Michael Lamson: Harkening to racist past

The July 30 news article “Judges throw out N.C.’s voter ID law” was not surprising. What was surprising, however, was the harsh denunciation of the law as being adopted with “discriminatory intent” by the state.

Americans have heard this call to justice before, during the civil rights era, when issues of public access and the right to vote were paramount – and here we go again with House Bill 2 and voter ID laws intended to “target” particular segments of the population.

In the case of the voter ID law, the implication of the ruling is even more devastating than the negative public reaction to HB2, for the strong rebuke by the higher court implied that our state government is racist.

One could simply denounce a judicial ruling as being politically or racially motivated, as one presidential candidate has done. Or, perhaps Gov. Pat McCrory and the original sponsors of HB2 and voter ID could take a lesson from the late Gov. George Wallace, who changed his view on civil rights over time.

They should stop pandering to the dark side of populism and start thinking about how they would want to be remembered in history.

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Michael Lamson: Harkening to racist past."