Voting

Having the right and obligation to vote is central to being a citizen in this country.  It is a basic right that we should all defend.

It shouldn't matter whether a group votes the same as you or not, they're right to vote is inextricably linked to your right to vote.

We have seen, since at least the end of the civil war, various attempts to suppress votes by certain populations.

It actually goes back to the founders who weren't in many ways as democratic as we tend to think they were.

We mask this suppression of the vote in any number of ways to pretend its OK and we heard recently that voter fraud was the reason for the extra requirements being created.

It wasn't and isn't, it simply partisan attempts to retain or obtain power.

Of course if you can't keep them from voting, you can make their votes count less through clever gerrymandering.

While gerrymandering is nothing new, modern technology has elevated it to an art form.

The question is why do so many Americans simply accept this?

Some might actually believe there is widespread voter fraud, even though there isn't, or don't realize that some requirements that seem easy to comply with, aren't for certain people for various reasons.

Of course some of it is simply racism or elitism, hoping the undesirables don't vote at all.

This isn't a problem that is going away easily and it needs to be fixed if we want the country to actually be a citizen of its people for its people, at least if that means, all its people.