NBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Republican's Public Image

Interview

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DYSON: This enfranchisement comes conveniently for the lone star
state, as state Senator Wendy Davis` gubernatorial candidacy kicks off.
Women are her natural base and therefore a metro target for the GOP.
Joining me now Ohio State Senator Nina Turner.

Senator Turner, can you argue and I know some people will think this as
ludicrous and just -- we`re just out of our minds, but can you argue that
republicans only want white men a means to vote?

STATE SEN. NINA TURNER, (D) OHIO: I mean, Dr. Dyson, they`re
certainly taking a page out of the book of where there`s country was
centuries ago, you know, we are a nation of progress but they are trying to
take us back this extremist. And that fact that they are creating laws
that in many, many ways a suppress, oppress, and regress access to the
ballot box is not only shameful, it`s immoral and it`s against Democracy.
And I got, you know, Wendy Davis, state Senator Wendy Davis, my sister
senator I guess they fear her just that much. But this is wrong and it has
a negative ripple effect for all of this country not just Texas in this
varied law that they have passed right now.

You know, remember a district court rule that that law was
unconstitutional, but because the US Supreme Court gutted portions of the
voting rights act, here we are. We have not lost our minds Dr. Dyson. The
GOP extremists have lost their ever loving mind.

DYSON: To be sure. But look take a moment to platform this
particular issue. A lot of people think, well, a wait a minute. It`s a
piece of ID. What`s so hard about that? You live in America, get an ID,
you want a license for a car. You got to go get it.

S, tell us why this is such a disproportionately negative law for
women and other minorities especially when it comes to access to the means
by which identification is distributed and also because of the differential
between urban and suburban and rural and that kind of thing?

TURNER: I`m so -- I mean getting a license for a car or having a
passport so that you can leave the country, those are not fundamental
rights, but access to the ballot box that is a fundamental right.
One woman, one man, one vote and the reason why we should all be
concerned about this because in this great democracy of ours, the one place
that we all can be equal regardless of our gender, our ethnicity, our
sexual orientation, our religion is the ballot box. And the fact that
folks would use their political power to try to take it away is wrong all
day long and we must put a stop to it.

And I will tell you Dr. Dyson that the author Nellie Smith and her
article policymic.com, the quote that she has from sister Susan B. Anthony
(ph) I want women to take this with them when she said, "No self respect in
women should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex".
She said this in the late 1800 and my God it is as if she is speaking in
the 21st century.

Our democracy works when all people can participate in it. We are
better together and that is why we cannot stand idly by and let the extreme
GOP try to take away the right to vote for everybody who does not fit the
category of people who they believe should have the right to vote.

DYSON: What its like there on the ground? I mean, are women being
organize, are people joining particular constituency groups that would
allow them to articulate their values, their vision, their understanding of
this particularly heinous law or this suggestion that somehow the gender
character of this identification laws, you know, is going to get by and
people are not just going to be too dumb to identify.
So, what`s being done on the ground to really kind of rally the
troops?

TURNER: Oh, not at all Dr. Dyson. I mean here he has no fear (ph) or
lack a women scorn and women are coming together. And I believe that men
who respect a women are coming together to say that this is wrong.
We must do this for our -- we must stand up against this kind of stuff
for our four mothers who fought very hard and for future generations of
young women who deserve better than what they are getting now.
I can tell you organization is like Emily`s List and the Democracy
Alliance and other groups are legal women voters. People are getting
together to educate folks about how important it is to maintain the
integrity of our democracy through the right to vote. And that folks who
want to put laws in place like this, they don`t even deserve to serve in
elected office. They are rigging the system and it is wrong and we must
stand up and not relent. We are better together.

Women do not need permission slips to be able to exercise their right
to vote. I mean Dr. Dyson on one hand is our health care.

DYSON: Right.

TURNER: And now, they`re trying to block us from voting.

DYSON: All right. We`ll give them a pink slip as well. Ohio State
Senator Nina Turner, thanks for your time tonight.

TURNER: Amen.

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