“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America…” “The Pledge.” We used to say it all the time in grammar school, with our hands on our hearts; it was part of our education. I can still hear everyone reciting it, mostly in unison. So was the notion that when you came of age you had the responsibility, the right and the obligation to vote. I couldn’t wait to do just that, I’ve voted in most every election ever since. I’m sure there are a lot of Americans who had the same experience. I wonder what they’re telling the kids in schools today around those Republican controlled, state Public schools or perhaps Charter Schools.
Do they encourage their students to vote when they become eighteen? If they do the students are getting a mixed message. Outside class they will hear all the talk about hundreds of thousands of voters being disenfranchised because they don’t have a certain form of identification to show at the polling places. When these young people do turn eighteen they will need some sort of government ID or they will be turned away. It used to be people working the polls probably knew a good many people who came to vote every election. If you were new you just had to show something with your name on it showing you were a resident in that district. A utility bill would do. I’ll bet many poll workers still do know families and other people in the neighborhood or town.
So why are state governments with a Republican majority stripping voters from voting rolls? In Pennsylvania, about seven hundred and fifty thousand voters have been put in question. In Florida 150,000 proposed to be eliminated. Who are these voters? Well a close look shows that they are mostly Democrats, Independents, minorities, people with Hispanic surnames and students who have registered, voted before, but now are being taken off the roles for ambiguous reasons. Are any of these people being informed that they are no longer considered eligible to vote — no longer registered?
Republicans say they are trying to prevent voter fraud in their states, but they have very few cases of actual voter fraud to report. What they are trying to do is eliminate voters who might not vote for them. This is no different than voter suppression of African Americans in the southern states and other efforts over the history of the United States to steal elections. If anything is “fraud” it is what the Republicans are doing. If disenfranchising voters to win an election isn’t fraud it certainly is UN-American.
It is an American right to vote and every effort should be made in include, as many citizens as possible not eliminate them. Republican laws are demanding government ID’s, but many Americans do not have a government ID. They don’t drive, have a passport or in Texas a gun license. Student ID’s are not valid even if issued by a state college.
The Attorney General of the United States as stepped in to stop these new laws in a number of states, so the Republicans voted to hold him contempt of congress. This is a major abuse of power by these congressmen. The same individuals in congress voted thirty-one times to overturn the Affordable Health Care Act. This after they lost the vote the first time and the United States Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional. They have obstructed the administration of the duly elected President of the United States consistently since his first day in office.
If Republicans continue to get away with all of this we will have officially sanctioned minority rule just like in the Senate. Yes the Senate where the Republican minority can hold the Senate hostage to getting sixty votes instead of a simple majority of fifty-one to pass legislation. The majority of citizens in the United States voted for representatives who stood for the things they believed in. A minority of citizens are doing everything possible to impose their priorities on everyone else.
Voter suppression is illegal and UN-American. It needs to be stopped. The only way to do stop it is to vote Republicans out of office and elect Democrats including the President. Democrat or Republican voting is a right guaranteed by the constitution. Demanding special ID’s is the same as a poll tax. It is also a way to discourage people from even tying to vote. Everyone who is registered with mandated ID must vote and help those without that ID to get it, register and vote. Only by handing the right wing a huge defeat at the polls will this abuse of the system be halted.
Written by J R Martin