Dis Ain't Franchise

In a political landscape blighted with wreckage everywhere you look, I think the absolute worst -- and most telling -- outrage is the concerted effort of Republicans across the country to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters. The examples are endless. In the annals of cynicism, it reigns supreme; in shining light on how little they actually believe in America, in that most fundamental requirement of a democracy -- free and fair voting -- it's the Fresnel lens; more than any single thing, it demonstrates and acknowledges Republicans' lack of substance, their recognition that, undisguised, their ideas have no intrinsic persuasive power. To put them in place, they have to cheat. It tells you all you need to know.

Well, it's about voter fraud they'll claim, like the cat that ate the canary. Of course it is, other than the fact that voter fraud, despite being hyped by Fox "news" and all the RWS™ and, like the rest of their lies, believed by the faithful, is an absolute non-problem. It's been shown, over and over. And over. (Acorn, taken down deliberately because it had the temerity to register voters, black ones ferchrissakes, never was responsible for a fraudulent vote, as anyone with a brain not perverted by Glenn Beck knows. As to registration, a different matter entirely, when it found false ones, it reported them!) Like "government takeover" and "death panels," modern-day voter fraud is a shibboleth, simply made up to disguise intent. A deliberate and purposeful lie. What other words are there?

The real agenda couldn't be more obvious: it's to prevent legitimate voters, legal ones, ones who might vote for Democrats (like this nice lady) from voting. And, like all Republican disinformation, which counts on the acquiescence of the gullible and misinformed, it's working. Five million people, legitimate voters, nearly exclusively Democratic voters, are likely to be prevented from exercising their legal franchise. More than enough to affect elections, local and national.

Meeting no resistance, they barely even try to disguise it any more. Steve King, teabaggers' wet-dream of a congressman, made it undeniable: he wants to return to the days when only white, male, landowners were allowed to vote. The implication, shared by all teabaggers, is that everyone but them freeloads; the predictable end point, however, of this appeal to bigotry -- shall we call it class warfare? -- is that it would ensure that things will never change; the undeniable trend toward plutocracy will have no counterbalance at all. Which, of course, is exactly the point.

Deliberate, undisguised disenfranchisement. It's a disgrace, as shameful and cynical a thing as any party has ever done. Anyone who loves America, its constitution, its most fundamental principles, ought to rise up in anger and put a stop to it. Especially, you'd think, those who call themselves conservatives. But they won't. It's but another weapon in the steady -- and frighteningly successful -- efforts to convince people to vote against their interests; to ensure that the most powerful few will have unshakable hold on the wealth and levers of power of our nation.

And all the while, confused, confounded, and convinced by the constant stream of deception coming from Fox "news" and the rest of the RWS™, teabaggers and those who think like them (read: don't think) will happily cede all claim to their democracy, not knowing what hit them, just happy to think they're sticking it to the dark-skinned and the poor. Figuring that as long as they have approximately half the country bagged and tagged, the likes of Karl Rove and the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch need only to sack those five million off the rolls to keep their agenda afloat. They count on their half to remain in the dark, distracted by the fake flags constantly waved in their faces.

So far, so good. In terms of democracy, in terms of the interests of average Americans, they're getting away with assisted suicide. And no one cares.