Trump, frustrated by reality, takes it out on Thune.
Our Sen. John Thune is having a time of it these days. Thune, the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, has been having a no luck getting the SAVE America Act through the Senate, and the bill’s frustrated political paramour President Trump is taking it out on Thune.
The project that Trump is pushing so hard is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. It’s a proposal that requires documented proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, mandates photo IDs at polling places, and restricts mail-in voting.
It seems simple, straightforward and reasonable enough, but it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The reality of this legislation is that it would stop millions of Americans from voting.
Why? Because many people (21 million according to the Brennan Center for Justice) don’t have proof of citizenship readily available. The SAVE act would also make mail-in voting more burdensome.
The bill is Republican-sponsored and Trump is anxious to get it turned into law.
Trouble for Trump is, the Senate isn’t about to pass this thing, which will likely get filibustered. A number of key Republican senators oppose SAVE. Majority Leader Thune doesn’t have enough votes among his Republican majority to reach an overall majority in the Senate to override the filibuster rule. Thune has said “we don’t have the votes to do that and so that’s not a — that’s just not a realistic option.”
Trump seems to be plenty annoyed by the logjam and is now taking it out on Thune. Fox News reports that when asked if Thune is the right man for the job, Trump replied, "Well, we're going to find out, and I'll let you know."
That resounding show of little-confidence may have been a hint of what’s to come. It also shows that Trump’s grip on political reality is shaky. Mid-terms are coming. Newsweek just ran a story headed, “Republicans Get Senate Warning Sign From Four Fox News Polls.” Some GOP senators are probably more sensitive to voters back home than their unpopular president and his power play on the SAVE act.
John Thune seems to be caught between his politically-challenged colleagues in the Senate and Trump’s irrational pursuit of a bill that isn’t the clear winner he thinks it should be.
As to the SAVE act itself, a pox on it. The bill creates new problems for eligible voters. It makes voting more difficult than it needs to be.
Conservative Congressman Reid Ribble (R-WI) and conservative former Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett, writing in Time, gave some of the clunky, time-consuming and vote-deterring possibilities raised by the SAVE act: “A young voter registering for the first time may not have a passport. A married woman whose legal name no longer matches her birth certificate may need to produce additional documentation. A rural voter may have to travel a long distance to an election office. A low-income worker may struggle to take time off during business hours. A service member stationed away from home may face barriers that civilians never encounter. A citizen who has voted for decades may suddenly need to produce paperwork simply because they moved, changed names, or updated their registration.”
Meantime, how serious a problem is voter fraud in this country? Not very serious at all.
The Brookings Institution studied it and found a miniscule number of voter fraud incidents. Same goes for the Brennan Center in its study titled “The Myth of Voter Fraud.” Ditto for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
At best, the SAVE act is a solution in search of a problem. At worst, it’s a problem-creator, not a problem-solver.
It’s little wonder that Thune can’t get a serious majority of senate Republicans to support this gratuitous effort to reduce the numbers of voters in this country.
And it’s no surprise that Donald Trump — with his still undocumented obsession about imaginary fraud in the 2020 election — can’t wait to see it come to fruition.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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