Voting, Even Though

MARK TWAIN, the first and greatest stand up comedian, said that if voting meant anything, they wouldn't let us do it. Gore Vidal, less the comedian more the acerbic astute aristocratic historian and political analyst who was shunned by the mainstream because he dared tell the truth, said that the fifty percent of the American electorate which didn't bother to vote had the good sense to understand that their vote means nothing. Nevertheless, we keep trying, or some of us do. we keep trying to make voting meaningful, and trying to form a semblance of democracy from the ashes of our founder's aristocratic intent. HR 1, the first important legislation to emerge from the refreshingly progressive newly empowered House of Representatives, is noble in intent, if doomed to the dust bin. The most sensible, most effective change it mandates is the requirement that all ballots be made of paper, or backed up by paper. If that doesn't keep the Russians and their Republican de fact accomplices at aby, nothing will. The gist of the bill is to remove barriers to voting, by, among other measures, eliminating any requirement that the voter present a picture I.D. at the poll, without even offering a picture I.D. to all citizens for that purpose. Same day registration, online registration, expanded opportunities to voted online and by snail mail, extended early voting in person time periods. Also, automatic registration from birth, and pre registration for sixteen and seventeen year olds are written into the bill as suggestions. Turning college and university campuses into voting registration centers and voting booths is in the legislation. When one thinks about it, it is amazing the number of ways voting could very easily made much more accessible to all. The most important part of HR1 is that is makes Gerrymandering, the practice by which them winning party in any given states seizes control of redrawing congressional districts, then redraws them into salamander shaped territories for the purpose of giving their party every opportunity to win every election, a federal crime. No more bundling all Democrats into a single corner, out of the way, or spreading them out into impotent blocks of unempowered minorities. Every state would be required to establish a non partisan committee for redrawing congressional districts every ten years, as new census date reveals demographic changes. the piece de resistance is public financing of congressional elections, at least partly. HR! actually does not go far enough in eliminating corporate dark money from the process, but it si an important first step. To legislate public campaign financing completely would be to kill the bill in the face of Republican corporate power, which this bill will accomplish quite will in its current form. And therein lies the problem with this magnificent, common sense, democratizing legislation; republicans, never known to favor fostering democracy, strongly oppose it, not only in the House, but, more importantly, in the Senate, where, to the detriment of the republic, they still hold sway, with their effective veto power to all that is good for the country, and their voter purging voter suppressing reduce the electorate and kill the Democrats, insidious instincts. Voting in America may indeed be meaningless; there are many arguments to support this rather obvious fact. But the dream still lives, try as they might (the republicans) to bury it once and for all. the better alternative, for the sake of preserving the pipe dream of democracy would be to bury the Republicans.