There Can Be No Compromise On Voting Rights!

Posted on by under Election 2020, Election 2022, Law and justice, Personal, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants

Every person 18 years of age or older has the right to vote in the United States.  Per the Fourteenth Amendment, states will lose their congressional representation …

“… When the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime.”

Since 1787 when the Constitution was first amended, we have passed laws to include women “inhabitants” and to lower the legal voting age to 18 instead of 21.

In the Fifteenth Amendment, the right to vote is not to be …

 “… denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

So, what part of this do the legislatures in 43 states not understand?  What part of this do the Republicans in Congress not understand?  They have allegedly read the damn Constitution … with the exception of some like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Greene, who cannot read!  It’s as plain as the noses on their pocky faces!  Everybody over the age of 18 has the right to vote!  Read that again!  Better yet, perhaps Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia needs to read the Constitution before he opens his mouth again!

There are two bills that have passed the House of Representatives and are now awaiting consideration in the Senate.  S1 and S4 are about voting rights.  We should not need new federal laws to give us the right to vote … WE ALREADY HAVE THAT RIGHT!!!  But, sadly, the states, particularly those in the South and those run by Republican governments, are passing bills willy nilly that would rob us of those rights.

Manchin says that any legislation on voting rights must have the support of the Republican senators … WHY???  They aren’t about to support our right to vote because they know damn well, they have even stated, that if everybody can vote, they don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning another election.  They aren’t going to compromise, they want to dominate the discussion, the landscape.  They want only white, Christian male voters, if the truth be known.  They don’t want Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, or really even women voting.  They don’t want college kids voting.  The majority of people in this nation would not vote for a Republican today if they offered … a Krispy Kreme Donut!

The State of Georgia just shoved through demonic voter suppression legislation.  The bill passed both chambers of the legislature in the span of a few hours before Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed it into law yesterday evening.  The new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.  WTF???  You’re going to make is such that they will be forced to stand in lines for HOURS to vote, yet they cannot be provided with life-sustaining WATER???  What a bastard!

Voting rights advocates say the state’s rapid-fire action — and plans in other Republican-controlled states to pass restrictions of their own — underscores the need for federal legislation to set a national baseline for voting rules.  In my book, the only ‘rules’ should be that the person be 18 or older.  Nothing else matters!  I may not have two forms of photo ID … in fact, I don’t.  It doesn’t matter!  I pay taxes, I’ve lived here all my life … I have the right to cast my vote.  If I don’t, then I no longer wish to live in this hellhole!  If my Black friends Rob & Aundrea or my Muslim friends Ali & Maha don’t have the right to vote, then why are they bothering to pay taxes to support a government that has robbed them of their voice?

I am fortunate to live in a state where it is relatively easy to vote by mail and where voting laws are not being altered, but for the majority of people in this country, it will be harder to vote in the next election unless S1 & S4 are passed by the Senate.  That is the goal of the Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures around the nation.  Are we going to let them get by with it?  I certainly hope not, for the sake of this nation that has already seen far too many of our rights go down the tubes.

Funny, isn’t it, that the fools on the hill will go ballistic over “protecting gun rights”, but they don’t give a royal f*ck about our voices, our rights to participate in our own government – the one that we fund!!!

Joe Manchin calls for ‘compromise’.  Well, we’ve been compromising for ages now … on healthcare, on education, on wasteful military spending, on foreign affairs, on just about everything.  There is no room for compromise on voting rights … there is no wiggle room at all.  We all get to vote!  Understand that, Republicans???

28 thoughts on “There Can Be No Compromise On Voting Rights!”

  1. What Joe must needs do to ensure that S1 & S4 get safely through is to ensure the Filibuster cannot be used on certain types of Bills. Then if it comes down to a straight vote with no abstentions from the Democratic side should pass into law. Once the voting side of things is taken care of other bills can be taken care of, and if they have to be filibustered it should be in the old way of an objector having to hold the floor by speaking continuously. Once they finish, it comes down to a straight vote which should be OK until the 2022 votes when it’s possibly the Repubs could command the majority. But if the electorate is satisfied with the Democratic performance, needs not to be the case. Sooner or later the GOP will realise that to get back to a commanding position they will have to reinvent themselves with policies that attract the voter that doesn’t allow for them to be faithful to the usual 1% wealthy of the party and maybe, under those circumstances, they’ll no longer be sponsored by them and they’ll have to earn the money the Government pays them instead and owes the country their loyalty instead.
    Cwtch

    Liked by 1 person

    • I fully agree … but it seems to not be high on the priority list! I’ve done a bit of letter-writing today … not that anybody will read them, but I had to try. This is, perhaps, the most important legislation of this decade and it simply MUST pass! I consider it a no-brainer … WHY would anybody question our right to vote? But, obviously, I am not very intelligent, at least according to the Republicans.

      If they don’t completely do away with the filibuster, which would be my preference, then yes, they must revert to the filibuster of yore when senators had to prove their point, even if it meant they talked until they had no voice left, and then it was a simple majority vote. They have gotten lazy … all they have to do is say, “I object”, and it is automatically a filibuster, requiring a 60-vote majority.

      I’ve said the same as you … it seems that the GOP would realize they have a problem … a problem of image, of ideology, of platform … and step away from the populist image of the former guy, re-think their ideas, and come up with something more palatable to the people of this country. But no … instead, they prefer to simply take away our right to vote, our voice in the government that WE FUND! Sigh. I want to just give up and be like so many others, living only in my own small shell, not caring what goes on in the world … but I cannot. That’s not who I am. Sigh.

