Right To Vote

The one fundamental thing that defines a democracy is the right to vote.

This means everybody and while of course it means you don't always get the result you want the result you do get is democracy.

When you see one of the parties doing every thing it can to restrict voting by certain demographics to try to assure they can retain control it is not democracy it is dirty tricks.

The problem facing Republicans is that they are the party of certain demographics, rich white people and moderately educated white people.

The appeal to the first group is that they will protect their assets and increase them.

The appeal to the second group varies, it is based on some social issues and fear of change.

This demographic has been the one most hurt in many ways by the change in our economy as jobs they could perform were often eliminated for robots or cheap foreign labor.

Their are jobs for them but they just don't pay as well.  In addition, for many reasons, while they constituted the majority of voters in this country for much of its history, they are seeing new people, often non-white, replace them via immigration and birth rates.

Of course this is the same dynamic that has happened as different wave of immigration have come to this country throughout our history with similar reactions.

The Republicans are trying to restrict new voters, young or minority or even native Americans, who they feel will vote against them.  Its a long term losing battle but it can help in the short term. To the extent they suppressed even a small percentage of voters in the last election, it may have swung the election.

All Americans should defend the right to vote, it is our primary role in Democracy and if they restrict anyone they in some sense restrict us all.  Even those we don't agree with are entitled to vote. Many have sacrificed too much defending it to lose it.