George R.R. Martin, author of "A Game of Thrones", has slammed "Republicans and their Teabagger allies" in so-called swing states for what he calls "voter suppression."
In a recent blogpost on Martin's website, he refers to recent voter purges in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, saying that "The people behind these efforts at disenfranchising large groups of voters (the young, the old, the black, the brown) are not Republicans, since clearly they have scant regard for our republic or its values. They are oligarchs and racists clad in the skins of dead elephants."
Martin, an avowed Democrat from Bayonne, N.J. who has described President Obama as "the most intelligent president we've had since Jimmy Carter", doesn't often write about politics on his blog, but when he does, it is usually to speak about something he feels strongly about, be it TSA screenings or the Affordable Care Act.
Even by his standards, his blogpost is extremely forthright, and so far has received 162 comments, overwhelmingly in agreement with Martin's words. In response to one of the comments, Martin wrote
"FWIW [For What It's Worth]... I am pretty upfront about my political views... but I also strive to keep contemporary politics out of my medieval fantasies.
Mind you, there are certain themes that are universal -- musings on power, justice, the purpose of government -- and those will inevitably be a part of any book that treats with kings and wars, etc."
A study published on Sunday found that voter fraud in the United States is nearly nonexistent, further undermining the stated rationale behind voter ID laws.