I’ve been so worried about the fate of poor old Aaron Belenky, the unsuspecting citizen whom the Jim Crow-lovin’ knuckledraggers of Kansas forced reluctantly into political protest. So, in order to make sure that the Sunflower State hadn’t subjected him to any other noteworthy indigities, I did a quick search for his name. What I found set my heart at rest immensely. It turns out that Belenky already has quite a few progressive friends in high places, including the sort of people that he might be able to call on the off-chance that he were harassed. Here, for example, is his Change.org page. And here, in the Seattle Times, a 2010 report that “party activist” Belenky was hoping to be considered as a replacement for “the state Senate seat vacated by Fred Jarrett.”

Looking back at the AP page that carried Belenky’s initial story, I found this little detail: ”A few weeks after moving to suburban Kansas City from the Seattle area, Aaron Belenky went online to register to vote.” And, we are supposed to believe, he was so shocked and horrified at the Voter-ID laws that he had never considered before that, after deciding that having “to open and riffle through boxes in his Overland Park apartment to find” his passport was a rank disgrace, he “allowed” — allowed! — the American Civil Liberties Union to list him as one of three aggrieved voters in a notice sent this week to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.”

Suffice it to say that this would be the equivalent of me moving to California and immediately suing the state over its gun laws. I’d be well within my rights, of course; but it’d hardly be a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington story.

In case you missed the tale earlier, read it here. It wouldn’t be out of place in The Onion.