Motor-voter wasn't enough--now we'll register welfare applicants

Remember a thing called the "Motor voter Act"? It was passed May 11th, 1993 and signed into law by the perjuring, later-disbarred Bill Clinton. Its main provision was that when anyone applied for or renewed a driver's license, every state was compelled to offer to register that person to vote.

Motor-voter was one of a swarm of leftist ideas pushed by the infamous Cloward-Piven duo in the 1980s. The theory was that folks who would typically have voted for Democratic candidates if only they were registered couldn't be expected to actually figure out how to do that. Cloward and Piven suggested that if registration were just made easier--in fact, made virtually automatic--liberal Democrats would get more votes.

Oh no!, you say. That's so...so...so cynical and conniving and conspiratorial that there must have been some other reason for the bill!

Ah, Grasshopper...the child-like innocence of the politically naive is so...touching.

Perhaps the measure's legislative history will convince you:

There were 62 votes in favor--and all but six were Democrats.

There were 36 votes against the bill--every single one Republican.

It's also instructive to look at the six Rinos who voted yes: Domenici (NM), Durenberger (MN), Hatfield and Packwood (OR), Jeffords (VT) and Specter (PA). Of course Specter later switched parties, since he voted D all the time anyway.

Then, as now, it's hard to prevail on any matter of substance if you only have 42 Republicans--including the six Rinos.

Point of this little review is that Motor-voter also had another clause in it, which until now had gotten little attention: In addition to registering people who applied for or renewed a driver's license, the MV Act also required that the states offer to register people who applied for social services.

Like, welfare or food stamps.

Ever since the motor-voter law was passed, the federal gubmint has let the states interpret this social-service provision of the law for themselves. But after the health-care cramdown last March, the folks advising Obama apparently decided they needed more Democrat votes this fall.

Accordingly, in April the (In)Justice Department sent the states a set of guidelines specifying what kinds of offices are covered by the phrase "social services" and what procedures are to be used.

So let's review: The normal steps that Americans have always followed to register to vote were just too daunting for would-be Dem voters, so Democrats in Congress--at the urging of ultra-left professors Cloward and Piven--use their huge majority to pass a law (essentially on a party-line vote) to make it easier to register.

Then Obama's crew realizes that tens of thousands of would-be Democratic voters (including illegal immigrants, perhaps?) don't have a driver's license nor any need to get one. Thus there's a large chunk of potential Dem voters out there who need even more affirmative outreach to register.

"But wait!" I hear indignant liberals/Democrats/"progressives" sputtering. "You conservatives constantly whine that you want our nation's laws enforced. The Motor-voter Act has always contained this provision, and the diligent folks in the Justice Department are now enforcing the entire law. So you CAN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT THAT!"

Dayum! You got me, libs! So your position now is that the federal government should aggressively enforce every detail of our laws, right?

Hey, thanks. Works for me.

And of course this new liberal-endorsed policy will include immigration laws.

Riiight.