All my friends are Republicans, but I in no way want that to be a reflection on me. I've told all these people that I'd sooner admit to being a child-molester than a a Republican. Obviously this has (to my personal delight) made me persona non grata in some -- what I consider -- unsavory circles. So before we go any further, just let me ask a question.
Why would any right-minded, conscience-driven person want to associate themselves with a party that systematically works to deprive honest working Americans of health care? A party that is actively working right now in various states to prevent people -- blacks, college students, the old and the poor -- from exercising their constitutionally mandated right to vote, that promotes war as the only viable approach to foreign policy, that wants to prevent young women (especially poor young women) from having access to medical treatment and contraceptives (even in cases where the contraceptives are needed for health reasons), a party that takes it upon itself to piously deny basis civil liberties to gays and homosexuals, that is adamantly against any kind of reasonable immigration reform, that is opposed to raising the minimum wage so hard working Americans can at least earn a decent living, and takes it as a fundamental organizing principle of their party that the only way you can grow the economy is by giving big tax breaks to corporations and wealthy individuals while shifting the weight of the tax burden onto the poorest elements of the society. Such deliberate policies are unconscionable. Morally objectionable -- and just unfair.
The Republicans, however, are not really interested in "good" government. One that tries to help those who most need the help. Rather their policy is -- you know -- a strong muscular defense, diplomacy through war, and balanced budgets (even though they haven't delivered one in three decades). Nor -- as some will claim (the Tea Party faction) -- are they interested in no government. Their real interest is in controlling all the machinery, the whole apparatus of the national government -- not just both houses of the Congress, but the Supreme Court (remember Citizens United?) and the White House too -- so we can go back to the halcyon days of Bush-style crony capitalism, the days of Enron, World Com, Global Crossings, Halliburton no-bid contracts and gun-boat diplomacy, the days of unfettered speculation by the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks where the rewards all go to the privileged few at the top and the rest of us pick up the bill.
They know though that the numbers (demographics) are against them, at least in winning back the White House. Mitt Romney proved this. There simply aren't enough fat, angry old white-men with million dollar IRA's to put a Republican back in the White House -- particularly given their hostility towards the poor in the society, toward gays, latinos and blacks. And this is what pisses them off. So,they've decided that if they can't win an election fair and square -- then they'll cheat. What's the old expression -- all's fair in love and war? Well, this for them is war.
Republicans though don't want it to look as if they're cheating. After all, they do have some pride. So they work sort of clandestinely in the Republican controlled state houses (with the help of Koch brother sponsored PAC's like Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works) to limit access to the polls of groups like blacks and latinos, gays and young people, and college students who aren't likely to support their plutocrat agenda. They do this by getting their political lackeys in the various Republican controlled legislatures to pass exclusionary voting laws that require the old and the poor (out-of-state college students) to have sometimes costly and restrictive photo I.D. in order to vote. This is all done Republicans say to protect the integrity of the election process and insure against voter fraud -- even though cases of real voter fraud (somebody voting in the place of a dead person) have occurred in less than one-tenth of one percent of cases brought in front of the state voting commissions. Even in states like South Carolina with some of the strictest voting laws on the books. In other words, this is a virtually non-existent problem that Republicans are trying to use to turn elections in their favor.
Surely these new voting rights laws are (need I say) all violations of constitutional protections granted to all citizens by the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
You don't have to be a thousand dollar an hour Harvard educated attorney to know what that says. If these prohibitive voting rights bills aren't a direct violation of the wording of the constitution, they certainly go against the spirit and intent of the document and thus are a violation of a citizen's right to vote, to have fair and unbiased access to the voting polls.
Republicans, however, are never so conscience-stricken so as to let a little thing like public honesty and fair-play (moral rectitude) get in the way of their ambitious plans. These are, after all, politicians. And they are always most sincere in quoting the Bible or wrapping themselves in the flag when they've got their hand in your pocket or they're trying to abridge your God-given and constitutionally mandated freedoms -- always, of course, for the "good" of the country and the preservation of freedom.
You can deny a person's rights at the point of a gun, or you can use the courts and the legislatures to do it. The always lawyered-up Republicans prefer -- at least so far -- to use the courts and the legislatures. But who knows, maybe the day will come when we'll all be looking down the barrel of a Republican gun?
The Money Trader