On voter ID laws and racial disparity

Last Friday, a judge in Pennsylvania ruled that the state’s voter ID law violated the state constitution because it was too burdensome for certain voters to attain an ID card.

Of course, that hand wringing comes at the expense of preventing voter fraud.

After Judge Bernard McGinley’s decision on Friday, Ben Shapiro railed against it, pointing out that minority voters – the group allegedly so hurt by voter ID laws – are actually growing as a bloc. And, they grew by 15 percent in Ohio, which is an important swing state.

“In virtually every state, measurable black voter turnout is up dramatically,” Shapiro says. “If [Republicans] really wanted to depress voter turnout, they would’ve done it in Ohio.”

Unfortunately, Shapiro says, this is a symptom of how the left is forcing the country to see things: through a lens of racism and disenfranchisement. Voter ID laws cannot be about anything but racism, liberals say.

To underscore that point, Shapiro highlighted the story of a U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee who wants to enact a bunch of laws to fix racial “disparities” he sees in the criminal justice system.

“You really want to deal with racial disparities? Let’s deal with racial disparities in regards to single motherhood. Let’s deal with racial disparities with regard to educational attitudes. Let’s deal with racial disparities with regard to gang enrollment. These would be actual ways to deal with racial disparities,” Shapiro said.

“The left is so interested in equalizing outcomes that they want unequal laws to achieve it. It’s the purest form of racism there is,” Shapiro continued. “We’re all supposed to change the law to be easier on folks who are criminals because we need a certain amount of blacks and a certain amount of whites?

“Equal outcome is not the goal; equal application of law is the goal. Anything short of that is pure racism,” he concluded.