It never should have been allowed to bundle unrelated legislation in bills.
The "voter ID" issue is a red herring. Voter ID is a relatively somewhat popular position among Americans.
But the SAVE Act goes way beyond that by requiring proof of citizenship on the ID. In the US that pretty much means a passport book or passport card would be required to vote.
Real ID driver licenses are not sufficient because they don't say "US citizen" on the card. I know, because I have one in my pocket. Birth certificates are not photographic identification.
If this passes, we are going to find out that a whole bunch of red blooded, fair skinned, likely Republican voters, will have a hard time proving their citizenship with documentary evidence at the polls. Women who have changed their names through marriage are going to be in for an especially hard time.
But at the same time, generally well off people WILL be able to vote easily, and it's pretty telling where the upper middle class throws their votes these days
They are only popular due to the widespread misconception that voter fraud is a serious issue (it is not, there is very little evidence of it being an issue at all, very few actual cases, extremely rare) or straight up delusions like believing non-citizens are voting (which is practically impossible due to other already existing preventative practices), while ignoring the evidence that voter ID laws have been shown to have negligible to no actual impact on voter fraud anyway.
People also either are not aware of, do not care, or at worst even support all of the harmful effects such as potentially lowering voter turnout, especially among low income voters and people of color, and causing issues for many transgender people who do not have ID that accurately reflects their name or gender, etc.
Sure, but the enforcement of the law is what will matter in the end. Republicans do not plan on enforcing it in safely red states.
I remember when I didn't have a driver's license getting grief for using my passport ID card as it didn't show my address (nor would your passport but that's still outside of these silly arguments for the need). Needing an ID to vote is still a poll tax until ID's are free and easy to acquire. Sadly these goalposts are on a rocketship and the fight can't even fathom the original problems.
Have you seen the ads this cycle? They are straight up lying with fabricated AI videos. They don't need to prove that democrats voted against insider trading in congress.
Republican in Wisconsin, Tom Tiffany, has this stupid ad (I don’t even live in Wisconsin but very close to the border, just over the Mississippi) where he’s like, eating breakfast with his family and they’re all quick-firing the “big questions at him” like “what are you gonna do about healthcare?” to which he responds “make costs more transparent”… ok. That’s a start! It’s not enough, but Even Republicans are fed up with the super fucked medical industry. They aren’t trying to fool us with the stupid “oh you get the FREEDOM to CHOOSE which plan you want, just not a fucking free one, commie!” take, because it’s clear nobody believes that anymore.
Then they ask him, “what about fraud?!” To which he responds one simple word: “Audit”
fucking AUDIT WHO, TOM? THE WHOLE GOVERNMENT?! WHAT FRAUD FROM WHO??? You’re just gonna audit EVERYTHING?!
Exactly their base takes what they say as gospel. They lie first, wait a few days, retract quietly and the magas only hear the lie.
I was literally coming to the comments to say this. I really don't understand how of all the shit the Republicans learned from the trump era they still don't seem to have fully grasped that they can say literally whatever the fuck they want. Their base is stuck in a media ecosystem that will simply reinforce what the shitheads say.
There really needs to be some kind of reform against pork riders.
Also Congress in general.
Let's stop pretending this silly game is a democracy. It is not.
his own Republican Party
You shouldn't be allowed to say it's your own party when they boot you from office in the primary.
honestly I've seen relatively better rhetoric from the likes of massie or mtg than the "progressives" like sanders or aoc
I think when someone who isn't careerist or corrupt slips through the cracks and gets elected to congress, the more they hold to their principles the harder it is to survive. Holding firm means making enemies of almost everyone you work with and losing office. Trying to play nice while holding your principles means fading into irrelevance until you pick a path. Legitimately trying to accomplish things means actually breathing through that ecosystem day-in-day-out until you've absorbed the rot without even knowing it.
I don't know Massie's reprehensible opinions, I'm sure they're there because he wouldn't be a republican otherwise, but I do get the sense he actually believes things so isn't a lost cause. I think Sanders went the irrelevance route for ages before starting to compromise, but in the past decade has lost more and more perspective through the horrors of the campaign trail. I've had the sense AOC has always been a careerist, but if she wasn't to begin with she is now regardless. All of this is personal vibes-based analysis which shouldn't be taken seriously, but commenting to validate that I get the same impression.
Isn't this one of the oldest tricks in the book though?
Will Democrats vote against it?
Juuuust not enough so that it passes.
