Much attention (but not nearly enough) has been paid to Republican efforts to require voters to present a valid photo identification at the voting booth in November. Claiming that it prevents voter fraud, Republicans insist there is no malice in their actions. But this could not be further from the truth. Faced with declining popularity, splintering ideology, and bleak prospects for the presidential election in November, Republicans have resorted to illegally suppressing the democratic vote to try and win the election under false terms.
Fake ID? Voting Republican? No problem!
The GOP has been exploiting its legions to create voter ID laws in battleground states that would effectively limit the number of minority and elderly voters — the type of people who vote for Obama — while at the same time going so far as to change the time window for absentee ballots depending on if a district is conservative (longer window) or liberal (shorter window).
These initiatives are supposed to combat voter fraud, of which there have been 10 documented cases since 2000, which includes three presidential elections. In a country of over 310 million people, having three cases of voter fraud per presidential election is about as good as you can get. Therefore, the only reason why Republicans would take the time to pass these laws is because they know that they can’t win without them. What happens in the next four years when Republicans are even more marginalized? Should we expect a coup and military rule? Is that why they’ve been clinging onto their guns?
If you needed any more hard evidence that Republicans are holding our nation hostage, this is it. With these initiatives that suppress voters and oppress democracy, Republicans have crossed the last line. It cannot be said that Republicans believe in democracy. It cannot be said that America’s wrong wing believe that truth, decency, and morality should come into play in politics. No, there is nothing left, only the empty, rotten hole where some form of integrity used to be.
This smacks of the tyranny that so many of our ancestors died fighting. It reeks of desperation, of despair, of a political movement defecating all over the pages of the Constitution that it is supposed to revere. It is illegal, despicable, and should have repercussions for those responsible.