Back in 1972 Fram oil filters ran an ad campaign. A mechanic sticks his head out from under a car and says: “You can pay me now or pay me later.” He was right. If you put off a problem, you will usually end up paying far more than if you address it now.
What’s the most valuable thing you have? No, it’s not a baseball card or a first edition of Superman or a vintage Mustang or a Rolex or even your McMansion. You’ve even heard politicians tell you. It’s your right to vote. Though given your usual choices, it may seem to have a diminished value of late.
Did I misspeak? No. It is a right — a constitutional right. The Constitution does provide that it can be taken away from you but only for a conviction of treason. As people have grown more aware that the GOP has nothing to offer anyone who fails to qualify for the top ten percent, their party has become smaller. They have nothing to offer young people, so they aren’t replacing those who are leaving or those who are dying off.
The last tax cut they offered gifted 65 percent to that top ten percent. Of course, the corporations made out like the bandits they are. They claimed it would stimulate the economy and create jobs. The jobs were mostly in China, Bangladesh and Mexico. Does that count? If you want to find a tax cut that stimulated the economy and created jobs, good luck. It’s too farfetched, even for the fiction section of the library.
Though they haven’t bothered to come up with any plans for helping us, the Republicans have been very busy. They spend most of their public time worried about Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head losing his genitals. They want to distract your attention from the fact that the Democrats actually produced some limited but helpful legislation. Somehow they want to take credit for the measures they voted against. Don’t ever accuse them of using logic or facts — or even knowing what those things are.
The rest of the time they have been busily trying to steal the votes of people they expect to vote for their opponents. Just be aware, with their unlimited incompetence, the votes of you and I may be caught up in their less than precise line of fire.
This is likely the most important reason for altering or abolishing the filibuster. While the Constitution guarantees the right to vote, it doesn’t provide for penalties for denying or obstructing a person’s right. To penalize such behavior, it is necessary to pass enabling legislation. With the filibuster in place, no Republican would enact laws making themselves a criminal.
An eye for an eye. Perhaps it would be meet to punish such a miscreant by denying anyone voting to deny or obstruct a voter their own right to vote for one presidential election cycle for each voter affected. They should also be prohibited from holding any public office.
Now, they are going to object that the Constitution gives the states the power to provide for the handling of elections. True. But, it doesn’t give them the right to deny anyone any of their rights. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be rights. If the right to vote is the most important and most honored right, as even Republican politicians have proclaimed, the states have no power to interfere.
Also, states, whether as laws or in their state constitutions, routinely take away the right to vote of felons, While there are more than two million people now sitting in our prisons, more than five million are presently denied that right. So, regardless of how serious or how petty their crime, these millions have received a lifetime penalty, and an unconstitutional penalty.
Prisoners do not lose their citizenship. If they did, where would you deport them to upon release? Wouldn’t they be undocumented foreigners?
On the subject of fraud, the state of Texas performed an extensive inspection of 17 million votes to find voter fraud. They found 16 possible incidents. Meanwhile, Republican state legislators committed millions of instances of fraud by unconstitutionally denying and/or obstructing the rights of millions of voters. So, Trump was right. There was wholesale fraud in the 2020 election. It just was for his benefit, not to steal the election from him.
It reminds me of the election of 1960. Illinois was the critical state. Mayor Richard Daley ran the machine that controlled Chicago. There were accusations of fraud in Chicago. The accusations were accurate. So, Nixon asked the chairman of the state’s Republican party to ask for an investigation and a recount. The response was that the Republicans, who controlled the down state had committed more fraud than had the Democrats in Chicago. Nixon conceded the state to Kennedy and, therefor, the election. Be careful what you ask for.
Some civic minded billionaires, corporations and nonprofits should begin funding as many people as possible to deluge the courts with individual lawsuits, no class action suits.
The Democrats need to get their rears in gear and kill or limit the filibuster and enact enabling legislation to enact appropriate penalties for voter suppression, gerrymandering, including reversing those resulting from the 2020 census, and any other restrictions the Republicans can conjure.
One note of warning, that should be unnecessary. Don’t ever vote for someone proclaiming to be antigovernment or that the government is your enemy. The government is large by necessity. The population is large and the world is complex. Those politicians are almost always incompetent or self-serving but usually both.
Republican politicians have openly declared, even in courts, that they cannot win elections if the “wrong people” are allowed to vote. Ironically, if the laws of this country were rational and fairly enforced, they would be the “wrong people.”
If you found this educational, edifying, interesting or otherwise worth your time, this geezer would appreciate a little supplement to those Social Security checks, They forgot to factor in the cost of publishing a blog. I would like to continue being able to afford my daily cup of coffee and pound of caviar.
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Thank you.
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