      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Pingback: There Can Be No Compromise On Voting Rights! — Filosofa’s Word – libertyforengland

  3. I keep trying to understand what is wrong with the likes of Cruz, Gaetz, McConnell, Jordan, Kennedy, and Hawley…the list goes on! Why do they want to destroy our country….by abolishing democracy? I try to understand the driving force of GREED & POWER! Voter suppression is just the beginning! Since I was a child and learned about The Holocaust…I’ve been afraid of someone like Hitler…. taking over our country. I was right to be afraid.
    The door is open.
    And yes, Jill ….. they freak out when it comes to defending their gun rights! Where do they stand…. when it comes to protecting our DEMOCRACY? It’s horrifying!!!! 😱

    Liked by 2 people

    • You’ll drive yourself nuts if you try to understand their mindset, my friend! You have to remember that they are in the pockets of such as the gun and fossil fuel lobbies, so it is their mission to remain in power in order to stifle legislation that would hurt either of those two industries, as well as others. And, their anti-humanitarian, racist rhetoric has caught up with them and they are well aware that they will not win in an honest election where EVERYONE has the right to vote, so they must stifle us in any way they can. Yes, the door is open and we barely dodged the bullet with the former guy. Next time, we may not be so lucky. Hugs, Soul Sister. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

    • It seems to be happening in a number of nations with a democratic foundation … a friend in Germany says it is the same there. Sigh. What has happened to our world, the world we once thought we understood?

      Like

  5. You quoted the Fourteenth Amendment above, Jill, but not all of it. It contains the word “when,” as if there should be a consequence if “when” happens. But it states no consequence. Does it have one before the part you quoted?
    The way I read this amendment, the consequence of screwing around with voters right should be then that state or voting district should not be allowed to participate in the voting process. In other words, if a state like Georgia abides by the laws they just passed, all votes posted in Georgia should be thrown out of the counting process. Shredded, burned, thrown in the garbage, whatever, not not allowed to participate in the election of any national government, including House Representatives, Senators, and even votes for the Presidency. Screwing with the rights of voters should screw the entire state.
    And if 43 states pass laws the screw with the rights of voters, then 43 states should have no representation at the federal level. The way the Fourteenth reads, they should not even be allowed to run state Legislatures.
    That is how I read that Amendment. If they didn’t say that, then they damn well should have, because it is definitely inferred.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Jill, the words say one thing, but suppressing the vote of others who may disagree with you is as old a tradition in America as the right to vote. First, only land owners could vote, in 1865 former slaves could vote (but that proved difficult for 100 years), in 1920 women were given the right to vote, and as noted above, in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed to better enable all people to vote.

    In the last ten years since the 2010 midterms, there has been an active Voter suppression campaign waged by the Republican Party wrapped up in cookie cutter Voter ID Laws and gerrymandering, many of which was ruled unconstitutional. Then SCOTUS, who must live in a different country, watered down some requirements on the Voting Rights Act saying it was unneeded.

    Democrats have done their share of gerrymandering, but using a judge’s words, the Republicans have used “laser-like precision” to discriminate. Then, along comes a now-former president whose fragile ego cannot handle losing even a coin-flip. He set in motion months ahead of the election to claim wide-scale voter fraud, which he could never prove in court and one of his attorneys is using as a defense in a defamation lawsuit that no one should have taken her outlandish claims seriously

    These new efforts to suppress votes indicated the Republicans know the demographics are against them and they need to cheat even more. These observations come from a former Republican and independent voter. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • Perhaps I’m silly, but it seems to me that since the Republicans obviously realize they cannot win in an honest election where everyone is able to vote, they should be looking inward to figure out the problem with their party, with their ideology. Instead, they play games with our lives, shred the Constitution, and take this nation back to the days of Jim Crow. Starting with gerrymandering, I think we need a clean sweep … independent cartographers to redraw every single state’s district maps. And as for the laws such as the one Brian Kemp signed into law in Georgia last night, we can file lawsuit after lawsuit, or we can pass a federal law (S1 & S4) that overrides the states’ laws. If we don’t do this, I cannot foresee what will come of this nation, short of a revolution. But, are people to comfy and spoiled to truly revolt? Sigh. I have no answers, only a million questions.

      Liked by 1 person

        • It definitely seems that obstruction is their sole purpose, but no, their ideology is to create a nation ruled only by the wealthy, a Plutocracy. To that end, they oppose gun restrictions (the arms manufacturers are wealthy industrialists), oppose voting rights (the majority would sensibly vote against most republicans and by their own admission, if everyone votes, they cannot win elections), oppose environmental regulations (the fossil fuel industry is not only wealthy, but powerful), and the list goes on. None of what they do is for the people as such, but only for the top 1% of the people. Democrats, on the other hand, believe in taking care of the people, so the two will always be at odds. Used to be that they could find some shred of common ground, but the demands of those who supply the money for the Republicans have become such that there can be no compromise, no common ground.

          Liked by 1 person

  8. Something is wrong, right? Want they reinvent democracy???? It sounds similar like here, with the restriction of fundamental rights, through the sometimes unfounded curfews. Here even the statement “then we can give the citizens more freedom back” sounds terrible. Best wishes, Michael

    Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.