As a general rule in a democracy, if there is one politician who wants to make it easier to vote and one who wants to make it harder to vote, vote for the one that wants to make it easier. It’s really a no brainer. The whole point of democracy is rule by the people. In a republican democracy like ours, that means voting. Trump and the Republicans are trying to make it much harder to vote. That’s one of many reasons why you should never vote for them.
Trump signed an executive order requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. This would effectively disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. The Guardian has found that less than half of Americans have a valid passport and almost 69 million women would have difficulty proving their citizenship after having changed their names. They also found that 21 million American citizens don’t have any valid ID at all. Some quick mental calculations tell me that that’s like 1/4 of all Americans that would struggle proving their citizenship under the new order.
Now, it’s true that the executive order is blatantly unconstitutional. The Constitution gives the states power over who gets to vote, not the executive branch, and the courts have consistently overturned cases that restrict voting too much, at least since 1964. I have a bad feeling about this one, though. The courts, especially the Supreme Court, have turned spineless and Trump ignores their rulings anyway. Plus, Republicans have been pushing for similar measures for decades. It seems like the best we can hope for is that blue states will hold firm while the red states implement the executive order.
Every morning, I wake up, and this country is worse than the way it was the day before. It’s exactly what I expected when Trump got elected, but it’s somehow more depressing than I thought it would be. All I can do is hope that everyone remembers this if we ever have another election.
