The following Op-Ed excerpt from the Brennan Center for Justice submitted by Hazel Thomas
SUMMARY: Bold legislation introduced in the House (H.R. 1) and Senate (S. 1) would ensure that our democracy works for everyone.
Introduction
American democracy urgently needs repair. We now have a historic opportunity to bring about transformative change. In both houses of Congress, the For the People Act — H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate — was designated as the first bill, a top priority this session.
This historic legislation responds to twin crises facing our country: the ongoing attack on democracy — reflected in the assault on the Capitol on January 6 and the subsequent flood of vote suppression bills across the country — and the urgent demand for racial justice. It is based on the key insight that the best way to defend democracy is to strengthen democracy. If enacted, it would be the most significant voting rights and democracy reform in more than half a century.
The 2020 election, like the 2018 midterms, featured historic levels of voter turnout — the highest in over a century, even in the face of a deadly pandemic. But there were also unprecedented efforts to thwart the electoral process and disenfranchise voters, primarily in Black and brown communities, based on lies about “voter fraud.” Those efforts continue through restrictive voting bills in states across the country. Extreme partisan gerrymandering continued to distort far too many races for the House — a plot that is poised to be repeated in the upcoming redistricting cycle unless Congress steps in to prevent it. And despite increased engagement by small campaign donors last year, the most expensive campaigns in American history were still largely bankrolled by a small coterie of individual megadonors and entrenched interests, many of whom were able to keep their identities secret from voters.
These problems were more extreme this cycle, but they are certainly not new. For decades, citizens’ voices have been silenced through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and deceptive tactics. Wealthy campaign donors maintain outsized sway over policy. And the guardrails against discrimination, corruption, and manipulation of the system for personal gain have all been cast aside or eroded. The virulent coronavirus, whose worst effects in terms of both health and the economy have fallen disproportionately on communities of color, underscores the urgent need for a functioning democracy that serves all the people.
The current assault on voting rights across the country underscores the urgency of reform. Even though our democratic institutions survived an attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election, unscrupulous state legislators have seized on the disinformation that fueled this attempt to introduce an alarming number of regressive bills aimed at restricting access to the ballot, including by sharply restricting access to mail ballots, cutting back on early voting, and slashing voter registration opportunities. To date, more than 250 bills to restrict voting access have been proposed in 43 states, more than seven times the number introduced by this same time last year. These measures target and will disproportionately harm voters of color, young voters, and voters with disabilities. In Georgia, for instance, a recent Brennan Center analysis found that proposed bills to cut Sunday early voting and mail-voting access would burden Black voters most. footnote1_5hw0z9j1
But here is the good news: we know what we need to do to address these problems and strengthen American democracy. It starts with passing the For the People Act. The Act incorporates key measures that are urgently needed, including automatic voter registration and other steps to modernize our elections; a national guarantee of free and fair elections without voter suppression, coupled with a commitment to restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act; small donor public financing to empower ordinary Americans instead of big donors (at no cost to taxpayers) and other critical campaign finance reforms; an end to partisan gerrymandering; and a much-needed overhaul of federal ethics rules. Critically, the Act would thwart virtually every vote suppression bill currently pending in the states.
These reforms respond directly to Americans’ desire for real solutions that ensure that each of us can have a voice in the decisions that govern our lives, as evidenced by their passage in many states, often by lopsided bipartisan margins. They are especially critical for communities of color. Racial justice cannot be fully achieved without a system in which all Americans have the means to advocate for themselves and exercise political power.
As President Biden remarked in his inaugural address: democracy is precious, but democracy is also fragile. The 2020 election revealed a passionate commitment to democracy on the part of tens of millions of Americans who braved a deadly pandemic, voter suppression, and a concerted campaign of presidential lies to make their voices heard. On March 3, the House of Representatives honored that commitment by passing the Act in its entirety. Now, the Senate and the president must also fulfill their promise to secure representative democracy in America now and for future generations.
Voting Rights
The right to vote is at the heart of effective self-government. In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison laid down a standard for our democracy: “Who are to be the electors of the federal representatives? Not the rich, more than the poor; not the learned, more than the ignorant; not the haughty heirs of distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscurity and unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States.” footnote1_xrpdsgu2 For over two centuries, we have worked to live up to that ideal, but have consistently fallen short. Many have struggled, and continue to struggle, for the franchise. The For the People Act would expand and protect this most fundamental right and bring voting into the 21st century.
