When President Franklin D. Roosevelt
said, "Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting," I am sure he was not imagining a future when the Supreme Court and legislatures across the land would be depriving U.S. citizens of their right to vote, by undermining the Voting Rights Act, and imposing voter ID laws that are simply 2014 versions of a
Jim Crow poll tax.
To make matters worse, voters on the rolls are being purged:
Election officials in 27 states, most of them Republicans, have launched a program that threatens a massive purge of voters from the rolls. Millions, especially black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters, are at risk. Already, tens of thousands have been removed in at least one battleground state, and the numbers are expected to climb, according to a six-month-long, nationwide investigation by Al Jazeera America.
It's no coincidence surnames like "Jackson, Garcia, Patel and Kim" are being targeted.
We have already seen successful Republican efforts across the nation to stop people of color, young people, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities from registering to exercise the franchise.
On top of all of this we have to take the responsibility to fight back against the defeatist message, coming from some folks on the left, targeting young people and people of color stating that "voting doesn't count."
Frankly, I'm sick and tired of hearing that crap.
Just two days to go! Let's bring this election home! Sign up to make GOTV calls to Democrats.
I want to talk about why I know my vote counts, and invite you to do the same. Follow me below the fold for more.
Jeff Greenfield:
Men and women in my lifetime have died fighting for the right to vote: people like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered while registering black voters in Mississippi in 1964, and Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965 during the Selma march for voting rights.
I echo the sentiments expressed by Jeff Greenfield. People died, my ancestors died, my family members were forbidden the right to cast a ballot.
That's my first reason for voting. I vote because it is my hard-won right. My vote counts because every step forward we have taken in this country has been effected by legislation passed by people we have elected, or by Supreme Court justices those elected have seated on the bench. Many of those bills passed were paid for in blood.
I vote because I want to see a new Supreme Court, not ruled by the Racist Five.
I would not even be here had my grandparents been forbidden to marry or if my grandfather had been lynched. I vote because I was never allowed to forget that my grandmother, Mabel Bodine, born July 7, 1886, couldn't vote until 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified.
I vote in New York. I'm proud to say that my state passed a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights on July 1, 2010. Both of my grandmothers were domestic workers.
I vote because I am the product of a free public school system. I vote because I don't want to see that system privatized, and I dream of a future in which our young people can go to college and universities offering free, or affordable educations.
I vote because I no longer have to ride the back of the bus, drink from separate fountains, and use bathrooms assigned to "colored."
I vote because my godchildren who are LBGT can now marry.
I vote because as a woman I want to control my own reproduction.
I vote because I want to see police murders in my communities stop.
I vote because I want to see gun control legislation put into place.
I vote for people who do not deny climate change and and who fight against hydrofracking and environmental pollution.
I vote because I want everyone to have health care like mine, which is provided via my union. I have two pre-existing conditions. And I believe that one day, those votes will help enact Medicaid/single payer health care for all.
Some of my reasons may not be your reasons.
But don't try to tell me my votes have not counted, and will not count.
In the 67 years I've been on this planet, I've seen how my grandparents' votes, my parents' votes, and now my votes have made a difference.
Republicans want to move us backwards. Democrats want us to move forward.
So I'm hitting the phones today and tomorrow and Tuesday (till the polls close) to help GOTV.
How about you?
Just two days to go! Let's bring this election home! Sign up to make GOTV calls to Democrats.