The Hill's July 2 "Morning Report" carried, as usual, a multitude of news tidbits of what's happened, what's happening, and what's going to happen.
I was particularly caught, though, by the photo that accompanied an article about dissatisfaction with President Trump and his border policies. The photo is of a demonstration outside the White House, and prominently pictures a demonstrator's homemade placard saying:
TODAY WE MARCH.
SOON WE VOTE.
(TWICE IF NECESSARY.)
I suppose the intent was humor? Hard to say for sure, with what can be a pretty humorless group where the borderless-world extreme left is concerned these days.
As for myself, I find it a bit chilling simply because of the uncertainty of how to take such statements. I take our democracy and its voting privileges seriously enough to find that sentiment disturbing. In recent years, there have been many allegations, some not easily dismissible studies, and a number of proven instances of voter fraud, including by aliens ineligible to vote.
And yet even now, lawsuit after lawsuit gets filed the moment a state takes steps either to periodically vet and purge its election rolls of ineligibles (despite the mandate of the Voting Rights Act to do so), or to institute even the mildest of regimens requiring prospective voters to establish their identity when they appear at polling stations to cast their ballots.
Being a citizen of the United States and having the right to vote are supposed to mean something. Each is diminished by irresponsible policies — including some of the most extreme proposals that would permit aliens of any status to vote in local or state elections — that throw election results open to doubt. It undermines our entire democracy. Why is that hard to understand?