Republicans hate young people .. or something

Reading The New York Times today one gets the idea that Republicans now have added the college youth to the other groups of Americans that they already hate.

The editorial by Andrew Rosenthal points out that the right-of-center is not only racist, sexist, anti-immigrant but now – Conservatives apparently hate college kids too.

Next fall, thousands of students on college campuses will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. Sorry, they will hear, you have an out-of-state driver’s license. Sorry, your college ID is not valid here. Sorry, we found out that you paid out-of-state tuition, so even though you do have a state driver’s license, you still can’t vote.

Mr. Rosenthal continues by placing the blame firmly upon the heads of the GOP:

It’s all part of a widespread Republican effort to restrict the voting rights of demographic groups that tend to vote Democratic. Blacks, Hispanics, the poor and the young, who are more likely to support President Obama, are disproportionately represented in the 21 million people without government IDs.

This is as weak a play as I’ve seen from the left. I spent years at a college outside my district and had no trouble obtaining absentee ballots. I spent years outside my home state as I moved from duty station to duty station and had no trouble getting my absentee ballots.

Getting a state issued photo ID (ID card or Driver’s license) is simple and cheap. Registering to vote can be done at the very same time. If these students are so alive with civic responsibility, they should spend a few hours in their home districts to get an ID and register. Then spend a few minutes and request an absentee ballot.

If someone isn’t willing to invest a few hours of their time to make sure they can vote, one could draw the conclusion that they would not spend at least that much time to research their choices before voting.

This is an irresponsible if not politically-driven editorial. In his own quote he mentions that the new demographic that he intends to protect would likely vote for Obama.

Maybe it’s not actually the republicans manipulating voting demographics after all.