Salon: "If Ballots Were Bullets"

[Empowerer]

If Ballots Were Bullets
By Stephanie Jones
Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/21/if_ballots_were_bullets/

<snip>
What if politicians began enacting and enforcing a spate of laws across the country that prevented millions of law-abiding citizens from buying guns in order to stop criminals from getting their hands on weapons? Would Second Amendment advocates remain silent?

That’s what is happening in America in 2012 — except, instead of keeping millions of Americans from exercising their right to bear arms, Republican legislators, governors and secretaries of state are trying to stop millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote. Yet those who would never tolerate any curtailment of gun rights have raised nary a peep about this assault on voting rights.

Under the excuse of preventing “voter fraud,” Republican state officials are vigorously pushing voter ID laws that will make it harder — and in some cases, virtually impossible — for certain citizens to vote. These laws — which require voters to show a state-issued photo ID that many Americans don’t have and will have great difficulty obtaining — could bar 3.2 million eligible and legally registered voters from voting in the next election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan think tank.
. . .
This drive to disenfranchise millions of our fellow citizens who risk being knocked out and then locked out of our political process by voter ID laws should sicken every American who truly believes in and cares about the Constitution, including Second Amendment advocates who would surely see this differently if this were about bullets rather than ballots.

[ffr]

1. We should amend the 2nd amendment to include "the right to bear votes"

Then we'd all be in the same boat. Could you imagine?

[Democat]

2. Great idea for an article

Democrats should fight as hard for voting rights as Republicans do for gun rights.

[Empowerer]

4. Can you imagine building a "Voting Lobby" that scares the whatsis out of everyone? nt

[ProudProgressiveNow]

3. K&R

[drhobo]

5. if ballets were bullets, then most states would require ID to vote.