The past is prologue

Particularly when you look at the country's voting history

The country’s voters originally were limited to a pool that included men aged 21 and older who also owned property. Every subsequent expansion of the voting pool has been met with organized movements that included propaganda, politicians who foam at the mouth at the thought of letting those people vote, and more. (See the suffrage movement. See the ongoing civil rights movement.) There’s always a kickback when people want to vote.

This latest tomfoolery from anti-democratic elected leaders springs from the incredible success of activists such as Stacey Abrams, who prove that concerted and organized efforts can move previously-unengaged citizens into voting booths. Abrams is now running for Georgia governor, and she’s getting support in all the right places.

The sad fact is that when voting is accessible for all, Republicans (and DINOS) lose, and that explains both groups’ rabid fight against voting bills that look all but dead in D.C. Rather than change the GOP party platform to be more attractive to voters, the Republicans make up stories of voter fraud (not true), and they fight to shrink the voter base. (That’s not all Republicans, but that’s certainly enough of them to stand in the way of letting people vote.)

Madness, you say? No. This is just another organized movement meant to shrink the electorate to a small, angry core of white voters.

So what’s a committed citizen supposed to do? Do what you did leading up to the ‘20 presidential election. Contact Postcards to Voters. Call your local politician and offer to volunteer. Join a board. Write your local news outlet and let them know what for. Join the League of Women Voters. Fight back, lovers of democracy. The midterms are just around the corner and we need everyone — ev-er-y-one — to vote.