Reply #72: Remember, this one really is two sets of values clashing [View All]

[Recursion]

There are two sets of nightmares out there:

1. The nightmare of the left: a person qualified to vote shows up to the polls and is denied the ballot.

2. The nightmare of the right: a person not qualified to vote shows up and casts a ballot.

I can go on for days about why the left's stance on this is more moral and patriotic (and it is), but the fact is slightly less than half of the country holds #2 as the greatest nightmare and we need to accept that.

Now, I don't live in a country where anyone, anytime, can ask for "my papers", and I never want to live in such a country, and I'd guess that something like 99% of Americans don't. Driving is one thing; if I want to drive on public roads, there is a public interest in knowing who I am and whom they can bill if I run over them. But just in terms of being out in public, if I'm not driving or drinking (and honestly that's rare :) ) I don't carry ID because nobody has any business asking me for any.

But voting may be different: this is a sacred duty that way way way too many men and women have died face down in the mud to secure for me, for me to shit on it. We need some solution that persuades the left that everyone eligible to vote can vote, and that persuades the right that no-one not eligible to vote doesn't vote.

In short, we deserve better. I am absolutely convinced that if everyone eligible and willing to vote has his or her vote counted, there would be a Democratic landslide like this country has never seen. Stand up for it on the precinct level and make it happen. And if they steal it from us again, all bets are off. Seriously.