What is at stake in this coming election cycle is more than just the White House.It is also about protecting a right, which has been fought for throughout the centuries. Our nation was not founded on the principle of universal suffrage. Women could not vote until 1920, Native Americas could not vote until 1924 and African Americans did not have their voting rights protected until 1965.
In 1776 John Adams said
“Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.”
“Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.”
It is a qualification that many would like to return to. Today, there remains a republican political elite that is determined to suppress voter turnout in 2012. That for which we recently celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King is under severe attack. In 2010, the Supreme Court recently ruled that it is against the constitution to limit the amount of money that businesses, non-profits, and unions can give to political campaigns. On its face, it sounds fair, until you analyze the discrepancy between funds that non-profits have versus the coffers of corporate America. On top of that, there are republican candidates who want to limit the vote. For example, GovernorRick Perry wants to take the vote for U.S. senator out of the hands of citizens and give it over to the state legislators.
The plan to suppress the vote is an ingenious one. To refute the charge of racism they have hired Herman Cain to pretend to run as a candidate. They even hired African American Horace Cooper of Project 21 (who was convicted and sentenced to 3 Years’Probation, $500 fine, and 300 Hours Community Service for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal) as a key spokesman for this so-called initiative.
This election will not only determine which direction the country goes in but whether
or not people will maintain their right to participate in the public square.
No comments:
Post a Comment