- Restore the Voting Rights Act
- Restore Voting Rights to People with Prior Convictions
- Strengthen Mail Voting Systems
- Institute Nationwide Early Voting
- Preventing Unreasonable Wait Times at the Polls
- Protect Against Deceptive Practices
Ray Otton says
As Jack Nicholson said in the movie “As Good As It Gets” – “Go pedal crazy somewhere else, we’re full up here”.
HR-1 federalizes elections, removing the individual states rights to self-determination.
It is a naked power grab cloaked in a nice name and we’ve had plenty of these falsely named bills shoved down our throats over the past couple of decades. The Patriot Act and the Affordable Care Act come to mind.
Rather, it is part of the ongoing assault on America’s political system by the folks who are unable to convince Americans their policies work best.
You can add it to:
– Attempting to pack the Supreme Court
– Awarding statehood to DC and PR
– Opening the borders to hordes of illegal immigrants, who, once given voting rights will reliably vote for the same politicians who allowed them in.
– Abolishing the 2nd amendment.
Any attempt for (D)”s to wrap themselves in the flag, as this article attempts to do, is a sad joke.
Carla Jasper says
Well stated and much needed clarification! Thank you for having the courage to push back against these efforts.
Ray Otton says
Thanks, Carla.
Short and sweet beats long winded and sour every time.
One thing I left out was the fact that the (D)’s and the media will tell you that the bill doesn’t forbid state voter ID laws.
This is another manipulation of the language because while H.R. 1 does not ban state voter ID laws, it does stipulate that those who do not meet ID requirements have the option to sign sworn statements during federal elections, thus, completely undercutting those very ID laws.
They’re crafty, I’ll give ’em that.
Paul Plante says
What this is, Carla, as said above, is indeed a naked power grab, plain and simple.
In fact, it is the power grab that was predicted by the so-called “Anti-Federalists” at the beginning of our political history, and the same power grab that Alexander Hamilton and James Madison told us in the Federalist Papers couldn’t happen, because of how well they said the “system” was designed, which turned out to be pure horse**** by the time of the 1832 presidential election, if not earlier in 1824.
As James Madison told us in Federalist No. 52 as schoolchildren, circa seventh grade, to have reduced the different qualifications for voters in the different States to one uniform rule, would probably have been as dissatisfactory to some of the States as it would have been difficult to the convention, and the provision made by the convention, which is what we have to this day, would be safe to the United States, because, being fixed by the State constitutions, it is not alterable by the State governments, and it cannot be feared that the people of the States will alter this part of their constitutions in such a manner as to abridge the rights secured to them by the federal Constitution.
Except that is not true at all today that it cannot be feared that the people of the States would alter this part of their constitutions in such a manner as to abridge the rights secured to them by the federal Constitution.
People today are so ******* stupid that they would do exactly that, out of pure ignorance.
So merely saying that HR-1 federalizes elections, removing the individual states rights to self-determination does nothing in and of itself to “push back” against these efforts.
I doubt that there is anyone who didn’t already know that.
The question is who are you “pushing back” against and HOW!
How do you push back against gross ignorance and rank stupidity?
People today WANT the federal government, i.e., the Democrats, to be in charge of every single aspect of our lives, from cradle to grave, controlling who we can be, what we can think, etc.
Federalizing the elections is only a part of that.
If people cannot see harm in that, then it is a done deal, plain and simple, because it is what people “feel” is the right thing to do.
So “pushing back” would seem to entail exposing the harm, but that takes words, more than just a couple, and there is where the whole concept of “pushing back” is going to fall flat on its face – because today, people lack comprehension, having been dumbed down to the level of functioning idiots, and they lack the endurance to read past about ten words.
Pretty pitiful when you think of it.
But it is a third-world country we now live in so no surprise there.
Paul Plante says
FEDERALIST No. 10
The Same Subject Continued
(The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection)
From the New York Packet.
Friday, November 23, 1787.
MADISON
To the People of the State of New York:
AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.
The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.
He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it.
The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations.
Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.
* * * * *
From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction.
