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 Freedom. It should always come down to freedom. The problem is what is real freedom? Is it not having to wear a mask? I really don’t think our fore fathers fought so you wouldn’t have to wear a mask during a pandemic? Could it be so motor cyclist don’t have to wear a helmet? No I don’t think that they would have fought for that either. How about that seatbelt you have to wear? I don’t think that they fought for that either. Is our education system so poor that people no longer know why we fought our revolution?

When I was in school I learned the phrase “No Taxation Without Representation”. We had to know about the Stamp Act and the Townsend Act. We had to know what led up to the Boston Tea Party. England wanted to exert its power over the Colonies and how they were taxed and the Colonies wanted a say in how they were going to be taxed. I wonder if they still teach that in school? If they do, it does not seem that too many Republicans have remembered their lessons. Our revolution was not fought for the right to bear arms or for the freedom of speech or even the freedom of the press. Our revolution was fought for the right to vote. If England had given us representation in Parliament there probably would not have been a Declaration of Independence or the United States of America as we know it today. It would have definitely still happened but probably more like Canada.

Now our Fore Fathers fought for representative government. After our victory with the help of many of our European friends we set about drafting a constitution where the representation was voted on by the people, all the white male people that is. It had to be amended for women and minorities to be able to vote but what we have now is a system the everyone is suppose to be able to vote and everyone’s  vote is suppose to count. So if we are based on representative government and everyone has the right to vote what is this voter suppression? Is that like taxation without representation? Making is harder for one group of people to vote is not the vision of representative government our Fore Fathers were thinking of and is not in the spirit of our Constitution. Our Fore Fathers were very liberal forward thinking individuals. Nothing like this Republic had ever been tried before, and I think the effort inspired the world.

The Republican Party has made it no secret that they are going to win elections using voter suppression techniques. Gerrymandering was one technique that has grown in favor by the Republicans. After Texas redrew their districts lines they came right out and said that they drew them so Texas would be Republican for the next ten years. If you look at the district maps in Wisconsin you would think that a child had drawn the districts. Many states controlled by Republicans are doing the same thing. Gerrymandering is voter suppression that is meant to insure minority rule. That is “right” Minority rule. By the middle of this century White will be a minority and that is scaring people. It may not be minority rule now but it will be in the near future. What is happening is not the vision of our Fore Fathers. Remember they were all about no taxation without representation but voter suppression creates just that. Taxation without Representation.

The Supreme Court would not interfere with gerrymandering leaving the district lines up to the state. I would be fine with that if it was for only State Legislatures but when it comes to national elections like Congress every voice should count equally and gerrymandering silences too many people’s voices. Remember the freedom that we were fighting for was the freedom of representative government. Voter suppression is just what is going to destroy our constitution and the Supreme Court may be the tool that helps do that.

Voter suppression and racism go hand and hand. Gerrymandering is just another form of voter suppression. We must treat every election and a referendum for democracy and our Constitution against fascism and American apartheid. We must unite against the racism and bigotry that the Republicans bring to the table. Voter suppression has no place in a free country.

 

 

 

American Revolution - Wikipedia

What the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering decision means for 2020 | PBS NewsHour

What the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering decision means for 2020 | PBS NewsHour

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