Sometimes we do not think about the words we throw around so
loosely. One of them is ‘freedom’. I remember
someone saying that freedom was like money, “It is nice to have it but you have
to be careful how you spend it”. What he failed to mention was that once
you spend it, it is gone. The people in North Carolina have found out about
this the hard way; they used their freedom to vote this last election. They elected
a state legislature and a governor, who have suppressed the vote, took control
of state election commissions, politicized state regulatory agencies, and took control
of school boards after cutting funding to education. They did all of these things
for only one reason: to give the Republican Party perpetual power.
The people of North Caronia
have spent their “freedom” and may never get it back. The sad thing is that
the guilty “party” seems to be sincere in thinking that what they are doing is
the right thing to do. However, freedom to choose our leaders in an unbiased
way is one of the most cherished freedoms we have in America—it is the basis of
our democracy. I saw the same thing attempted at the national level with Karl Rove’s
attempt at establishing a perpetual majority under a president who condoned his
actions. At least the his president did
not curtail firing federal judges and replacing them with Republican Judges or
promote political campaigning to corrupt appointment of Supreme Court judges,
and appointing political operatives in the lowest level of civil servants. This
attempt to destroy our freedom is the basis of by unrelenting distain for Karl
Rove and his type of politics.
There are those of you who will say both parties do it. That
is not the point. The point is that it
is wrong to corrupt the system. As for who is the guiltiest, compare 80 years
of Democratic rule and to last 1.5 years of Republican rule. At the federal
level, check out the number of filibusters in the U.S. Senate, or the number of
unconfirmed Obama appointments, or the number of unfunded government agencies. Worst
of all look the Citizen United Decision made by a corrupted court, which made
money equal to words—where is the “freedom” in that. Ask yourself if that is
fair. Ask you self what is the political persuasion of the responsible justices.
Ask yourself if it really matters. I’ll
tell you what really matters; you spent your freedom and will never get it back.
Ok, here goes, "Both parties do it." The idea "you spent your freedom" might be just a bit severe. I'm not sure we can throw that flag until our politicians completely cancel elections for "certain" citizens. I'm not inclined to stick a corruption meter into either party to compare intents.. pretty afraid of what I'd find. I see that North Carolina state wide has a 3:2 majority registration of Dems over Reps [http://www.ncsbe.gov/content.aspx?id=41]. May I suggest that with a majority of voters the issue can be reversed in a subsequent election cycle... not necessarily ruling out that our freedom is gone. That you have published your position on this issue may help for those who read it. That is freedom that can be spent over and over.
ReplyDeleteThe fundamentals of democracy dictate that freedom to vote can be spent over and over; that is not the case North Carolina. When I look at what happened in our State and in a number of other Republican controlled states, I fear that is not the case: hence, the message carried in my post.
ReplyDeleteThere is no voter corruption, which was the reason they voiced for passed the voter ID law. Clearly, the intent of the voter ID was to suppress Democratic votes. They have shortened the voting time, Sunday voting, and same day registration; all aimed at black voters. These things have racial overtones as happened with their takeover of school boards. The state electoral commission has been put in the hands of the Republican Party, which is expected. What is not expected is what they did with the new power; they have closed polling places in college campuses, prevented early voting, and same day registration, establish a polling place in an agricultural center with 32 parking places for 10,000 voters, again in a college town. Student cannot vote using a college ID nor can they vote using a campus address. In addition, they have move to prevent students from voting and even threatened the parents that they would not be able to deduct a student on their tax return if a student votes on campus. The expected result is that Republicans will hold their seats by taking away the freedom of democrats to vote. In reference to your cited figures of 3:2 registered voters, why is that 70% of our federal representatives in Washington are Republicans. So here is the exercise: other than gerrymandering, name instances where Democrats have ever passed laws in any state intended to surpass voting of certain citizens after the 1965 civil right legislation was signed?
I strongly agree that with respect to voting law our society has a responsibility to assure access to all citizens. I may be wrong, so correct me, but I think that perhaps the greater issue here is whether we want to admit that our country has a significant number of undocumented foreigners who are capable of voting and in turn effect influence our local government's policy towards them. Read Howard Foster's blog at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-foster/democrats-benefit-from-illegal-immigrants-voting_b_1418523.html for a more exhaustive presentation of this. My intent is to no way detract from the force of your argument... just trying to expand it. I'm sure that the Center for Hispanic Policy and Advocacy (CHisPA) has a political agenda and I'm fairly confident that their outreach is not restricted to only U.S. citizens. Just saying...
ReplyDeleteGood point, however, if they did vote this would be voter fraud and study after study has failed to reveal anything of the kind is happening especially in states like Texas and Florida where the Latino population is high. As an aside, I find that Undocumented workers using false Social Security numbers pay social security put are denies benefits. According to news paper reports, congress has recently (last year) taken this money for the social security fund and put it into the general fund, with the intent of hurting the social security program. People who are legitimate green-card holds have social security number, and pay social security “taxes” but cannot collect that money at retirement unless they are citizens. I am not sure where that money is held.
Delete