A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual.
Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.
Paul Plante says
The For the People Act would expand and protect this most fundamental right and bring voting into the 21st century?
HAH!
That is hype and rank BULL**** which reminds me of these lines from “Cincinnatus II” political essay to James Wilson, Esquire, from Cincinnatus on November 8, 1787, where we had as follows concerning political advice being given out by lawyers, to wit:
I come now to the consideration of the trial by jury in civil cases.
And here you have, indeed, made use of your professional knowledge.
But you did not tell the people that your profession was always to advocate one side of a question — to place it in the most favorable, though false, light — to rail where you could not reason — to pervert where you could not refute – and to practice every fallacy on your hearers — to mislead the understanding and pervert judgment.
end quotes
Which brings us to the question of just who in the hell is this Brennan Center for Justice that is telling us that “bold” legislation introduced in the Democrat-controlled House (H.R. 1) and Democrat-controlled Senate (S. 1) would ensure that our democracy works for everyone, when it is very clear that the Democrats who control the House and the Senate are in the game, a zero sum game, for themselves, having written off everyone in America who does not cleave to the RED FLAG of the Democrat party and march to the strains if the Internationale as a “BASKET OF DEPLORABLES” and “DREGS OF SOCIETY?”
Why would we, knowing the long history of the Democrat party with regard to voter intimidation and voter fraud, be stupid enough to think or believe that the power-hungry Democrats of today would want turn a new leaf to “insure” that the people they loathe and hate, which is everybody who is not a Democrat, would have a “democracy” that works for them, when there is yet to be a “democracy” on the face of the earth anywhere that works for “everyone,” and the history of the Democrat party since at least 1834 is to insure that democracy only works for them?
Does this Brennan Center think everybody in America is a brainless idiotic ******* moron to believe any of that HORSE****?
And what about this: “American democracy urgently needs repair.”
Oh, really?
Based on exactly what evidence?
How about this INDICTMENT of DEMOCRAT Michael “Ozzie” Myers, Case 2:20-cr-00210-PD Document 1 Filed 07/21/20, which gives us a very clear picture of how it is that the Democrats work to pervert OUR electoral system so that it only benefits them as they seek to impose ONE-PARTY RULE on us, to wit:
OVERT ACTS
In furtherance of this conspiracy, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, along with Domenick J. Demuro and others, committed the following overt acts, among others, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania:
1. On or about May 20, 2014, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the grand jury, added 27 fraudulent ballots during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, on behalf of defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS’ preferred candidates running for election to federal, state, local, and party offices.
2. On or about May 20, 2014, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known to the grand jury, falsely certified the results receipt documenting 118 ballots cast during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, even though only 91 voters physically appeared at the polling station to cast ballots.
3. On or about May 20, 2014, after the polls closed, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known to the grand jury, turned in to the office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners the results receipts from voting Machine #021873 and Machine #021874 documenting 118 ballots cast during the primary election in the 3 9th Ward, 36th Division, even though only 91 voters physically appeared at the polling station to cast ballots.
4. In May of 2015, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS gave Domenick J. Demuro approximately $1000 in cash in exchange for Demuro adding fraudulent votes during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, on behalf of Judicial Candidate #1 running for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.
5. In May of 2015, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS gave Domenick J. Demuro approximately $500 in exchange for Demuro adding fraudulent votes during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, on behalf of Judicial Candidate #2 running for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.
6. In May of 2015, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS gave Domenick J. Demuro approximately $1000 in exchange for Demuro adding fraudulent votes during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, on behalf of Judicial Candidate #3 running for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.
7. On or about May 19, 2015, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS called Domenick J. Demuro immediately prior to the opening of the polls on primary Election Day to discuss their plans to add fraudulent votes.
8. On or about May 19, 2015, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the grand jury, added 40 fraudulent ballots during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, on behalf of defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS’ client candidates running for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and on behalf of defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS’ preferred candidates for other state and local offices.
9. On or about May 19, 2015, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS called Domenick J. Demuro shortly after the polls closed on primary Election Day to confirm that fraudulent votes had been added to support defendant MYERS’ clients and preferred candidates.
