The Foundation of Democracy

 This next entry was supposed to delve into the issue of the Keystone pipeline and whether it should or should not be built.  However, another hot-button issue has jumped out into the forefront:  The prevalence of voter suppression bills that have been passed by Republican state legislatures all around the country.  This is a huge issue facing this country and one that should not just offend, but deeply piss off, any person who truly calls himself an American.

The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy.  it is a right that most of us take for granted and one that defines America as a democracy.  It is the standard by which we judge other countries and it is a right guaranteed in the Constitution.

Look at this picture.

These are Iraqi police showing their ink stained fingers - proof that they voted in Iraq's first free election in 2005.  In 2010, despite mortar attacks, bombings and grenades that claimed 36 lives, Iraqis turned out in droves to vote.  This is what democracy is all about.  It was the foundation for George W. Bush's foreign policy in the Middle East.  Remember that? 

And yet, here, in America, the country that gave birth to Democracy, Republican legislatures all across the country have been passing new restrictive voting laws that in the end will suppress the voting rights for millions of Americans - the majority of whom are elderly, poor or minorities. All of whom generally vote Democratic.

The Republican Party.  The party that wraps itself in the American flag.  The party that came up with the Patriot Act.  The party who for generations has claimed the mantle of Protector of America.  I don't have the space here to report on all of the voter suppression efforts but you can click here to read all about them for yourself.  I encourage you to do so. 

I can hardly contain my anger about this subject.  I am pissed.  I mean really really pissed.  There are posting going around now that say "If you have to prevent people from voting, then your ideas suck!".  Funny.  Yes.  True.  Also yes.  But it is so much more than that.  There is something incredibly... profane about denying American citizens their fundamental right to vote.

I am pissed.  You should be too.