By William Haupt III | The Center Square contributor
Workers
prepare mail-in ballots for counting Nov. 4, 2020, at the convention center in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, following Tuesday's election. - Julio Cortez / AP
photo
"At one time getting passing grades in civics and
U.S. history were prerequisites for high school graduation. Our biggest mistake
was to adopt common core and abandon this." – Michael Polelle
Over five decades ago, Congress passed the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. It established standards to protect the voting rights of all
qualified U.S. voters. Contrary to liberal psychosis, the Voting Rights Act
applies to every voter equally. It set parameters for each state to engrain
within its voting laws.
To ensure equality, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
passed to protect the rights of ethnic minorities. But its core provisions,
like the Voting Rights Act, protects the civil rights of all Americans equally.
Contrary to leftist logic, neither of these gave more rights to one group and
less rights to another.
Five decades later, many Americans don't know the Civil
Rights Act protects all citizens from age, gender, ethnic and religious
discrimination, in addition to minority groups. Government cannot give any form
of preference to one group, without abridging the same rights that others are
entitled to.
As Boomers began to feel the pinch of age prejudice, many
forgot that age discrimination is a key provision in the Civil Rights Act. And
very few seniors ever filed complaints with the Department of Justice about
this.
"We are marching for the civil rights of the Negros
and those of all Americans." – Martin Luther King
Even fewer Americans know why our states were obliged to
update their voting laws after the last election. All states laws must comply
with provisions in the Voting Rights Act to protect "all voters."
In response to the mayhem during the 2020 election, when
blue states made up new laws as they went along, 43 states updated voting laws
to prevent a repeat of the insane bedlam that took place in 2020. Citizens
asked state lawmakers to ensure that nobody could ever question how anybody who
couldn't get elected dogcatcher in his own state get the most votes in U.S.
presidential history.
Since the Constitution obligates states to enforce the
Voting Rights Act, after the last election they reviewed all mail-in voting,
counting ballots received after Election Day, and ballot drop-boxes. All these
issues truncated the intent of the Constitution and Voting Rights Acts. Yet in
the woke world, if you don't win the brass ring or can't hijack it, you bellyache
that your voting rights were violated!
By law, states are responsible for updating existing
election laws when they do not comply with the Voting Rights Act that protects
all individual voting rights. Yet progressives and identity groups are
squealing like pigs in a bacon factory? Why are they upset with states trying
to protect their rights?
The woke society is built on double standards. It can't
exist any other way. Wokes make up laws to justify breaking laws they don't
like. Either play the game their way or they will take their ball away.
"I learned that being 'woke' is being brainwashed by
extremist liberal propaganda.” – Lillian Fang
Until the presidential election of 2000, the merits of
the Voting Rights Act were seldom questioned. But the fiasco in Florida proved,
if progressives want to win badly enough, no law will ever stand in their way.
After five weeks of trying to turn Al Gore into a winner, the choice of our
nation's new leader came not from the citizens, but from a 5-4 majority of U.S.
Supreme Court justices. Liberal contempt for our voting rights began long
before the 2000 election when blue states started moving to all mail-in voting.
They had the national media's pump primed; there was no way Al Gore could
possibly lose. When the media abruptly called the election for Gore, they ended
up with egg on their faces and progressives and their liberal attorneys around
the U.S. cried out election fraud!
"Hi. I'm Al Gore, and I used to be the next
president of the United States of America." – Al Gore
Although liberal media pollsters and pundits had been
predicting a landslide victory for Al Gore, in the real world Pew Research,
Gallop and other independent groups pictured a much tighter race.
They forecasted that fallout from the Clinton-Lewinsky sex
scandal would mobilize conservatives against the left's loose morality. Al Gore
lost the entire south and even his home state, Tennessee.
In reaction to allegations about voter fraud, hanging
chads, and especially mail in ballots that were supposedly miscounted,
Democrats petitioned Washington to review U.S. voting rights again. The 2005
Commission on Election Reform, chaired by liberals Jimmy Carter and former
Secretary of State James Baker, concluded that the biggest threat to voting
integrity was with mail in ballots.
"We conclude that mail-in voting remains the largest
source of potential voter fraud.” – Jimmy Carter
Concerns about vote tampering have a long history in the
U.S. They helped drive the move to the secret ballot, which all U.S. states adopted
between 1888 and 1950. Secret ballots made it harder to intimidate voters and
to monitor which candidate a voter had voted for. One University of Florida
study found complaints about fraud fell by an average of 14% after states
adopted secret ballots.
In woke America, facts are an "inconvenient
truth." There have never been more complaints about denial of individual
rights, violations of voting rights, and claims of "systematic
racism" coming from people who don't know the rights "they have"
and "do not have" than any time in American history.
"I have faith in the United States and our ability
to make good decisions based on facts." – Al Gore
In 1865, following the Civil War, the 13th, 14th and 15th
Amendments and the 19th Amendment in 1920 guaranteed equal rights and universal
suffrage for all Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965 protected those rights. That is why we must have voter ID laws.
Every illegal vote cast nullifies the votes of the legitimate voters. Still,
some people just don't get it.
Socrates told us: "Man's worst fault is his illusion
of knowledge.” Today, it is more important than ever for Americans to know the
rights that they have and to use them for their benefit. It is equally
important that they are never violated. We do not have special laws for
progressives and identity groups. And we can't allow laws to pass that give
rights to one group and take them from others.
Bills such as the For the People Act and the John Lewis
Voting Rights Act deny the states of their right to scribe voting laws that
meet the unique needs of their voters. Every politician that supports
legislation giving a group something more than others such as Nixon's
affirmative action is denying others of their rights.
"When the President does it, that means that it's
not illegal." – Richard Nixon
During the past year, we've witnessed continual assaults
upon our judicial system by progressive politicians, wokes and activist
identity groups. It is vital we know our rights and defend and protect them. If
we don't know them and we don't use them, we cannot protect them and we will
lose them.
"The creation of America was based on a simplistic
idea of 'Freedom and Justice for all.' That idea alone gives us the wisdom and
fortitude to protect those basic freedoms at all costs." – Dave Clarke
