In 1965, Congress passed the Voter Rights Act. Amended several times through 1975, it provided safeguards against various discriminatory practices designed to limit or  eliminate access to voting, specifically among minority populations and newly enfranchised groups.  Fast forward to 2010 and since the rise of the Tea Party Republicans  any semblance of respect, civility and rational thinking, let alone integrity on any level in the political arena is long gone. There seems to only be a place for radical extremism. This mentality sets the stage.                                                                                                                  Now in 2012 we find ourselves in the midst of a presidential election which has deteriorated to muck and mire to say the very least. The level of misinformation and outright lies is beyond comprehension and, in my opinion, the true nature of GOP politics is out in the open.

In an interview with the National Journal on 23 October 2010, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority  Leader, stated that “.. single most important  thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one term president”. The GOP and particularly the Tea Party Republicans in Washington continue to strive to make that happen. Mindless and extreme  obstructionism in the House has successfully blocked numerous attempts to bring jobs bills and economic recovery measures to the floor, thus crippling the recovery efforts of the Administration. On the state level, though, there is a new monster which has raised its ugly head. Under the leadership of Tea Party legislatures and extreme conservative GOP governors a widespread, and I believe orchestrated waive of voter suppression laws and less than ethical voter registration practices have been put in place. The  premise was ostensibly to stem the tide of in person voter fraud but in pretty much all the states involved, study after study revealed that such massive voter fraud as simply non existent. In Pennsylvania, right in the actual opening statement in a court filing, the State stipulated that “.. it is not aware of any incidents of in person voter fraud in Pennsylvania and has no direct knowledge of voter fraud elsewhere.”.  Officials also said they could offer no evidence that voter fraud would occur in the November 2012 election in the absence of a photo ID law. (Philadelphia Inquirer 26 July 2012 ). And yet, in spite of that, the law was passed and was enacted. It clearly was geared to repressing voter turnout in targeted minority areas and those which are heavily Democratic in voter trends.  In  Ohio, the Secretary of State Jon Husted pushed to have early voting eliminated on the three days immediately before election day, days on which many shift workers and low income citizens tend to vote, as well as those wishing to avoid long lines on election day. He fired two county election officials who wanted to maintain those early voting days in their county. In Florida, an audio picked up by an answering machine records a volunteer for the Clay County  Republican Party clearly stating that the President is a Muslim and wants to “get rid of your Medicare. She also stated that the President wanted to turn the country into a socialistic country ( St Augustine Record ).   In Texas, a group called True the Vote, started by a suburban housewife in 2010, has put itself up as the defender of voter integrity.  It has such a storied history of doctored photos, skewed documentation, not to mention its close affiliation with the  King Street Patriots (a.k.a. The Tea Party in Texas ), some members of congress are calling for an investigation of its obviously extremist, discriminatory and baseless tactics.Radical  extremism at work.  The Republican National Committee engaged the services of a company, Strategic Allied Services, to conduct voter engagement activities in five states. The company was hired only after the RNC convinced them to change their name so that previous misdeeds would not interfere with the 2012 efforts. As a result of their being discovered submitting hundreds of faked registration forms in Florida to support the RNC’s contention of widespread voter fraud, their activities were suspended in Florida, Nevada, Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia – all highly contested states for the GOP.It is nothing less than amazing to what lengths Reince Priebus and the RNC will got to insure that Mitch McConnell gets his wish fulfilled.

I am all in favor of clean elections. Over the centuries we certainly have seen enough of crooked politicians, rigged elections and intimidation activities at he polls, especially on the local levels. Making certain that ALL elections are fair and not subject to fraudulent practices is laudable. However, one must question not only the tactics but also the timing of these obviously agenda driven measures initiated by Tea Party influenced legislatures and governors. The very fact that all of this cranked up post the 2010 election with implementation timed to be just a matter of months, and in some cases weeks before a national election makes it all quite suspicious.  Some state politicians have even gone on record attesting to the underlying purpose of these laws of suppression. Prime example is the statement of Pennsylvania House leader Mike Turzai ( R – PA, 28^th ) unequivocally stated as one of his crowning achievements, the passage of the voter ID law would allow Governor Romney to win Pennsylvania.

Far back in our memory everyone encountered the old tactic of the guy who, in sizing up the competition, either wanted to change all the rules or take his ball and go home. It’s juvenile, or it was back then and we could all be sure that someone else would arrive on the scene with another ball. Not much at stake there except what to do on a Saturday afternoon.Today, in a different context,  it’s indeed a whole new ball game with far far more at stake. Today, this juvenile tactic has  been brought  to bear on the very kingpin of our functioning as a free country and has been taken to an unconscionable level of fraud, deceit and a concerted effort to undermine of the right to vote.To take ones ball and go home is one thing but to go home then come back and build a chain link fence around the  entire playground so no one can play is wrong. It is wrong on so many levels and it is without question un-American.   Call it for what it is – treason !