The voting rights debate is heating up again as Texas Dems flee the state and Biden pushes for federal “voting” legislation. The media is headed down the same path as their coverage of the Georgia bill: exaggerations and lies.
Summary
The Democrat caucus of Texas’ House left Austin and headed to DC (while not wearing masks in their group photos) in the hopes of blocking a voting and election reforms bill from passing the state legislature.
- The bill in question “bans drive-thru and 24-hour voting” and increases access for political parties’ poll watchers. Provisions considered controversial by more than just Democrats, such as restrictions on Sunday voting, removed (Critics contend curtailing Sunday voting disproportionately affects African-Americans whose churches regularly participate in “Souls to the Polls” voting efforts).
- With the Texas House Democrats missing in action, the remaining members of the legislative body voted to have Texas law enforcement to track down and retrieve them back to Austin for votes.
- Their abandoning of Austin coincides with a public push by the Biden administration on voting rights, in which President Biden spoke in Philadelphia calling the protection of “ballot access the central cause of his presidency”.
- The Texas Democrats acknowledged they won’t be able to gum up the works forever and urged Democrats in Washington to pass federal legislation that overrides the states’ constitutionally-protected abilities to administer elections.
- President Biden continued his overuse of rhetoric in his “voting rights” speech, calling election reforms, some of which were just upheld by the Supreme Court, “21st century Jim Crow.”
- Vox, needing to reassure their readers there’s still an outrage to be monetized, admitted the Texas bills is “modest comparted to some GOP voting proposals, though both still worrisome.”
- CNN dedicated an entire mini-site to Biden’s speech, with sections that cheer on Biden’s declaration that federal legislation must repair the “damage done” by state election laws, which, again, was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
- The New York Times characterized Biden’s futile effort to pass federal elections legislation (which is basically guaranteed to die in the Senate without eliminating the filibuster) as an “impassioned” plea while saying “Republican-led bills [are] meant to restrict voting access.”
- Newsmax interviewed Texas Gov Greg Abbott who said he will continue to call special sessions until Texas Democrats relent and return to Austin or are brought back by law enforcement.
- RedState’s report on Biden’s speech highlights the multiple inaccuracies it contained over the Texas bill, while also making its own inaccurate statements (the ban on 3rd party activity is regarding ballot applications, not ballots themselves). In separate reporting, RedState covered Gov. Abbott’s Fox News interview in which he notes the proposed Texas voting rules maintains voting rights beyond what blue states, including Biden’s home state of Delaware, currently allows.
- Fox News’ coverage focused on the “misinformation” being spread about the Texas voting reform bill, highlighting remarks by Gov. Abbott while host Greg Gutfeld blasted President Biden as a “pathological, shameless liar” and said Democrats’ increasingly hysterical rhetoric over the years, in which everything is an “existential risk”, is just “exaggeration.”
Author’s Take
It was not long ago that multiple media outlets were forced to retract or correct reporting on the Georgia election reform law that was repeatedly and grossly mischaracterized. Biden himself was called out by The Washington Post of all outlets, for lying about the Georgia bill.
Once again, media sensationalism and the need to advance “The Narrative” wins out over facts and well-reasoned, unbiased coverage. The left storms the barricades with their banner cries of racism and voter suppression while the right has to wring their hands and scream into the wind over the after-the-fact corrections and retractions long after the debate over a particular story has left the front page.
A wide swath of Americans approves of voter ID law, yet it’s being called a racist, Jim Crow tactic. In 2016, the Daily Signal found 7 activities for which the government requires identification, including the constitutionally-protected right to purchase firearms. Why are voter ID requirements wrong?
Return to Freespoke 
© Dallas Gerber, 2021
