Barack Obama has accused Republicans of attempting to ‘rig’ elections by passing state voter ID legal guidelines – an ironic declare for an ex-president who blasted successor Donald Trump for suggesting the 2016 White Home race may very well be gamed.
“It’s a must to ask your self: Why is it that Republicans don’t need you to vote?” Obama requested on Saturday whereas campaigning for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. “What’s it that they’re so afraid of? , I might assume, in the event that they suppose they’ve acquired higher concepts, why don’t they only go make the case?”
Obama was referring to election-integrity legal guidelines handed this 12 months by Republican-controlled state legislatures across the nation. He didn’t specify how such measures would cease individuals from voting in a nation the place photograph identification is required to drive a automobile, board a flight, get vaccinated, decide up a prescription, maintain a checking account, get a job or obtain public advantages.
However, Obama argued that Republicans apparently don’t need to persuade voters with profitable concepts. “Inform us your concepts,” he stated. “Inform us why you suppose they’re gonna be higher. Inform us the way it’s gonna assist that man get a job or assist that younger particular person go to school or assist that particular person get a commerce.”
Simply clarify it, and when you’ve acquired good concepts, individuals will flock to your concepts. However that’s not what they attempt to do. As a substitute, you’re attempting to rig elections. As a result of the reality is, individuals disagree along with your concepts.
Obama and different celebration leaders have argued that the brand new state election legal guidelines are efforts to suppress voting by predominantly Democrat voters. He went to this point in June as to counsel that the GOP will not be solely altering guidelines wanted to take care of a “numerous, multiracial democracy,” but in addition “rigging the sport” in a method that’s “not going to be good for enterprise, to not point out for our soul.”
The claims appear to mirror a radical change in views since 2016, when Obama stated Trump was “irresponsible” and threatened to undermine “integrity and belief in our establishments” by alleging that the presidential election may very well be “rigged” in favor of Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton. He added that “no critical particular person on the market would counsel one way or the other that you might even rig America’s elections.”
Clinton took the theme a step additional, saying Trump was “threatening our democracy” by refusing to unconditionally pledge to simply accept the election outcome. The identical political sermons have been preached in 2020, as Trump was bashed as a risk to the American system of presidency for making claims of widespread election fraud and never conceding defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
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In Saturday’s marketing campaign speech for McAuliffe, Obama appeared to meld the notions of attacking election integrity and condemning those that do the identical. Within the subsequent breath after accusing Republicans of attempting to rig elections, the previous president accused the GOP of “fabricating lies and conspiracy theories in regards to the final election, the one you didn’t win. That’s not how democracy is meant to work.”
Obama then returned to defending the sanctity of the American election system. “Our democracy is what makes America nice. It’s what makes a shining metropolis on a hill. This extraordinary experiment in self-government, and defending that and preserving that, that shouldn’t be a partisan concern. It didn’t use to be.”
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