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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDisenfranchisement is the political death that citizens die before literal death
When you remove political power from voters, you remove any reason for any person in power to give a shit what they think, what they want, what would make their life better, what would save them from an untimely death.
It chills me to see the GOP actively disenfranchising voters, especially minority voters, because it is the prelude to the neglect, impoverishment, and death that will inevitably follow. And the fact that they have gotten away with it for so long with seemingly no repercussions or punishment is truly frightening.
What are we to make of the (to my eye) tepid response of Democratic politicians to this phenomenon? They don't really talk about it, or talk quietly, or say we have to fight it but don't really highlight it. If they, as progressives often claim, are also corrupted by money in politics, then they won't mind the political death of even their own voters, because that is what their donors prefer.
If however they recognize that disenfranchisement removes the last obstacle to political death and then real death for millions of their own constituents and voters, then they should get people riled the fuck up about this and fight it tooth and nail.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,406 posts)I would definitely like to see Democrats really take a strong stance against this. There should not be ANY reason short of death that a legal adult shouldn't be able to have the right to cast a vote in our democracy and the instant we start making exceptions to whom can participate in it we have failed.
ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)I find the current standard of "because your name sounds like someone else's" to be one of the worst possible reasons.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,406 posts)I never understood why felons are prohibited from voting or have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get their voting rights "restored". I think that inmates deserve to be able to vote too. NOBODY of legal should be denied the right to vote. PERIOD.