editor’s note: GOP Viewpoint is provided to The Ridgefield Press by the Ridgefield Republican Town Committee.