(Erica Yoon/The Roanoke Times via AP)
If the political left operated with the least bit of restraint, they would manhandle President Trump in the media. He offers them plenty of opportunities to engage in rheotrical jujitsu, to simply sidestep and redirect his attacks in their favor. But they lack the discipline. They can't help but respond to anything Trump says or does with something even crazier and more outlandish. From CNN:
The head of the NAACP warned Thursday that his group will "resist" if President Donald Trump goes forward with his "major investigation"into voter fraud.The President claims without providing evidence that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally in the 2016 US election, although this belief has been widely debunked."The President has claimed millions of fraudulent ballots were cast. The only place you will find millions of fraudulent ballots are right beside that fake birth certificate for Barack Obama, inside the imagination of President Trump. They don't exist," Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."
If Brooks had stopped there, he would have scored a point. The notion of 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes cast in last year's election proves absurd on its face. By making such a ridiculous, unsubstantiated claim, Trump undermines the legitimate case against voter fraud.
Of course, Brooks doesn't stop there. He continues, responding to Trump's absurd claim with one of his own:
Brooks said over the course of the past election there has been "unrelenting voter suppression.""We have seen our rights denied as Americans. Particularly seniors, African-Americans, Latinos and younger people," Brooks said.
Just as Trump's claim requires evidence to substantiate, so does this one. Brooks can't point to a single instance of a voter wrongfully turned away from the polls. Everyone who wants to vote, and meets the legal requirements, has the opportunity. Calling voter suppression "unrelenting" proves every bit as absurd as alleging 3-5 million fraudulent votes were cast. Neither claim is supported by evidence.
Brook goes further, suggesting that an investigation into voter fraud amounts to voter suppression in and of itself. Figure that one out. What kind of vote gets suppressed by a fraud investigation?
The truth, much neglected in such discourse, lies between these absurd claims. The problem is not millions of illegal votes, but systemic vulnerabilities which could facilitate fraud and throw close elections. Those vulnerabilities should be addressed regardless of whether voter fraud has already occurred. You lock the door at night to keep intruders out, not in response to the one which already got in.
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