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appalachiablue

(41,047 posts)
Wed Jul 14, 2021, 01:13 PM Jul 2021

Opinion: Republicans are dismantling the right to vote. But they've enshrined the right to infect.

Washington Post, By Dana Milbank, July 13, 2021.

In the United States in the year 2021, you, as an American citizen, do not necessarily have the right to vote. You do not necessarily have the right to teach or to learn about matters of race, gender or anything else state lawmakers consider “divisive concepts.” But you do have one absolute, sacrosanct, inviolate, God-given, self-evident and inalienable right: the right to refuse a coronavirus vaccine — and to infect as many people as you can.

With the blessing of the Roberts court, legislatures in Republican-run states are rushing to impose new voting restrictions, particularly on non-White voters. A tally by the Brennan Center finds that, as of June 21, 17 states had enacted 28 new laws restricting the ability to vote since the start of this year.

At the same time, 10 states have enacted, and 26 states are weighing, restrictions on classroom discussions of racism and sexism, according to an Education Week count. Ostensibly, these restrictions combat critical race theory, an academic notion turned into a boogeyman by Republican politicians and sympathetic groups. But while curtailing freedoms for some, red states are simultaneously extending civil rights to a previously unprotected class: the anti-vaxxers.

A count by the Husch Blackwell law firm lists at least 17 Republican-run states that have enacted laws or orders protecting the rights of those who refuse coronavirus vaccines, with more such laws in process. If there is a philosophy behind this selective approach, it’s this: Rights for me but not for thee. The red states are protecting the liberties of their political supporters — and taking liberties with everybody else’s...

More,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/13/republicans-are-dismantling-right-vote-theyve-enshrined-right-infect/

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