David McElroy

As a U.S. congressman, Artur Davis parroted the party line about the evils of voter ID. Now that he’s out of office, though, he’s suddenly able to admit the obvious — that voter ID is a reasonable step to prevent fraud.

While Davis was a congressman, he needed the support and co-operation of the black Democratic political establishment, so he took the expected position by claiming that voter ID was an evil scheme to prevent blacks from voting. The argument has never made sense, of course, but things aren’t required to make sense when you’re playing the race card.

In a column in an Alabama newspaper last week, Davis admitted that voter ID is a good thing and says he’s changed his mind. Remarkably, he admits that he was just repeating what was expected of him:

“When I was a congressman, I took the path of least resistance on this subject for an African American politician. Without any evidence to back it up, I lapsed into the rhetoric of various partisans and activists who contend that requiring photo identification to vote is a suppression tactic aimed at thwarting black voter participation.”

Predictably, Davis’ past allies are apoplectic that he’s telling the truth. In fact, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus speculated that it might mean Davis is considering becoming a Republican. Obviously, it’s not acceptable to tell obvious truths if you want to be accepted by members of this “club.”

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Most people seem to honestly believe that other people will agree with them on the big political issues if they’ll just make their case a little better next time. They just aren’t willing to admit that we’re badly divided on issues that matter — and we’re never going to come to a consensus.

I’m reminded of this again because of a marketing campaign from a couple of progressive left groups who think they can change the way people feel about the latest government intrusions in the health care system if they’ll just try harder. The new campaign is called “Thanks Obamacare,” and it’s intended to show all the alleged good that will come out of the coming changes in medical and insurance laws.

If you’ll watch the brief promotional video put together by the group and look at its website, it’s clear that the folks behind it have no idea why so many people oppose having the government control more and more of the medical industry. They just stick to the same talking points that are always pushed by proponents of the law. In other words, they’re preaching to themselves. They don’t believe the opponents’ genuine concerns are valid enough to even bother to address.

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The Republican National Committee provided another piece of evidence this week that winning is more important to the major parties than anything else. Their lust for power outweighs any impulse they might have to tell people what they really need to know.

Republicans are supposedly the ones who understand that government can’t create jobs, yet the RNC is pandering this week to jobless Americans almost as badly as Democrats might under similar circumstances. It’s all about winning, not about explaining principles or sound policy.

With Barack Obama on his campaign swing through Virginia and North Carolina — which we’re told is not campaigning — Republicans responded with a television ad. If they had wanted an honest ad that reflected the principles they say they believe in, the ad would have attacked Obama for trying to spend money to allegedly create jobs and it would have pointed out the government’s real task is to get out of the way and let the market do the work.

Instead, the GOP’s TV spot is pandering to people who are worried about jobs — by implying that it’s a president’s job to “do something” about creating jobs. It closes by ominously asking, “What about your job?” It’s an ad that’s designed to play to people’s fears and to their emotional reasons for disliking a politician. The cheap shots about fundraising are ironic at best, since every modern president spends time doing the same thing, no matter the party. (There’s a PDF “press corps briefing book” to go along with the ad.)

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