10. On or about May 19, 2015, after the polls closed, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known to the grand jury, turned in to the office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners the results receipts from voting Machine #021873 and Machine #021874 documenting 259 ballots cast during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Divisipn, even though only 219 voters physically appeared at the polling station to cast ballots.
11. On or about April 26, 2016, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS called Domenick J. Demuro soon after the opening of the polls on primary Election Day to discuss their plans to add fraudulent votes.
12. On or about April 26, 2016, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, added 46 fraudulent ballots during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, on behalf of defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS’ preferred candidates running for election to federal, state, and local offices.
13. On or about April 26, 2016, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS called Domenick J. Demuro multiple times shortly after the polls closed on primary Election Day to confirm that fraudulent votes had been added to support defendant MYBRS’ clients and preferred candidates.
14. On or about April 26, 2016, after the polls closed, Domenick J. Demuro, and others known to the grand jury, turned in to the office ofthe Philadelphia City Commissioners the results receipts from voting Machine #021873 and Machine #021874 documenting 266 ballots cast during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, even though only 220 voters physically appeared at the polling station to cast ballots.
All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241.
COUNT TWO
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 10 of Count One are incorporated herein by reference.
2. The laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, specifically, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4701, provide that bribery is a violation of the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
3. On or about May 19, 2015, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, aided and abetted by Domenick J. Demuro and others, known and unknown to the grand jury, used a facility in interstate and foreign commerce, namely a cellular telephone, with the intent to promote, manage, establish, carry on, and facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, and carrying on, of an unlawful activity, that is, bribery in violation of 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4701, and thereafter committed and attempted to commit an act of bribery by fraudulently adding votes in a primary election in exchange for money to further such unlawful activity.
In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1952(a)(3), and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
COUNT THREE
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 10 of Count One are incorporated herein by reference.
2. On or about May 19, 2015, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, aided and abetted by Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the grand jury, knowingly concealed, covered up, falsified, and made false entries in documents and records, specifically, the results receipts from voting Machine #021873 and Machine #021874 documenting 259 ballots cast during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation and proper administration of a matter, and in relation to and contemplation of such matter, which was within the jurisdiction of a department and agency of the United States, specifically, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”).
In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1519, and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
COUNT FOUR
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 14 of Count One and Paragraph 2 of Count Two are incorporated herein by reference.
2. On or about April 26, 2016, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, aided and abetted by Domenick J. Demuro and others, known and unknown to the grand jury, used a facility in interstate and foreign commerce, namely a cellular telephone, with the intent to promote, manage, establish, carry on, and facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, and carrying on, of an unlawful activity, that is, bribery in violation of 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 4701, and thereafter committed and attempted to commit an act of bribery by fraudulently adding votes in a primary election in exchange for money to further such unlawful activity. In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1952(a)(3), and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
COUNT FIVE
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 14 of Count One are incorporated herein by reference.
2. On or about April 26, 2016, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, aided and abetted by Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the grand jury, knowingly concealed, covered up, falsified, and made false entries in documents and records, specifically, the results receipts from voting Machine #021873 and Machine #021874 documenting 266 ballots cast during the primary election in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation and proper administration of a matter, and in relation to and contemplation of such matter, which was within the jurisdiction of a department and agency of the United States, specifically, the DOJ and the FBI.
In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1519, and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
COUNT SIX
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 14 of Count One are incorporated herein by reference.
2. In 2016, the primary election ballot in the 39th Ward, 36th Division contained candidates for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the United States Senate, and Member of the United States House of Representatives.
3. On or about April 26, 2016, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, aided and abetted by Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the grand jury, voted more than once in a primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting and electing any candidate for the office of Member of the United States House of Representatives.
In violation of Title 52, United States Code, Section 10307(e), and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
COUNT SEVEN
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 14 of Count One and Paragraph 2 of Count Six are incorporated herein by reference.
2. On or about April 26, 2016, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, conspired with Domenick J. Demuro, and others known and unknown to the grand jury, to illegally vote more than once in a primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting and electing any candidate for the office of Member of the United States House of Representatives.
In violation of Title 52, United States Code, Section 10307(c), and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2. 15
COUNT EIGHT
THE GRAND JURY FURTHER CHARGES THAT:
1. Paragraphs 1 through 9 and 11 through 15 and Overt Acts 1 through 14 of Count One are incorporated herein by reference.
