Monday, August 14, 2017
The real meaning of "heritage"
Josh Marshall gives some very good context for the "heritage" of the
statue of Robert E. Lee the white supremacist march in Charlottesville
was trying to save. These are bad people. They came ready to fight
with guns, shields, knives and a philosophy of segregation and racial
supremacy. Anyone willing to drive a car into a crowd of people is no
better than ISIS planting a car bomb in a crowd of people.
Addtionally, David Duke and others praising Trump's response in the
aftermath of Charlottesville speaks for itself. There is no ambiguity
here - we have a president supported by white supremacists, and his base is more
energized than ever.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
All Politics is Local - the GOP purge of voting rolls continues
The fundamental premise of a democratic (representive democracy?) form of governance is the right to vote. I've long been frustrated as to why this nation doesn't celebrate voting in any formal manner. Such as making Election Day a national holiday. That would be great, wouldn't it? Ballots. BBQ and beer!! And not necessarily in that order. Yes, I know not everyone gets a federal holiday off. And it may not be a pancea for voter turnout in all areas. But making it easier to vote and celebrating the franchise so many have fought for seems like a good idea right?
Turns out Ohio and the Feds have a the opposite idea - Ohio is kicking folks off the voting rolls if someone hasn't voted in six years, and the Feds, reversing course from the Obama administration, are backing the Ohio effort. 2 million voters have been purged from the Ohio rolls between 2011 and 2016. To top it off, if you have been removed, you have to re-register 30 days before the next election. So if the election is coming up and you find out you've been booted off the rolls, if you're within a month of the election you can't vote.
Justification for this and other efforts to restrict ease and access for voting comes in the myth of "widespread voter fraud". There's no evidence that voter fraud on any scale exists. In fact, there's more evidence that our elections were tampered with by a hostile foriegn government, not some mythical horde of non-citizen voters. So why would someone go through the trouble of making it harder to vote?
This is not a new dilemma. Our history has been one of voter supression since the very beginnings of our nation. Lest we forget, "We the People" of the original Constitution actually meant that white, male, property owning people had the right to vote. Heck, New Jersey actually took the vote away from women in 1807 - property holding women had the right to vote in NJ between 1776-1807. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, guaranteed the right to vote regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". However, it wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that people of color truly had a chance at exercising the franchise that should be available to all citizens. The 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, guaranteed women the right to vote. Prior to that, half the population, regardless of any kind of socioeconomic status, was automatically denied the right to vote.
We are stronger as a nation when we all have a say in its future. The social conract of a democracy requires buy-in from the people -- our country was founded in no large measure due to the lack of proper representation in Parliament ("Taxation without representation is tyranny"). Measures that make it harder to vote, or kicking voters off the rolls is fundamentally un-American, and contrary to the stated premise (actual practice notwithstanding) of the American Revolution.
This is why the 2018 electios across the board - local, state and federal - are so important. Voting policies are set at the state and county level, not the federal level. However federal officials are critical to oversight and enforcement of civil rights protections. We must remain vigilant and support candidates comitted to each and every citizen's right to vote. Without this, the idea of Democrats and Republicans just don't matter. We are all Americans first and party members second.
Turns out Ohio and the Feds have a the opposite idea - Ohio is kicking folks off the voting rolls if someone hasn't voted in six years, and the Feds, reversing course from the Obama administration, are backing the Ohio effort. 2 million voters have been purged from the Ohio rolls between 2011 and 2016. To top it off, if you have been removed, you have to re-register 30 days before the next election. So if the election is coming up and you find out you've been booted off the rolls, if you're within a month of the election you can't vote.
Justification for this and other efforts to restrict ease and access for voting comes in the myth of "widespread voter fraud". There's no evidence that voter fraud on any scale exists. In fact, there's more evidence that our elections were tampered with by a hostile foriegn government, not some mythical horde of non-citizen voters. So why would someone go through the trouble of making it harder to vote?
This is not a new dilemma. Our history has been one of voter supression since the very beginnings of our nation. Lest we forget, "We the People" of the original Constitution actually meant that white, male, property owning people had the right to vote. Heck, New Jersey actually took the vote away from women in 1807 - property holding women had the right to vote in NJ between 1776-1807. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, guaranteed the right to vote regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". However, it wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that people of color truly had a chance at exercising the franchise that should be available to all citizens. The 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, guaranteed women the right to vote. Prior to that, half the population, regardless of any kind of socioeconomic status, was automatically denied the right to vote.
We are stronger as a nation when we all have a say in its future. The social conract of a democracy requires buy-in from the people -- our country was founded in no large measure due to the lack of proper representation in Parliament ("Taxation without representation is tyranny"). Measures that make it harder to vote, or kicking voters off the rolls is fundamentally un-American, and contrary to the stated premise (actual practice notwithstanding) of the American Revolution.
This is why the 2018 electios across the board - local, state and federal - are so important. Voting policies are set at the state and county level, not the federal level. However federal officials are critical to oversight and enforcement of civil rights protections. We must remain vigilant and support candidates comitted to each and every citizen's right to vote. Without this, the idea of Democrats and Republicans just don't matter. We are all Americans first and party members second.
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