I’ve been staring at a screen grab from Fox News that is making the rounds on social media, trying to understand where we are as a nation and how we have arrived here.
The chyron at the bottom of the image reads, “How Democrats Plan to Change Voting Forever.” A list at the right touts “The Horribles of HR-1,” which “mandates universal mail-in ballots, early voting, same-day voter registration, [and] online voter registration.”
Who could possibly quibble with any of these points? Although given the constipated look on the face of the Fox personality/teleprompter-reader, it’s apparent that she does — or is being paid to act like she does — in an attempt to convince viewers that, once again, Dems are chip-chip-chipping away at the Old World Order.
In reality, the nation’s goal for voting should be to make the process as seamless and painless as possible while still safeguarding its security. In 2021, it’s ridiculous to expect people to jump through byzantine hoops of bureaucracy, to stand in long lines at polling places sometimes located far away from their homes, before or after a long day of work, and often outside in lousy weather to exercise their right of franchise.
This is not to say that voting isn’t worth the inconvenience. It is. Maybe in the past this was the best we as a nation could do.
However, we can do better today.
It starts with a recognition that all the “little inconveniences” of traditional Election Day voting add up to a major impediment, especially for the working poor, who don’t have the luxury of hopping in a car and zipping off to a polling place across town, or of taking a long lunch for the purpose of voting, or even sneaking to the ballot box early in the morning before the lines get too long, because they still have kids and grandkids — and sometimes parents and grandparents — to care for. To say nothing of those who work midnights and for whom a quick trip to the polls comes at what feels like the dead of night for the rest of us.
And for readers boohooing the above or using their thumbs and forefingers to imitate the world’s smallest violin playing “My Heart Bleeds for You” (in stereo!), be careful. Your privilege is showing.
What can it possibly hurt to allow these people, and by extension, everybody in the nation, to vote in a way that is more convenient, to skip the lines, to request and later mail their ballots from home?
It’s not an issue of security, not really. Election officials at all levels and on both sides of the aisle declared this past presidential election, with a record number of mail-in ballots, free of widespread fraud. Multiple court challenges alleging voter irregularity were dismissed for lack of merit, including several rejected by former President Trump’s “own” Supreme Court. Despite the Big Lie narrative pushed by 45 and his loyalists, the election was secure.
But, on the other hand, perhaps it really is an issue of security — GOP security. A party that increasingly finds itself out of touch with the American public (for example, not a single Republican voted in favor of the latest coronavirus stimulus bill, despite its broad popularity with a majority of Americans) must find a way to cling to minority rule by any means possible, including reckless and obvious gerrymandering. (To be fair, Dems have also played that game.)
Oh, HR-1 would prohibit gerrymandering, too.
Make no mistake, opposing HR-1 is really about voter suppression, which for many conservatives — and especially Trumpublicans — is really about fear of brown people and poor people and people who have different ideas about gender, equal rights, and living wages. It’s about demographics that are slipping away from them, a battle they’re fighting state by state with laws disguised to “protect” voting that are really designed to suppress it and make it easier to keep their next tinpot dictator, whoever he is, in power.
But if conservatives believe so strongly in their principles, then they should work hard to sell them to the American people, in the time-honored tradition of democracy. Instead of stumping so diligently to promote the Big Lie, they should work to convince the majority of Americans that their policies are best for the country.
But because they can’t, they have to peddle the alleged “horribles of HR-1” and stoke baseless fears about election security. Again.
chris.schillig@yahoo.com
@cschillig on Twitter
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