2. From on or about April 12, 2017 through on or about May 8, 2017, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, defendant MICHAEL “OZZIE” MYERS, knowingly engaged in misleading behavior towards another person with the intent to hinder, delay, and prevent the communication to law enforcement officers, that is, agents of the FBI, information relating to the commission and possible commission of a federal offense, and attempted to do so, by among other things:
a. Instructing Domenick J. Demuro not to discuss the “ballot stuffing” over the telephone;
b. Advising Domenick J. Demuro to conceal the receipt of bribes by providing fictitious names to be listed as the payee on checks drawn on the campaign accounts of defendant MYERS’ preferred candidates and unwitting clients by telling Demuro, “I’m gonna get you a couple checks there’s no question about that.”
“If you want to give me a – a different name than Domenick Demuro that’s your business ….”
c. Advising Domenick J. Demuro that defendant MYERS would hand Demuro bribe payments in the form of checks after the deadline for the last campaign finance report prior to the May 2017 primary election because, “you don’t wanna – you don’t wanna be on any [candidate’s campaign finance] report May 7th when the election is May 16th;”
d. Having Domenick J. Demuro sign receipts for bribe payments in the form of cash and instructing Demuro that “if there was ever a question Dom … you know you’d say well I gave the money out Election Day [to get out the vote];”
e. Providing a check to Domenick J. Demuro drawn on the campaign account of defendant MYERS’ client candidate and made payable to Demuro’ s spouse and later falsely characterized on the unwitting candidate’s campaign finance report as supporting a “get out the vote” effort.
In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1512(b)(3) and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
end quotes
And with that evidence presented as to how the Democrats actually, in real life, pervert the so-called “democracy” for their benefit, let’s go back to this statement from the Brennan Center for Justice, which bills itself as a nonpartisan law and policy institute striving to uphold the values of democracy, whatever on earth they may be, since democracy itself has no “values” that can be upheld, by anybody, it being nothing more than a concept while standing for equal justice and the rule of law and working to craft and advance reforms that will make American democracy work, for all, to wit:
“(W)e now have a historic opportunity to bring about transformative change.”
end quotes
Yes, they do.
They can fix the system broken over the years by the Democrats to insure that there never will be another Democrat like Democrat Michael “Ozzie” Myers able to pervert our system like he did.
There’s the reform we really need!
Paul Plante says
FEDERALIST No. 52
The House of Representatives
From the New York Packet.
Friday, February 8, 1788.
HAMILTON OR MADISON
To the People of the State of New York:
FROM the more general inquiries pursued in the four last papers, I pass on to a more particular examination of the several parts of the government.
I shall begin with the House of Representatives.
The first view to be taken of this part of the government relates to the qualifications of the electors and the elected.
Those of the former are to be the same with those of the electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.
It was incumbent on the convention, therefore, to define and establish this right in the Constitution.
To have left it open for the occasional regulation of the Congress, would have been improper for the reason just mentioned.
To have submitted it to the legislative discretion of the States, would have been improper for the same reason; and for the additional reason that it would have rendered too dependent on the State governments that branch of the federal government which ought to be dependent on the people alone.
To have reduced the different qualifications in the different States to one uniform rule, would probably have been as dissatisfactory to some of the States as it would have been difficult to the convention.
The provision made by the convention appears, therefore, to be the best that lay within their option.
It must be satisfactory to every State, because it is conformable to the standard already established, or which may be established, by the State itself.
It will be safe to the United States, because, being fixed by the State constitutions, it is not alterable by the State governments, and it cannot be feared that the people of the States will alter this part of their constitutions in such a manner as to abridge the rights secured to them by the federal Constitution.
Stuart Bell says
I am totally amazed to hear Republican politicians and those that support them talk about ‘the mid-term election’ or ‘the next presidential election’. It is as though they have forgotten ‘the last election’. Are they really going to the voting booths and use the same machines? Are they really that dumb. No one has vocalized how half this country is going to cast their votes again. You know the election was – pick an adjective. It was riddled with irregularities never seen in an election in history. And on broad scale and multi-state basis. Why do they keep denying that? Every media outlet, social media platform, and court put their fingers in their ears and shut their eyes. The complicity was breathtaking. I am not aware of any court in America – including SCOTUS – that allowed a shred evidence to be heard.
