I formally challenge MSNBC host Alex Wagner to a debate on the merits and constitutionality of voter ID laws.  More on that later…

But first: as MSNBC’s viewership continues to dwindle, perhaps its executives should question why the network’s hosts seemingly hold such disdain for the American people.

Living on a virtual progressive island, MSNBC has long-since abandoned objectivity in favor of ruthlessly attacking all conservative individuals and their opinions.  Now, however, MSNBC talking heads are disregarding not just conservatives, but also liberals and independents who disagree with the network’s extreme left slant.

Perhaps the most pervasive evidence of the network’s extreme slant is in its coverage of voter ID laws.

The American public largely supports voter ID laws as commonsense measures to prevent voter fraud.  For most Americans, carrying an ID is an everyday occurrence needed to participate in modern life.  Support for voter ID laws transcends race, gender and ideological identity.

An August 13th Washington Postpoll found that 74 percent of Americans support voter ID measures.  Reporting on the poll results, Mediaite noted: “86 percent of self-identified Republicans support voter I.D. measures.  67 percent of independents and 60 percent of Democrats also voiced their support.  78 percent of white adults, 65 percent of African Americans and 64 percent of Hispanics support voter I.D. 75 percent of men and 73 percent of women agree: voter I.D. laws are necessary.”

So what did MSNBC say about the poll?  Nothing.

From the time the poll was published through August 16th, MSNBC ran 19 stories on voter ID laws.  Not a single one mentioned the Washington Post polling data.  Writing for Mediate, columnist Noah Rothman lambasted MSNBC for ignoring the poll results, saying,

[t]hese are earth-shattering numbers in a nation that cannot agree on anything – from the Boy Scouts to Baseball – to the tune of 74/23 percent.  This newsworthy poll about a heated issue that is a major subject of debate should penetrate the national dialogue.  However, if you only watched MSNBC, you could be excused for thinking that voter I.D. represents an existential threat to democracy and amounts to a coup being perpetrated by Republican-dominated state legislatures.

MSNBC blowhards think voter ID laws are really efforts to suppress poor and minority voters, and it appears they will not suffer dissenting opinion.

This exhibits a classical flaw in the progressive media’s tautology.  They see a world filled with ills and problems for which their solutions are the only way “forward.”  They dictate their missives to the masses, and those who disagree with them are shunned and excoriated.

Mediaite noted – that instead of presenting the truth that voter ID laws enjoy overwhelming public support – Al Sharpton, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and other MSNBC talking heads ran 19 segments opposing protection at the polls against identity theft that “featured progressive guests lamenting the watering down of voting rights due to the identification requirement.  ‘Voting suppression,’ ‘poll taxes’ and ‘literacy tests’ are the stark, racially charged terms used to describe various state legislatures’ efforts to decrease the instance of fraud.”

And MSNBC’s racial dog whistling doesn’t just occur on its evening opinion programming.

During the networks noontime “news” slot, host Alex Wagner has been throwing a months-long hissy fit over voter ID laws.

On March 13th, Michael Waldman, the executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice, joined Wagner and her fellow panelists Ed Rendell (D), former Pennsylvania governor, Steve Kornacki (Salon.com), Patricia Murphy (Citizen Jane Politics) to bash voter ID laws.

Wagner and Waldman claimed that courts think these laws are unconstitutional, voter fraud simply doesn’t exist and that 11 percent of Americans don’t have photo IDs.  Wagner lamented voter ID laws as “a disturbing trend,” “a movement to disenfranchise large parts of the population” and “an incredibly cynical maneuver.”  Not once in this discussion did anyone of the progressive mouthpieces mention that United States Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law as constitutional in the 2008 case, Crawford v. Marion.  In his majority opinion, liberal Justice John Paul Stevens explained,

[t]here is no question about the legitimacy or importance of the State’s interest in counting only the votes of eligible voters… the inconvenience of making a trip to the BMV, gathering the required documents, and posing for a photograph surely does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote.

