Is the Freedom to Vote Act really a power grab?

One of your readers asks why the Republicans are calling the Freedom to Vote Act a “power grab,” while some Democrat politicians hint that the Republican party, and those opposed, are evil racists.

I’d like to first point out that in 1965, Congress passed a Voting Rights Act, for which the Democrats like to take credit. The Democrats, at the time, had large majorities in both houses. Yet, as a percentage, more Republicans in the House voted for the act than Dems; 83 percent to 78 percent. The Senate was even more lopsided; Republican’s 94 percent, Dem’s 73 percent.

Now to the present. There are 124 minority members of Congress. Of those, there are 58 African Americans. The mayors of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, St. Paul, Washington D.C., and Atlanta are all African American, as is the Vice President. The country elected an African American president twice, and yet, we’re to believe that there are citizens who have been prevented from voting. Both of our senators want us to believe it, and the current President calls the failure to pass his Freedom to Vote Act, “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Do we really need a holiday to vote? Voting isn’t just a right of citizenship, it’s a duty. It might take a little sacrifice like standing in line before or after work, but that hardly compares to the loss of life, limb, or other horrible injuries sustained by previous and present-day patriots who wanted to keep this Republic intact. Yes, a Republic, where power is decentralized. The Freedom to Vote Act is nothing more than a bald-faced attempt to chip away at the current state of government and State’s Rights. A small chip here, another there, and we centralize power in Washington D.C., with the goal of a one-party rule. That always turns out well, doesn’t it? It›s apparent that our two Senators think so.

And when speaking of duty, citizens not only have a responsibility to vote, but an obligation to know what they are voting for. I allude to this because according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, the U.S. ranks 31st in math, 24th in science, and 21st in reading; these scores are all dramatically down from 2009. I don’t mean to be cute, but at this rate, high school graduates won’t be able to tell us who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb, or when the War of 1812 was fought, let alone modern-day government issues or points of debate. Some of the worst schools in the country, located in vast urban areas, have large minority populations, but when the words “school choice” are muttered, Democrat politicians gasp for breath and clutch their chests. Because Democrats know that if school choice became law, they’d lose the backing of the Teachers-Union-Wing of the Democrat Party. I point this out because the uneducated make a ripe orchard for harvesting votes.

Also, in the Bill; no I.D., no problem. Try getting into a political convention without identification, or a doctor’s office, a hospital, an airport, or dozens of other commonplace functions. So, it’s OK for the local gym to know who you are, but when it comes to the most consequential duty of the average citizen, it’s too inconvenient?

Or is this all a ruse to divert attention from the failure to secure the southern border, or to control inflation, or make us forget the most inept and deadly withdrawal of U.S. citizens from a war zone in the history of this country? Then there’s the failure to unite the country, as promised, or work with the other party on key issues. Maybe we won’t notice when the President calls a reporter a “Stupid son of a b—–,” and maybe we won’t pay any attention to the huge spikes in crime in nearly every Democrat run city in the country. The Freedom to Vote Act should get an award from In-Fisherman Magazine for The Biggest Red Herring Ever.

Ron Wizykoski,
Hovland