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Greetings! This is Podcast No. 62 of Blast the Right.

I'm Jack Clark from TheRationalRadical.com

Today we're going to talk about right wing voter suppression and racism dating back to 1968 and continuing into the present.

We'll also hear some clips of progressive true Christian leaders taking on phony right wing Christians.

And I'll update you on the podcast alley voting. The situation is getting dire. I need to issue a call to battle stations.

Oh, let's get right into it. The right wing dominated House of Representatives just passed a bill that, quote, would require people to show a photo ID to vote in 2008.

Starting in 2010, that photo ID would have to be something like a passport or an enhanced kind of driver's license or non-drivers identification containing proof of citizenship.

Close quote. I'm going to tell you what's wrong with this law and put it in the context of decades of right wing GOP racism.

My sources for this segment are articles, editorials and columns in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

The ostensible reason given by the right for passing this bill is laughable. The reason they give, deterring vote fraud.

Quote. That is a phony argument. There is no evidence that a significant number of people are showing up at the polls pretending to be other people or that a significant number of non-citizens are voting.

Close quote. Think about it for a second. Undocumented immigrants are generally terrified of coming into contact with government officials and especially of attracting the attention of law enforcement for fear of deportation.

Undocumented workers who are not paid by their employers are usually too scared to seek redress. Undocumented immigrants who are victims of crimes, even violent crimes, often don't report the crimes for fear of exposing their undocumented status.

But these same people who let unpaid wages and crime victimization go by are going to go ahead and risk being deported just so they can vote.

Sorry, that's just stupid. Oh excuse me, I meant to say that's just right wing.

As an aside, let me point out that electronic voting machine fraud is where large scale electoral fraud has and will continue to occur, but Congress refuses to do anything about that.

See podcasts 13 and 17. The reason Congress refuses to act is because the right wingers in control of Congress are the beneficiaries of that electronic voting fraud.

As they will be of such a voter ID law, but I get ahead of myself.

What's the real reason for this voter ID bill? Why the sudden interest by the GOP in a non-existent type of vote fraud?

The answer is it's part of a long standing effort by the GOP to make covertly racist appeals and disenfranchise those who don't vote for Republicans.

A bit of background. In the Civil Rights era, actually starting in 1968 with Richard Nixon, the Republican Party employed what was dubbed the Southern Strategy.

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