FROM FIDLETRON PLACE
Voting Restriction Laws Will Backfire on GOP
Thanks to the U.S Supreme Court striking down certain provisions in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Republican-controlled states are pushing laws to restrict, or make it much more difficult for college age students, the elderly, Hispanics, African-Americans and the poor, from exercising their basic right of freedom: the right to vote.
Most recently, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican of course, signed one of the most extensive Voter ID laws yet, which is clearly meant to keep likely Democratic voters from the polls. Not only does it require ID before voting but cuts early voting down from 17 days to 10 days and even restricts 16 and 17-year-old teens from early registering.
There is a good reason why the GOP is pushing voter restriction laws, such as requiring a photo ID or cutting early voting, and/or with same-day voting and that is because the number of white voters is gradually dwindling as the minority population grows, which means it is out of desperation for survival. Republicans say their efforts are to stop fraud but every bit of facts show that there is no real voter problem.
A side note here: As a Democrat, I am willing to give the Republican Party enough rope to hang itself. The GOP’s control over our U.S. House of Representatives and control over numerous state governments shows well how it manages government and just what it does when it is in control of anything. Republican governors and legislators from all levels of government have spent their time pushing not only voter suppression laws but also abortion laws, along with cuts to social welfare programs for our neediest citizens, such as children and the elderly. They did all this while pushing tax cuts for the wealthy and blocking any type of minimum wage increase legislation that would help the working poor. One must ask; is there anything that this party does that helps anyone but the wealthy?
As far as the GOP’s efforts to block American voters from the polls, it is in my opinion, stepping on dangerous territory here. Our very democracy depends on the right of all Americans to vote. Intuitively though, one thing seems to happen every time Republican-controlled state governments push to restrict minority voters, and that is a big voter turnout from the very people those Republican legislators and governors want to restrict.
I believe the Republican Party sees its own doom in the mirror here, and instead of doing what it takes to change itself to become more of what America wants it to be, it has given its power to the extremist in its party. Instead of changing from within to be more in line of what the American people needed and wanted in a conservative party, it chose to find ways to hold on to its majorities across the nation, in both statewide and national elections. Let me add here; there is nothing more voter fraud than to find ways to block hundreds of thousands of people from the polls, as far as I am concerned.
Democracy is at stake when one political party uses gerrymandering and voter restrictions to give itself a large advantage over the other political party. Freedom is at stake when the nation is in any way controlled by only one minority. If the GOP wants to remain viable and valuable to the nation as a whole, then it must fight a war within itself to bring the control of the party back to the middle and to those who seek to bring compromise and therefore solutions to the table with their opponents. Otherwise, even the once reliable white vote will diminish, as the nation grows more into a melting pot — if I may be so bold to say — and becomes more enlightened and more liberal socially. The possibility becomes possible that the Republican Party will see its demise and the rise of another political party — a party more in tune to not only to ultra-conservatives but those in the middle also.
As a democracy, we need at least a two-party system — perhaps more — to provide the American people with a choice, because without choice there is no democracy. However, we need political parties that have a common goal: to serve the nation. Doing nothing is not a choice; it is derelict and serves no one.
Many Republicans know their party is in trouble, with America changing along with its values. Moderate voices are being drowned out by the din of ultra-conservative, conspiracy-theorist-driven politicians, who go blindly forward; allowing themselves to believe that somehow, America will go back to being the conservative bastion it used to be before the Civil Rights Act passed in 1965. One thing is clear at this point, The GOP might succeed to some degree somehow, but it will be short-lived as the nation grows and changes and becomes no longer a nation dominated by one race, but a nation of many.
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