Beware of voter suppression in the lead up to November

The real voter suppression going on has nothing to do with verifying that someone is eligible to vote.

We have a skewed sense of priorities in this country. I am 36 years old, but I still look quite young. So young that I still regularly get asked for my ID. I even remember it happening once when I was buying a video game. I never minded because I had nothing to hide.

When I started a bank account, I was asked for my ID, I didn't mind. When I have booked hotels, I have shown my ID, still didn't mind. In the rare, rare instance when I drink, I show my ID to prove I'm of legal age to consume said alcohol. So why should I be offended in the event that I'm asked to identify myself with legitimate documentation when I go to vote?

I'm going to present a crazy idea here, but hear me out. What if the argument that voter ID laws are suppressing voters is the actual reason voters are being suppressed? I should clarify that by saying that it's all the furor surrounding the argument around voter ID laws as voter suppression that has a duplicitous effect.

What I'm saying is that people who legitimately believe that their vote is being nullified by an ineligible or fictitious voter might not bother voting at all. But that isn't a problem for those who are against voter ID laws because it's all on one side, and it isn't the side the institutional left is going to great lengths to morph the entire culture to protect. I'm here to say that's the wrong approach, and the ambition to seize power at all levels of government by any means necessary may lead to large scale armed conflict. If you wanted to provoke a civil war, I can think of few ways that would be more effective than making people feel like their rights are being trampled.

I'm sure a few boneheads will be like," Uhh hello? Womens' rights are being trampled by the Supreme Court overturning Roe V. Wade." First off, what is a woman? Define it without the word woman or as the opposite of a man. Secondly, that is a blessing in disguise because it might teach people that they should take an interest in elections at the state and local levels if they want to preserve their rights.

You want people in your state to fight for your abortion rights? Elect them. The real danger is relying on the Federal government to throw their weight and authority around to trample all over the rights of state governments to govern their constituents in their own state. You might get what you want in the short term, but you're setting a dangerous precedent that will cause you to lose a whole lot more in the grand scheme of things.

We should be celebrating the fact that the power of the constitution is being honored, and its limitations exposed. Hard limits to power is how you preserve your rights. And protecting even the voting rights of people you don't agree with politically is how we fix everything. But there we must impose limits as well.

I've long been of the opinion that registering to vote should come with some manner of competency test. People should have to prove they know who they're voting for, and why. And the fact that they're affiliated with the party you yourself are affiliated with does not go far enough. You should intimately know and be able to answer questions on the positions and policies of people you intend to vote for.

If that sounds like ableism of some sort, I'm sorry, and I don't care. A society full of low information voters means substandard leaders get elected. A highly-informed voter base would hold their elected officials to a much higher standard. And as such, we as voters should be held to a higher standard as well. If you believe that voters being asked to prove their identity before receiving a ballot is infringing upon the rights of minorities and marginalized communities, then you, my friend, are guilty of the soft bigotry of low expectations. Have a little more faith in your fellow man than that. Election integrity is everyone's job, not just people in public office.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors” – Plato.

We should all take a greater interest in our own civic duties as Americans because if we don't we might end up with a half-braindead buffon in the highest office in the land, doing all he can to run the country into the ground.

Oops, too late.

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