Welcome to 2022, a big year by any measure. We've been in rolling lockdowns, brownouts, and mass censorship by big tech. We had our first American company hit a $3 trillion market cap (so 25% less than the US Government will spend each and every year for the next 29 years to get to ‘net zero’), Tesla still has yet to sell 1 million cars in a year (936,000 to be exact) and it's an election year.
The midterms will be big any way you slice it. Elections will be a referendum on incumbents as to their handling of COVID, climate, and government spending. They will bring with them more clarity on whether Trump intends to run in 2024 for the Republican nomination, or if he is just "being Trump" and raising money to be able to throw his weight around and remain relevant. And, they will induce four months of fighting over voters rights. Voting rights is topic one in the #hottakeoftheday’s "Things to Watch in 2022".
To talk voting rights, we must start with Georgia, just as we will start with Mississippi tomorrow when we discuss Roe v. Wade. Georgia came to prominence, at least so far as elections go, when the two senate races went to a run off January 5th. It introduced more drama to an already crazy November 3rd, 2020, because the focus of the entire nation turned to two senate seats, that would 63 days later determine the majority in the senate. To review, in Georgia if no candidate gets the majority of votes (greater than 50%, it goes to a run off). In fact, the two races became the most expensive senate races ever with nearly $470 mm pouring in, in large part due to the stakes. It also brought special attention as Georgia's Republican Governor, Brian Kemp, signed SB 202 into law, sparking a nationwide debate over voting rights.
The bill required a number of things.
1. That government identification be required to apply for an absentee ballot.
2. That absentee ballot applications be closed 11 days before the election.
3. That absentee ballot drop boxes be limited.
4. That it is a misdemeanor to hand out food or water to voters in line.
I have read all 95 pages of the bill. At the time (March 2021), I posted that I thought it was ironic that the company selling soft drinks and profits from the obesity crisis in America, felt morally compelled to take a stand on voting. Not premised on rationality or reason, it has become clear that the morality of political arguments has been compromised, and instead these debates are a Trojan horse for hidden agendas.
For instance, we now need a vaccine passport to go into a restaurant in New York City, Boston and Chicago, I can't play in the US squash nationals without a mask unless I prove I'm vaccinated, and I CAN NOT enter Canada, but there are arguments over whether you need ID to vote. Arguing that the burden of proof is to onerous is simply unfounded. Logistical burdens exist everywhere which is to say that it is not discriminatory at all. One has a decision as to whether they would like to vote, and to do so, they must be willing to undertake necessary steps to do so. Illustrating the contrary, I am not willing to get vaccinated, so I accept I can’t go to a Broadway show in New York.
Election Day is November 8, 2022. It is also November 5, 2024. There is LOTS of time to plan. Every American citizen has a SSN. You need ID to drive, to get a job, or to board a plane. You need ID to vote in person. If we want elections with more integrity, it would seem like requiring ID to vote is a rational requirement.
The memories of 2020 will fade slowly. Expect voting laws to be a lightning rod issue that assumes the vitriol of vaccine mandates, immigration, and election fairness packaged tidily into one debate.
#hottakeoftheday