Former Alabama Rep. Artur Davis recently changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. He is a strong supporter of Voter I.D. laws and has expressed his disdain toward comments made by Democrats like Joe Biden about slavery. Davis also co-chaired President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and spoke at the DNC convention. Tonight, he's speaking at the RNC convention in Tampa and the Congressional Black Caucus isn't happy about. The CDC sent the following to Davis ahead of his speech:
We are writing to express our disdain over several recent comments you have made about the important issues facing voters in November, your total distortion of President Barack Obama’s record, and your complete flip-flop on certain core principles you once held dear. Given the magnitude of your recent transformation, we can only conclude that, rather than a true conversion, your actions are the result of a nakedly personal and political calculation or simmering anguish after failing to secure the Democratic nomination for governor of the State of Alabama in 2010.
It’s unconscionable that you now claim Voter ID laws do not violate civil rights or suppress minority voter turnout. Yet in 2007 while still representing Alabama’s 7th congressional district, you joined then-Senator Obama in calling for the resignation of the Justice Department’s Voting Rights chief after he claimed that Voter ID laws did not hurt minorities, saying, “you can’t argue that voter ID laws don’t disfranchise African-Americans.”
As a refresher, here are some quotes from Davis at the True the Vote Summit in Houston earlier this year:
“This is not a billy club,” “This is not a fire hose,” “This is not Jim Crow, though some people say it is.” (all said while holding up his driver’s license.)
“How is it that this tiny [I.D] little thing that I can hold in my hand is causing such a stir?”
“Rights don’t mean that you don’t have responsibilities, you’re not auto-enrolled to vote.”
“Where is this notion that if I have a right that I don’t have to be bothered with responsibility?”
“We have to be one country, but the way you become one country is you stop acting like a country that’s divided into different buckets and baskets of people.”
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