Come hell or high water Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe is going to
deliver his state’s electoral votes to his close friend of more than
twenty years, Hillary Clinton.
Benny Huang demands unequivocally that the governor of Virginia be arrested — NOW.
McAuliffe has spent the entire summer attempting to restore voting
rights to 206,000 convicted felons, most of whom will probably vote in
future elections for him, his party, and his friends.
According to Article II Section 1
of the Constitution of Virginia, a convicted felon loses his right to
vote “unless his civil rights have been restored by the Governor or
other appropriate authority.” From the time the current state
constitution was written in 1902 until just this year that clause was
understood to mean that the governor has the authority to restore voting
rights under extraordinary circumstances and on a case-by-case basis.
But that’s not how McAuliffe understands it. Under his interpretation,
the state constitution empowers the governor to enfranchise all
felonious Virginians en masse. In April of this year, he signed an executive order doing exactly that.
In order to justify his action, Governor McAuliffe has resorted to
the last refuge of scoundrels—accusations of racism. Suspending felons’
voting rights affects blacks disproportionately, you see, which
McAuliffe implies can be the only reason anyone would oppose him.
That fact alone doesn’t make “blacks” and “felons” interchangeable
terms by any stretch of the imagination. Most felons are not black and
most blacks are not felons. Even so, the fact that felon
disenfranchisement affects blacks disproportionately is a direct result
of blacks violating the law disproportionately. Felons are a
self-selecting group of people who choose to rape, murder, and rob,
among other crimes. The day blacks decide to get their act together and
stop joining this ignoble group will be the day they stop being
disproportionately affected by laws like these. It’s not the law’s fault
that black people break it in proportions far beyond their numbers.
But McAuliffe undercuts his own argument when he parries with
opponents over his transparently selfish motives. Knowing that his
unilateral and illegal executive order is perceived as a giveaway to a
close friend, the governor has hinted that in fact felons are unlikely
to vote for Hillary Clinton because of their demographic traits—ergo,
his executive order was principled and pure. As he told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell
last month, the average felon having his rights restored is a 48-year
old white male. “Now I’m not sure that’s Hillary’s demographic, but
maybe it is,” joked McAuliffe. I have been unable to find any
independent confirmation of McAuliffe’s assertion but let’s assume for
the sake of argument that it’s true. What then is racist about the
continued disenfranchisement of felons? If the idea is to keep blacks
out of the voting booths they’re doing it wrong. If, as
McAuliffe suggests, the average felon in Virginia is a middle-aged white
guy—and likely working class—restoring his franchise would be a boon
for Donald Trump. That’s his base.
Perhaps McAuliffe would counter that blacks are still disproportionately
disenfranchised, even if they are not the majority of those
disenfranchised. As true as that may be, it’s also irrelevant. In
elections it’s real numbers that matter, not proportions. If Republicans
block ten voters likely to vote for the GOP just to block five voters
likely to vote for the Democrats, they will lose.
Judging by states that permit felons to vote, it appears that felons really do prefer
the Democrats by a margin of about 6-to-1. It’s not a stretch at all to
believe that McAuliffe’s typical felon (white, male, 48 years old)
would vote Democrat if only because the Democrats have become the party
of, by, and for criminals. Criminality comes so naturally to the
Democrats that Governor McAuliffe will blithely break the law just to
get them their voting rights back. He’s even under FBI investigation
for possibly accepting foreign campaign donations, including a rather
large one from a Chinese businessman. The Democrats are so corrupt that
they’re running an unindicted felon (perjurer, obstructer of justice)
for president this year. They’re the party of illegal aliens,
cop-killers, rioters and looters. Criminals of all races feel right at
home with the Democrats because the jackass party happens to be the
nation’s leading crime syndicate.
Reasonable people, I believe, can disagree on the issue of felon
voting. My personal opinion is that voting rights should be restored
after a felon has completed his sentence—but that’s not the point. What
matters is that Governor McAuliffe does not have the authority to
restore voting rights unilaterally and en masse. It may be the morally
correct thing to do but there’s still a right way and a wrong way to go
about it. The right way is to amend Virginia’s constitution.
Fortunately, there’s a process for that spelled out in Article XII. The governor’s shortcut amounts to cheating, plain and simple.
The last Democratic governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, considered doing what McAuliffe actually did. In 2010 Kaine sought the recommendation
of his senior counsel, attorney and law professor Mark Rubin, who
advised him that the governor has no such authority. … Oddly enough,
Kaine now supports McAuliffe’s lawless unilateral action. Could it be because he’s Hillary Clinton’s running mate?
… Virginia’s Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, both Republicans, have asked the Virginia Supreme Court
to hold Governor McAuliffe in contempt, which he clearly is. Much the
same way that Kim Davis had her butt tossed in jail for defying a court
order, Terry McAuliffe must also face some consequences. Or do we only
jail the little people? He must not be allowed to get away with his
arrogant and selfish power grab lest a precedent be set. The ends don’t
justify the means and Terry McAuliffe is not a law unto himself.