Va Cruiser says
“Leading Opponent of Voter Integrity Measures is Financed By George Soros
Washington, D.C. – A new report from the National Center for Public Policy Research finds the Brennan Center for Justice – one of the country’s loudest opponents of voter integrity measures – to have a history of bias-driven research.”
Jul 2012 to 2921. Not too likely the tiger has changed his stripes!
Good Thomas article from another Soros outfit on Bovine Scatology Wayne!
Note: Understood, but we still want to offer alternative opinions to ours, even from these guys. Thanks for the salient comment.
Paul Plante says
You have to wonder whether or not these PROGRESSIVES at the Brennan Center ever went to high school and learned anything at all about America, or whether like most PROGRESSIVES, they just pull this **** out of their *****, making it up as they go:
Constitution of Virginia
Article II. Franchise and Officers
Section 1. Qualifications of voters
In elections by the people, the qualifications of voters shall be as follows: Each voter shall be a citizen of the United States, shall be eighteen years of age, shall fulfill the residence requirements set forth in this section, and shall be registered to vote pursuant to this article.
No person who has been convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority.
As prescribed by law, no person adjudicated to be mentally incompetent shall be qualified to vote until his competency has been reestablished.
The residence requirements shall be that each voter shall be a resident of the Commonwealth and of the precinct where he votes.
Residence, for all purposes of qualification to vote, requires both domicile and a place of abode.
The General Assembly may provide for persons who are employed overseas, and their spouses and dependents residing with them, and who are qualified to vote except for relinquishing their place of abode in the Commonwealth while overseas, to vote in the Commonwealth subject to conditions and time limits defined by law.
The General Assembly may provide for persons who are qualified to vote except for having moved their residence from one precinct to another within the Commonwealth to continue to vote in a former precinct subject to conditions and time limits defined by law.
The General Assembly may also provide, in elections for President and Vice-President of the United States, alternatives to registration for new residents of the Commonwealth.
Any person who will be qualified with respect to age to vote at the next general election shall be permitted to register in advance and also to vote in any intervening primary or special election.
Section 2. Registration of voters
The General Assembly shall provide by law for the registration of all persons otherwise qualified to vote who have met the residence requirements contained in this article, and shall ensure that the opportunity to register is made available.
Registrations accomplished prior to the effective date of this section shall be effective hereunder.
The registration records shall not be closed to new or transferred registrations more than thirty days before the election in which they are to be used.
Applications to register shall require the applicant to provide the following information on a standard form: full name; date of birth; residence address; social security number, if any; whether the applicant is presently a United States citizen; and such additional information as may be required by law.
All applications to register shall be completed by or at the direction of the applicant and signed by the applicant, unless physically disabled.
No fee shall be charged to the applicant incident to an application to register.
Nothing in this article shall preclude the General Assembly from requiring as a prerequisite to registration to vote the ability of the applicant to read and complete in his own handwriting the application to register.
In elections by the people, the following safeguards shall be maintained: Voting shall be by ballot or by machines for receiving, recording, and counting votes cast.
No ballot or list of candidates upon any voting machine shall bear any distinguishing mark or symbol, other than words identifying political party affiliation; and their form, including the offices to be filled and the listing of candidates or nominees, shall be as uniform as is practicable throughout the Commonwealth or smaller governmental unit in which the election is held.
In elections other than primary elections, provision shall be made whereby votes may be cast for persons other than the listed candidates or nominees.
Secrecy in casting votes shall be maintained, except as provision may be made for assistance to handicapped voters, but the ballot box or voting machine shall be kept in public view and shall not be opened, nor the ballots canvassed nor the votes counted, in secret.
Votes may be cast in person or by absentee ballot as provided by law.
Section 4. Powers and duties of General Assembly
The General Assembly shall establish a uniform system for permanent registration of voters pursuant to this Constitution, including provisions for appeal by any person denied registration, correction of illegal or fraudulent registrations, penalties for illegal, fraudulent, or false registrations, proper transfer of all registered voters, and cancellation of registrations in other jurisdictions of persons who apply to register to vote in the Commonwealth.