Since this doesn’t comport with Wagner’s personal opinion, she and almost all liberal pundits choose to simply ignore this very important and relevant case.

On August 16th, I reported on the mainstream media’s near total blackout of Crawford, saying, “[u]nsubstantiated liberal rhetoric is par for the course for today’s media elites, but willfully dismissing clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent that is inconvenient to their narrative is beyond the pale.”

Further distorting their March 13th discussion, Wagner did not inform her audience that the Brennan Center is a far-left advocacy organization that is funded by George Soros.

I will do that for her now.

To learn about the Brennan Center, and how actual election scholars have debunked their activist work, check out the group’s profile at GroupSnoop.org.  While there, you can also check out the profile of Wagner’s previous employer – the Center for American Progress.

Also in March, Wagner and former Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney connected voter ID laws to Trayvon Martin’s death.  Attempting to blame the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for voter ID laws and Florida’s “stand your ground” law, the liberal lady liars failed to note that Florida passed its stand your ground law before ALEC even began working on the issue.

Maybe Wagner and Finney need better fact checkers.

In April, Wagner continued her assault on voter ID and again cited the Brennan Center to support this whopper about voter security laws:

Voter i.d. is cooked up by Republicans to disenfranchise minority voters.  There is more chance that you will get hit by lightning I think on a plane, actually that would be increasing your chances, there’s more likelihood of you getting hit by lightning twice I believe than for voter fraud to happen.

If she truly believes that epic lie, Wagner better stay indoors with a rubber suit on for the foreseeable future.

The list goes on.

On July 10th, Wagner and her panel again bashed photo ID and, again, presented no conservative counterweight to their discussion.  Panelists Ari Berman – who ruthlessly attacks voter ID laws for the Nation – claimed that “8% of the growth in the last decade has been from Hispanics and blacks and the conservative response in Texas has been dilute the minority voting power.  So basically don’t try to court blacks and Hispanics, just try to prevent them from participating in the political process.”

It is slanderous to describe a sinister and illegal motivation to lawmakers without proof.  On August 30th, a federal court ruled against the voter ID law in Texas, but found NO evidence that the law was passed with ANY purposeful discriminatory effect.  According to the court, Berman’s claims are false.

Wagner, by the way, also attacked Pennsylvania’s voter ID law – which was upheld on August 15th.  Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson upheld that law against a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, dispelling the claim that hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of Pennsylvanians would be disfranchised from voting.

That same day, Wagner and her panel of progressive lapdogs (including Sam Stein of the Huffington Post), invited Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on the show to advance the conspiracy theory that Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is investigating the “Fast and Furious” scandal to distract Attorney General Eric Holder from going after voter ID laws.

Outside of MSNBC, the only moonbat to believe that fiction is former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Continuing her hissy fit, this time on August 27th, Wagner once again stacked her panel with three liberals who bemoaned voter ID measures.  Wagner said that conservatives “argue they’re just trying to root out voter fraud but the idea that ineligible voters are swinging elections is pure fantasy.  According to NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, Americans are more likely to get struck by lightning than to encounter voter fraud.  So what exactly is the purpose of voter i.d. laws?  More than anything, these laws help keep certain sectors of the electorate from exercising their constitutional right to vote.”

By using discarded Brennan Center data and racial rhetoric, Wagner continues to try to distort reality.  From her collected reporting on the voter ID issue, her program does not appear to be about presenting news but rather falsehoods and extremely slanted opinions.  Wagner is doing a disservice to everyone who watches her with the intention of hearing anything other than bias and rhetoric.

Right here and now, I am issuing a challenge to Alex Wagner.  Invite me on your show.  Stack the panel with all the liberal race-baiters you want.  Stack the panel with condescending people like yourself.  Stack the panel with attorneys from the ACLU and the Brennan Center.  Just include me as well.  I will win.

And do you know why?

All you have is the media elite and the race-baiting Attorney General on your side.  I have the Constitution, Supreme Court precedent, common sense and the American public backing me up.

I await your invitation.