The kind of big government the Right likes is
the kind that keeps certain people from voting.
By Marge Baker
The Republican Party claims to be the party of small government
— with the obvious exceptions of denying marriage equality and reproductive
rights. But there's another kind of big government that the party has
overwhelmingly and enthusiastically gotten behind: expensive and intrusive
attempts to make it harder for Americans to vote.
A recent trio of federal court decisions in Florida, Ohio, and
Texas have ripped the lid off the increasingly successful right-wing campaign
to limit opportunities for low-income people, minorities, and students to vote
— especially, and not coincidentally, in swing states.
These decisions, from
even-handed and moderate federal judges across the country, show just how far
the Right has gone to use the power of government to make it even harder for
traditionally disenfranchised groups to vote.
In Florida, a federal judge
permanently blocked a law that had made it almost impossible for good
government groups to conduct voter registration drives — which prompted groups
like the venerable League of Women Voters to all but shut down operations in
the state.
In Ohio, a federal court ordered the state to reopen early
voting in the three days before November's election, which Republicans had
attempted to shut down.
Early voting on the weekend before the election was
enormously successful in 2008 — especially among African Americans — and the
judge found that Republicans had no legitimate reason to want it to stop.
And finally, a federal court, which is required to review
changes in election policy in states and counties with a history of voting
discrimination, ruled that Texas' new voter ID law couldn't go forward because
it "imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor and racial minorities
in Texas."
The effort that Republican governors and legislatures across the
country have gone through in the past two years to make it more difficult for
citizens to vote is truly remarkable.
They have been willing to buck the law
while violating the spirit of our constitutional democracy to bar groups of
people from participating in it. And they've been willing to set up extra
layers of government and bureaucracy — things they claim to despise — simply to
keep people from the polls.
There are plenty of areas of genuine disagreement in our
politics, but the right to vote shouldn't be one of them. In an interview
with The Atlantic, Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights hero, said "there should
be public outcry" and a "sense of righteous indignation" at
what's happening to our elections.
He's right.
It's astounding that nearly 50 years after the Voting Rights Act
banned racial discrimination at the polls, it's still needed as a shield
against such egregious violations of its principles. And it's shocking that the
self-proclaimed party of small government wants to use government' power to
keep people from exercising their fundamental right to vote.
Republicans claim that these new laws combat "voter
fraud" — a serious criminal offense that research shows is exceedingly
rare. What they really do is systematically disenfranchise millions of people
by making it harder to vote. These are cynical attempts to change the rules of
elections in order to win. If they work, we'll be seeing plenty more where they
came from.
Marge Baker is the
executive vice president of People For the American Way. PFAW.org
Distributed via OtherWords. (OtherWords.org)
Distributed via OtherWords. (OtherWords.org)