The General Assembly shall provide for maintenance of accurate and current registration records and may provide for the cancellation of registrations for such purpose.
The General Assembly shall provide for the nomination of candidates, shall regulate the time, place, manner, conduct, and administration of primary, general, and special elections, and shall have power to make any other law regulating elections not inconsistent with this Constitution.
Section 8. Electoral boards; registrars and officers of election
There shall be in each county and city an electoral board composed of three members, selected as provided by law.
In the appointment of the electoral boards, representation, as far as practicable, shall be given to each of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding their appointment, cast the highest and the next highest number of votes.
The present members of such boards shall continue in office until the expiration of their respective terms; thereafter their successors shall be appointed for the term of three years.
Any vacancy occurring in any board shall be filled by the same authority for the unexpired term.
Each electoral board shall appoint the officers of election and general registrar for its county or city.
In appointing such officers of election, representation, as far as practicable, shall be given to each of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding their appointment, cast the highest and next highest number of votes.
No person, nor the deputy of any person, who is employed by or holds any office or post of profit or emolument, or who holds any elective office of profit or trust, under the governments of the United States, the Commonwealth, or any county, city, or town, shall be appointed a member of the electoral board or general registrar.
No person, nor the deputy or the employee of any person, who holds any elective office of profit or trust under the government of the United States, the Commonwealth, or any county, city, or town of the Commonwealth shall be appointed an assistant registrar or officer of election.
Section 9. Privileges of voters during election
No voter, during the time of holding any election at which he is entitled to vote, shall be compelled to perform military service, except in time of war or public danger, nor to attend any court as suitor, juror, or witness; nor shall any such voter be subject to arrest under any civil process during his attendance at election or in going to or returning therefrom.
Bob says
Correct
Why are Democrats so afraid of
Democracy ?
Simple
Not able to manipulate their policies
Paul Plante says
When we want a man to change his condition, we describe it as wretched, miserable, and despised; and draw a pleasing picture of that which we would have him assume.
And when we wish the contrary, we reverse our descriptions.
Whenever a clamor is raised, and idle men get to work, it is highly necessary to examine facts carefully, and without unreasonably suspecting men of falsehood, to examine, and enquire attentively, under what impressions they act.
It is too often the case in political concerns that men state facts not as they are, but as they wish them to be; and almost every man, by calling to mind past scenes, will find this to be true.
– Federal Farmer I, Federal Farmer, October 8, 1787
Paul Plante says
If the people of today were around at the time of this nation’s founding, the entire Federalist Papers would have been written on a cocktail napkin, and even with that, it would still be too ,much for them to comprehend, which is why we have TWITTER in America today for people of limited mental capacity like Nancy Pelosi to communicate with her followers on.
As to this essay, or whatever it actually is, beyond a prime example of the lawyer’s art of assembling pure BULL**** out of smoke, cosmic dust and cobwebs, I truly appreciate the fact that the Cape Charles Mirror did publish it as a public service to the American people so that we do have an opportunity to not only go through it word for word with a fine-toothed comb looking for all the BULL**** contained therein, and there seems to be a plethora of it, but to debunk the BULL**** as well with counter-facts such as FEDERALIST No. 52 from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by either Madison or Hamilton on Friday, February 8, 1788, where we has as follows, to wit:
The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.
end quotes
Note that they are talking about republican government, not the “democracy” of the Brennan Center.
An as an aside, when the Brennan Center tells us that American democracy urgently needs repair, one can only conclude that they came to that conclusion because of all the possible people in America that could have been president, and no, I don’t mean Donald Trump, we ended up with a geriatric two-time loser named Joe Biden, which is a sure sign that their democracy is in very bad need of repair, indeed.
Getting back to Federalist No. 52, it continues as follows:
It was incumbent on the convention, therefore, to define and establish this right in the Constitution.
To have left it open for the occasional regulation of the Congress, would have been improper for the reason just mentioned.
end quote
And lo and behold, that is exactly what this Brennan Center is proposing – doing away with the state Constitutions as they pertain to voting and the suffrage, and instead, having the Congress, i.e. the Democrats, regulate it, which takes us back in time to the Centinel III political essay by Centinel on November 8, 1787, to wit:
I shall now proceed in the consideration of the construction of the proposed plan of government.
