HONORING OUR DEMOCRATIC VALUES

HONORING OUR DEMOCRATIC VALUES

— Opinion
 
HONORING OUR DEMOCRATIC VALUES

The USA criticizes China, Russia, Myanmar, and other forms of authoritarian governments for being anti-democratic and illiberal, in the classical sense of liberal democracies. And yet, too many Americans refuse to see or acknowledge that GOP controlled State Legislative efforts are intended to restrict voting and in a significant way voter suppression and oppression under the false claim of “Election Integrity.”
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They cannot claim voter fraud, it does not exist, so they create a new term, a novel vocabulary. GOP controlled state legislatures are trying to fix something that is not broken. They are creating a crisis where there is none. All this controversy is false. It is a controversy, which never had a basis in fact. Please recall, that audits and recounts confirmed the accuracy of the vote count in Georgia and elsewhere, and lawsuits there and in other states by the Trump campaign and allies failed to show otherwise.  In case after case, they lost every one of those cases in a court of law, under the rule of law.
 
However, President Trump still sought to discredit the 2020 election, and is still doing so today.  We are now eight months past the November 3, 2020, election and his hardcore supporters and base are still believing his lies. He unlawfully asked Georgia's Secretary of State to change the vote totals. This is the “Big Lie” he still repeats today in his public appearances.

In response, Georgia, Florida, Texas and other state lawmakers are moving to repair an electoral system that was never broken and proven to be secure. The 2020 election was the most assured ever. This is what authoritarian autocratic governments do to gain and retain power. This is what the GOP leadership is doing and supporting at a state and national level.
 
There is no election fraud, there is no rigged election, there is no stolen election. There may be though if we do not question what is happening now. These are all false claims, arising from State Lawmakers who cite public concerns about election security based on lies. Based on Trump’s "Big Lie."

These concerns were originally generated by disinformation that President Donald Trump spread week after week while trying to overturn the election. An overall effort that culminated in the events of January 6, 2021, when the Capitol was stormed, and Congress placed in danger. Please do not allow this history to be rewritten or reframed by others. Democracy needs friends, now, more than ever.
 
Why have people forgotten January 6th now and want to dismiss and discount what happened? Why are GOP leaders ignoring what happened on January 6th and the storming of the Capitol? Why are they trying so hard to revise this narrative and create a revisionist history?
 
Why is the GOP embracing and encouraging these anti-democratic and illiberal measures and means? Why is the GOP supporting autocratic authoritarian measures that erode our American values of democracy and our global leadership role as the world's oldest democratic Republic?

Why are GOP leaders willing to abandon this nation's historic role as the leader of the free world? Why are they abandoning and destroying our democracy?
 
It is important for us to remember that the protection of fundamental human rights, and certainly the right to vote, was a corner stone in the establishment of the United States over 200 years ago.  That good work was always a work in progress.  It still is today.

We must recall that since WWII and the formation of the UN, the central goal of U.S. foreign policy has been to promote and encourage a respect for human rights, embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 
“The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections, which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
 
We cannot embody and promote these democratic values globally if we are not willing to honor and protect them at home. To act in any other way, to pass laws that limit and restrict the power of any single person's right to vote becomes the highest form of hypocrisy. As Americans who value their democracy and the rule of law, we must not let it stand, it must not be so.

15th Amendment

1.  The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section

2.  The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

I've heard arguments from various people, include our two Senator's from Texas, that this is a "States' Rights" issue, but the 15th Amendment still stands. It is still a part of the United States Constitution.

And the Voting Rights Act is still a law of the land, and a part of the Rule-of-Law we hold dear as a nation and within any democracy.  The VRA still protects minorities, "languages minorities" included, and voting dilution actions from discriminatory voting practices.

Texas Democrats are well within their right to question and to prevent any steps to undo and undermine these values, to resist the passage of unconstitutional and anti-democratic restrictive voting laws in Texas, and to seek and support new Federal legislation that strengthens the 15th Amendment and Voting Rights Act.  This is how democracies work and should work, and it is a part of our Democratic Republic representative form of government.


Critical Thinking Matters — History Matters — Leadership Matters – Character Matters – Democracy Matters — Truth Matters — Tell People the Truth
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— Ron Starbuck, Publisher Saint Julian Press