But John Roberts Told Me Racism Had Permanently Ended!

We have another occasion to be reminded of dsquared’s dictum that “good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.” As Weigel says about Pat McCrory’s attempts to justify his state’s new vote suppression law:

The careful viewer will notice a few things missing from this video. The governor says that the bill “includes” voter ID—which it does! That’s a bit like saying a bottle that’s half Advil and half castor oil softgels “includes Advil.” As Jim Morrill points out, McCrory doesn’t mention the “stand by your ad” provision that requires ad-buyers to disclose themselves (“I approve this message,” and so forth), kills public financing of judicial elections, and ends early voting on Sundays, which since inception have been disproportionately used by black Democrats. It would have been interesting for McCrory to tell how any of that prevents voter fraud, or counts on some kind of “commonsense” mandate. He hasn’t. It’s a little surreal for those of us old enough to remember when the Pelosi Democrats were accused of legislative tyranny for passing health care bills in reconciliation.

Ending early voting, in particular, gives away the show. There can’t even be a pretense that there’s a greater likelihood of fraud when you vote on Sunday rather than Tuesday. But there’s certainly good reason to end early voting if you’d prefer that fewer African-Americans cast votes.