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04-13-2016, 03:47 PM
The sustaining symmetry of democracy is the right to vote. The right gives each individual, if nothing else, the belief that he or she can help shape their life and the destiny of their country. Voting is the potter's wheel of a vibrant democratic process, it could turn the future toward a different direction, thereby reshaping what once was. Barack Obama and the Democrats swept into office on the promise of progressive ideas and remedies for the then mushrooming financial crisis and social justice inequities that gripped the nation in 2008.
While having a majority in congress for two years President Obama shepherded landmark legislation in affordable health care (ACA) for the uninsured, Wall Street reform (Dodd-Frank) which helped to promote progressive culture. This would ultimately lead to declaring DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional, supporting gay marriage as a civil right, and a serious thrust to reform the broken immigration system without having his party having a majority in congress. And in reaction to gun massacres like Sandy Hook, Obama also battled (without success) in tightening the laws on background checks for buying guns -- more specifically high-kill capacity, semi-automatic weapons.
This ambitious agenda met with constant and obdurate opposition by the Republican party, and as Obama's success grew his detractors did as well. There were those on the right side of the aisle who floated rumors about impeaching this president and would in the privacy of secret discussions (something that democracy allows) plotted their obstructionist plans. Only the occasional public gaffe like Senator Mitch McConnell's announcement that his first priority was to make Obama a one-term president saw the light of the day. McConnell failed to produce his desired result.
Nevertheless, this esoteric statements encouraged a new specious strategy. A blueprint that began to tear down the building blocks of our democracy and reminded us of an era when voter suppression existed for African American people with laws like Jim Crow and the poll tax. Many in the Republican party uses the disguise of voter fraud as their impetus, but the statistics on voter fraud bear out a much different conclusion. Voter fraud is not prevalent it is barely visible when investigations are done. On the contrary, voter suppression has become a well thought out tactic for the GOP to win elections.
As the United States population has become more diverse, the percentage of Caucasians as a firewall majority for conservatives to win elections has slipped. A younger generation more socially liberal has increased. The result has been making suppression of the vote part of a national game plan to win elections.
"It's remarkable," Jennie Bowser, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said about the proliferation of new laws. "I very rarely see one single issue come up in so many state legislatures in a single session," she said. "This issue has historically fallen along stark partisan lines. Democrats tend to oppose voter ID, and Republicans tend to favor it. There are a lot of new Republican majorities in legislatures." In all 33 states have passed or considered new voter ID laws.
Not surprising when the GOP now has 31 governors in their column, and combined with very cooperative Republican state legislatures have a fast track to prevailing in their attempt to make it harder for Democratic-leaning groups to vote. In 2008 when Obama won his first presidential election, he received large support from young people 30 years old and under. He also received large majorities in the African American and Hispanic communities as well as first-time voters. All now high-value targets in creating a more difficult process to obtain voter ID and cutting the number of days of early voting. Republican and Tea Party Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was recently quoted that the new voter ID law worked just fine in his recent state presidential primary. However, the facts according to Molly McGrath, National campaign coordinator for Vote Riders point to the more intrinsic problem.
"What we have is people changing the rules of the game, but not telling the players," she said. She pointed to a Marquette University poll from mid-February that showed at least 16% of voters didn't even know that a photo ID would be required to vote. This, combined with many acceptable IDs of the past now disallowed, has generated unnecessary confusion where there was transparency.
Elections are often won or lost by a number of variables. But one of those factors cannot be the disenfranchisement of voters.
While public apathy contributes to voter suppression, the integrity of any democracy must be measured by the equal opportunity and access to cast a ballot. When the Supreme Court in 2014 Shelby County v Holder in 5-4 decision constrained the voting rights act giving the states Carte Blanche in removing protections for all voters, Chief Justice Roberts wrote "The country has changed" in reference to the removal of pre-clearance -- a formula used to identify which state and local governments with a history of racial discrimination are required to pre-clear any changes to their voting laws with the Justice Department or a federal court.
