Vulgar? Reprehensible? You Name It

What greater motivation might there be to travel to Pennsylvania to maximize voter registration and participation?

Arizona’s SB1070 legislation is vulgar. Prefer to call it reprehensible? That, too.  Whatever the adjective, it was–until Mondays’ Supreme Court decision–the broadest, strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in recent U.S. history. It has received national and international attention and has spurred considerable controversy That police are required to determine one’s citizenship because a tail light is broken is totally not in keeping with the Constitution and what it means to be part of the American experiment with democracy. Imagine having to carry one’s citizenship papers all the time, everywhere you go, to avoid a brief stay in the slammer.

That Supreme Court’s decision impacted legislation of five states mimicking Arizona’s attempts at voter suppression–a welcome development.  Returning to the dark side, consider Pennsylvania’s new Voter ID law which requires photo ID at the polls. PA colleges will have to reissue student IDs to make them acceptable forms of personal identification.

It is totally outrageous that state rep Turzai celebrates that the state’s new law is gonna allow Gov Romney to win the state of PA, done.  His frank acknowledgment of a law designed to deny Americans opportunity to vote is incredibly revealing.  Unmasked! Totally!  No way for PA Republicans to deny their game plan is to elect Romney by keeping Democrats from the polls.

Democracy is a universally recognized ideal–a core value of the United Nations.

Democracy provides an environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. These values are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They are  further developed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines a host of political rights and civil liberties underpinning meaningful democracies. Voting, we know, is how rights are provided.  Any attempt at denying opportunity to vote goes against these universally recognized ideals.

Any attempt by supporters of PA’s new photo ID law to justify it in terms of combating voter fraud is obscene.  There is virtually no record of voter fraud-nationally, regionally, statewide, whatever.  This is an undeniable fact.  So laws that frustrate voting fly in the face of the democratic process.

I repeat,  What greater motivation might there be to travel to Pennsylvania to maximize voter registration and participation? 

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