The primary election season is almost upon us, and the political parties are gearing up to seize/keep the office of the president of the United States in their clutches. One party already has its candidate; the other has multiple contenders jostling with each other. A number of issues have been debated by the Democrats in their run-up to the primaries; each has his/her own views, but the devil in the details has been at the heart of the jostling.
One important issue has not been addressed at all: Voting rights. The Chas will endeavor to correct that oversight.
The history of voting rights in these United States has been one of constant struggle by the disenfranchised to acquire this most precious privilege. In the beginning, the majority of Americans had no voting rights whatsoever due to either low economic status, gender, and/or race. The Founding Fathers, with the notable exception of Thomas Jefferson, to their everlasting shame, believed that only rich white males, such as themselves, were qualified to govern in an effective manner. That’s why the U.S. is a republic instead of a democracy, folks. The Chas recommends that you read professor Gordon S. Wood’s Revolutionary Characters on this point.
Inch by torturous inch, disenfranchised Americans achieved their rights to vote. White males of modest means, freed African slaves, women, the first Americans, and finally the 18-20-year-olds now are equal in the voting booth.
Or so it seems on paper.
In reality, Americans forgot the Founders’ warning against factionalism, and thus political parties were formed. These organizations endeavored to gain the upper hand by manipulating the right to vote to their advantage. These manipulations have taken many forms and resulted in a sad state of affairs. Too many Americans have become disillusioned and have decided to toss their rights to vote aside.
To wit:
• Citizens United. This pernicious U.S. Supreme Court ruling perpetuated the fiction that corporations are persons entitled to exercise the same rights given to flesh-and-blood persons by the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, the corporations may now spend unlimited amounts of money in elections as their right of free speech, allowing them to dominate the political process. Ending this fiction will require a constitutional amendment, unfortunately.
• Campaign financing. Legislation to limit money as a factor in voting has had a rough time of it, thanks to the two major parties’ belief that whoever spends the most will win the election. Legislation which managed to survive the gauntlet has met a dire fate at the hands of the Supreme Court which finds such laws unconstitutional. The solution here is the election of progressive legislators and the nomination of progressive judges.
• Gerrymandering. It is a political game that the major parties play with each other every 10 years. The object of the game is to win the most seats in a state’s legislature; whichever has the most seats may then re-draw the congressional-district map to its own advantage. As a result, many voters find their votes nullified. What is needed then is an independent commission in each state tasked to re-draw the map in a fair and equitable manner.
• Purging the voter rolls. The idea that a person who has not voted for a specific number of years is not entitled to vote at all is a new twist on weeding the rolls. Certainly, the rolls need to be weeded from time to time in order to eliminate duplicate registrations or those persons who have either died or moved out of a district. An accurate count is necessary so that a candidate may obtain the votes (s)he is entitled to. An independent body should be appointed to manage this task.
• The two-party system. It is perhaps the ultimate barrier to voting rights in these United States. Both the Democratic and the Republican Parties, have over the years, passed legislation codifying their dominance of the political scene to the disadvantage of third parties and/or independent candidates. Requirements for the latter to get on the ballot do not apply to the former, and the latter’s candidates are left in the cold. The solution is to switch to a system of proportional voting where everyone’s vote and every candidate’s chance of election is on the same level.
Just a thought.