In dissent, Judge Ruth Ginsberg responded, "Throwing out pre-clearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet," Ginsburg wrote.
Today, that rainstorm is more of a deluge, even as Obama's term will end next January. The forecast persists of additional stormy weather for the voting rights of many legal citizens in America. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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While having a majority in congress for two years President Obama shepherded landmark legislation in affordable health care (ACA) for the uninsured, Wall Street reform (Dodd-Frank) which helped to promote progressive culture. This would ultimately lead to declaring DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional, supporting gay marriage as a civil right, and a serious thrust to reform the broken immigration system without having his party having a majority in congress. And in reaction to gun massacres like Sandy Hook, Obama also battled (without success) in tightening the laws on background checks for buying guns -- more specifically high-kill capacity, semi-automatic weapons.
This ambitious agenda met with constant and obdurate opposition by the Republican party, and as Obama's success grew his detractors did as well. There were those on the right side of the aisle who floated rumors about impeaching this president and would in the privacy of secret discussions (something that democracy allows) plotted their obstructionist plans. Only the occasional public gaffe like Senator Mitch McConnell's announcement that his first priority was to make Obama a one-term president saw the light of the day. McConnell failed to produce his desired result.
Nevertheless, this esoteric statements encouraged a new specious strategy. A blueprint that began to tear down the building blocks of our democracy and reminded us of an era when voter suppression existed for African American people with laws like Jim Crow and the poll tax. Many in the Republican party uses the disguise of voter fraud as their impetus, but the statistics on voter fraud bear out a much different conclusion. Voter fraud is not prevalent it is barely visible when investigations are done. On the contrary, voter suppression has become a well thought out tactic for the GOP to win elections.
As the United States population has become more diverse, the percentage of Caucasians as a firewall majority for conservatives to win elections has slipped. A younger generation more socially liberal has increased. The result has been making suppression of the vote part of a national game plan to win elections.
"It's remarkable," Jennie Bowser, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said about the proliferation of new laws. "I very rarely see one single issue come up in so many state legislatures in a single session," she said. "This issue has historically fallen along stark partisan lines. Democrats tend to oppose voter ID, and Republicans tend to favor it. There are a lot of new Republican majorities in legislatures." In all 33 states have passed or considered new voter ID laws.
Not surprising when the GOP now has 31 governors in their column, and combined with very cooperative Republican state legislatures have a fast track to prevailing in their attempt to make it harder for Democratic-leaning groups to vote. In 2008 when Obama won his first presidential election, he received large support from young people 30 years old and under. He also received large majorities in the African American and Hispanic communities as well as first-time voters. All now high-value targets in creating a more difficult process to obtain voter ID and cutting the number of days of early voting. Republican and Tea Party Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was recently quoted that the new voter ID law worked just fine in his recent state presidential primary. However, the facts according to Molly McGrath, National campaign coordinator for Vote Riders point to the more intrinsic problem.
"What we have is people changing the rules of the game, but not telling the players," she said. She pointed to a Marquette University poll from mid-February that showed at least 16% of voters didn't even know that a photo ID would be required to vote. This, combined with many acceptable IDs of the past now disallowed, has generated unnecessary confusion where there was transparency.
Elections are often won or lost by a number of variables. But one of those factors cannot be the disenfranchisement of voters.
While public apathy contributes to voter suppression, the integrity of any democracy must be measured by the equal opportunity and access to cast a ballot. When the Supreme Court in 2014 Shelby County v Holder in 5-4 decision constrained the voting rights act giving the states Carte Blanche in removing protections for all voters, Chief Justice Roberts wrote "The country has changed" in reference to the removal of pre-clearance -- a formula used to identify which state and local governments with a history of racial discrimination are required to pre-clear any changes to their voting laws with the Justice Department or a federal court.
In dissent, Judge Ruth Ginsberg responded, "Throwing out pre-clearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet," Ginsburg wrote.
Today, that rainstorm is more of a deluge, even as Obama's term will end next January. The forecast persists of additional stormy weather for the voting rights of many legal citizens in America. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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