After being pressured by leftist activists, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian condemned the newly signed Georgia election law that mandates voter identification for absentee ballots, among other provisions.
“Since the bill’s inception, Delta joined other major Atlanta corporations to work closely with elected officials from both parties, to try and remove some of the most egregious measures from the bill,” Bastian said. “We had some success in eliminating the most suppressive tactics that some had proposed. However, I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values. The right to vote is sacred. It is fundamental to our democracy and those rights not only need to be protected, but easily facilitated in a safe and secure manner.”
The law makes voting in Georgia one of the most expansive and permissive regimes in the nation, with opportunities to vote at least four weeks before election day and mail-in balloting for huge portions of the electorate.
While the business executive virtue-signals to bow to the left, Bastian neglects one simple contradiction. To fly with Delta, passengers must show either a passport, driver’s license, military ID, or another government-issued photo ID. As of Oct 1. 2020, “every air traveler 18 years of age and older will need a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or another acceptable form of ID,” according to the Delta website.
Why is Delta passionate about opposing a measure that mandates voters produce ID to vote in a federal election, but mandates its customers show ID to board a plane? Surely, boarding a plane is much more trivial than voting for a politician.
A spokesperson for Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Federalist.
Last Wednesday, the Georgia House voted to strip Delta of a tax break. The measure would cost Delta, the state’s largest employer, about $35 million, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The measure failed in the Senate, but certainly is an example of ways the GOP in the state is now seeking to deny special government favors to companies that have endorsed the left’s flawed narrative about the law signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
“They like our public policy when we’re doing things that benefit them,” Republican House Speaker David Ralston said about Delta. “You don’t feed a dog that bites your hand. You got to keep that in mind sometimes.”
Delta and other corporations can continue to lament over an uncontroversial election security measure supported by large majorities of Americans of all races, but their superficiality shows through their teeth. If requiring people to show ID is racist, as many have implied, then Delta would be institutionally racist for requiring people to show ID for boarding a plane.
