Opinion: Garland’s pandering voter ID remarks to the Black community are insulting and racist | BLACK POLITICAL OPINION |

[ U.S Politics] Merrick Garland tells a group of black people at a Selma church service that he is working hard to halt voter ID laws because they are “discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary.”

Some in the Democrat party view voter ID and requiring citizens to vote in person as discriminatory and that these practices are going to keep Black and brown people from being able to vote.

Are they saying Blacks don’t have the intelligence to get an ID?

March 3, 2024 at a speech in a Black church in Selma, Alabama, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke about the current state of voting rights in America. In a prepared speech, he told church congregants, “the right to vote is still under attack.”

The right to vote is still under attack, and that is why the Justice Department is fighting back. That is why one of the first things I did when I came into office was to double the size of the voting section of the civil rights division. That is why we are challenging efforts by states and jurisdictions to implement discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot, including those related to mail in voting, the use of drop boxes, and voter ID requirements. -Merrick Garland

Vice President Kamala Harris was also in Selma for the ceremonies marking the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attacks on civil rights marchers. “Today, we know our fight for freedom is not over, because in this moment we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms, starting with the freedom that unlocks all others, the freedom to vote,” Harris said .

Critics across social media slammed the statements made by Garland as racist and condescending.

Former state representative Vernon Jones “It’s insulting to the entire Black community for Attorney General Merrick Garland to go stand in the pulpit of a Black church and say to a Black congregation, they are too stupid to afford a free photo ID to vote.”

User @Old_SchoolEddie wrote, “Why do Democrats insist that Black Americans are too dim to get an ID? I think this is one of the most racist things I hear them scream about all the time.

He came up yesterday and said the most racist thing I think I’ve ever heard anybody say. And he said that voter id and requiring people to vote in person is racist and that it is going to keep people from being able to vote. Well, wait a minute, are you saying that black folks don’t have the intelligence it takes to get an ID? Are you saying that black folks don’t have the intelligence that it takes to drive? Are you saying that black people just don’t have cars? — TRUTHVILLE USA

Last year, in Joe Biden’s commemoration of Bloody Sunday he also claimed voting rights are still ‘under assault”. It seems every four years politicians run up in the Black church and community with the same fearmongering narratives without any tangibles on issues Black Americans say they prioritize. Remember when VP Biden Republicans are ‘going to put y’all back in chains’?

The Democratic Party has historically been supported by a significant portion of the Black community but the latest Gallup poll shows Democrats losing ground with Black and Hispanics.

Originally published at https://original.newsbreak.com.