That’s why lawmakers are considering new laws that would require all windows and doors in the U.S. to be bear-proof. That would be a stumbling block that would keep some people from entering their homes. But probably not many, and most of them would be people you don’t really like much anyway.
Incidentally, anyone who voted against this law should be considered a traitor who should be executed.
Oh, sorry. this Legislation. Another law nearly identical in scope and effect to our anti-bear law: the Save Act, or more accurately, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. A product of the far right wing of the House Republican Conference, the Save Act would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Like our anti-bear law, this law would make life harder for Americans in order to address an apparently inconsequential problem.
There’s a reason this is coming up now: Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) agreed this year to address the surge in foreign voters, even though foreigners are already prohibited by law from voting in federal elections. But “elections are subject to fraud” is one of the most important falsehoods in Trump’s rhetoric, followed closely by “immigrants are a danger to America.” The idea that immigrants are illegally influencing elections is too perfect to not accept.
This is especially true as it overlaps with an increasingly common claim on the American political right that there is a deliberate attempt to pump Democratic-voting immigrants into the country. This is essentially the “Great Replacement” theory, an idea carried from the racist minority to the mainstream by Tucker Carlson and later by prominent Republican figures. Johnson specifically used the term Great Replacement in promoting the SAVE Act.
“Why are Democrats so strongly opposed to only allowing American citizens to vote in elections,” he wrote on the social media platform X. “They want to turn illegal immigrants into voters. We must pass the SAVE Act to stop this.”
X owner Elon Musk cited Johnson’s post, claiming that “the goal has always been to import as many illegal voters as possible,” a softening of his stance from when he declared his support for the Save Act the day after Independence Day.
“Anyone who disagrees is a traitor. Traitor, written in capital letters,” Musk wrote. “What is the punishment for traitors?”
So why not simply pass this bill? What are the flaws? The same flaws we see in the anti-bear bill.
First, there is no evidence that foreign voting is a significant problem, much less that it occurs regularly. The Heritage Foundation, which has long been a vocal proponent of the idea that voter fraud is widespread, has a database of documented fraud that includes fewer than 100 cases of foreigners voting or registering to vote since 2002, a period in which more than 678 million votes were cast in presidential elections alone.
“I think it’s important to be mindful of the fact that we are not a party to the EU’s crackdown,” Johnson said at a press conference earlier this year. When asked how common such votes would be, he denied it.
“The answer is there’s no answer,” he said, adding, “that’s the problem.” But he argued, “we all know intuitively that a lot of illegal immigrants vote in federal elections.”
We all know intuitively that there are a lot of fatalities caused by bears.
There is no obvious problem that this bill solves: at the state level, there are safeguards against non-citizens registering to vote, and, as the White House pointed out when it announced it was opposing the bill, there are severe penalties for non-citizens who do vote, including deportation and a permanent ban from entering the country — all for the benefit of casting one vote.
What is the save method? right But what this bill actually does is make it harder for people to vote, which is the main reason the League of Women Voters opposes it. It would require documentation to register to vote, and anyone who doesn’t have that documentation wouldn’t be able to register — even if they were allowed to. Who are those people? A study released in January found that people without a valid driver’s license are more likely to be young and non-white. In other words, they tend to lean Democratic.
It’s a win-win for all three: demonizing immigrants, spreading the idea that the election is rigged, and making it harder for Democrats to vote. The SAVE Act is a neat compilation of Republican interests.
I should mention here that the bear prevention bill is sponsored by Bearproof Doors Inc.