By section 4th of article 1st of the proposed government it is declared, “that the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of chusing senators.”
Will not this section put it in the power of the future Congress to abolish the suffrage by ballot, so indispensable in a free government.
end quotes
I thin we are seeing today, all these years later, when it is perhaps too late, that the answer to that question may well be in the affirmative.
Getting back to Federalist No. 52, we have:
To have reduced the different qualifications in the different States to one uniform rule, would probably have been as dissatisfactory to some of the States as it would have been difficult to the convention.
The provision made by the convention appears, therefore, to be the best that lay within their option.
It must be satisfactory to every State, because it is conformable to the standard already established, or which may be established, by the State itself.
It will be safe to the United States, because, being fixed by the State constitutions, it is not alterable by the State governments, and it cannot be feared that the people of the States will alter this part of their constitutions in such a manner as to abridge the rights secured to them by the federal Constitution.
end quotes
Now, that is all seventh grade civics.
The right of suffrage in the United States of America is not in the hands of the Democrats nor is it in the hands of the Brennan Center – it is enshrined in our state Constitutions, and if the Brennan Center really believes that “American democracy urgently needs repair,” let them go state by state by state to demonstrate how that might be so.
For example, Article II of the Virginia Constitution. Franchise and Officers, where in Section 1. Qualifications of voters, it states as follows:
As prescribed by law, no person adjudicated to be mentally incompetent shall be qualified to vote until his competency has been reestablished.
end quotes
Does the Brennan Center find fault with that?
Should the Virginia Constitution be declared unconstitutional because of that?
Should suffrage be extended to the mentally incompetent?
Is that why they are saying American democracy urgently needs repair, because it the mentally incompetent aren’t allowed to vote?
And what about this from that same section:
The residence requirements shall be that each voter shall be a resident of the Commonwealth and of the precinct where he votes.
Residence, for all purposes of qualification to vote, requires both domicile and a place of abode.
end quotes
Is that why the Brennan Center is telling us that American democracy urgently needs repair, because in the Commonwealth of Virginia, “residence,” for all purposes of qualification to vote, requires both domicile and a place of abode?
Should that be done away with, does any think, so that anyone who happens to be passing through the Commonwealth when elections are going on can stop and cast a vote, no questions asked?
Paul Plante says
So, as we peruse this above essay by this Brennan Center, which clearly advocates for a BLATANT POWER GRAB by the Democrats that would quite literally negate our state Constitutions by an act of Congress, where we are fed the unsubstantiated HYPE that “(T)his historic legislation responds to twin crises facing our country: the ongoing attack on democracy — reflected in the assault on the Capitol on January 6 and the subsequent flood of vote suppression bills across the country — and the urgent demand for racial justice,” and “(I)t is based on the key insight that the best way to defend democracy is to strengthen democracy,” and “(I)f enacted, it would be the most significant voting rights and democracy reform in more than half a century,” as if democracy can be “reformed,” which is a stupid idea, given that democracy never was and never will be anything other than a nebulous concept that can be defined any way anybody wants to define it, and concepts cannot be reformed since they don’t have existence, I am reminded of these words from the Federal Farmer I political essay by the Federal Farmer on October 8, 1787, to wit:
It is natural for men, who wish to hasten the adoption of a measure, to tell us, now is the crisis – now is the critical moment which must be seized or all will be lost; and to shut the door against free enquiry, whenever conscious the thing presented has defects in it, which time and investigation will probably discover.
This has been the custom of tyrants, and their dependents in all ages.
end quotes
And thanks to the Cape Charles Mirror, we puny citizens who do not have the financial backing of this Brennan Center nor the media access they enjoy as a result can force open that shut door against free enquiry whenever conscious, as in the present case with this hyperbolic horse**** from the Brennan Center, that the thing presented has defects in it, which time and investigation are clearly uncovering in here, so that while what the Brennan Center is doing with this essay of theirs has been the custom of tyrants, and their dependents in all ages, we have the ability to stand up to those tyrants, which again takes us back to the Federal Farmer, to wit:
The fickle and ardent, in any community are the proper tools for establishing despotic government.
But it is deliberate and thinking men, who must establish and secure governments on free principles.
Before they decide on the plan proposed, they will enquire whether it will probably be a blessing or a curse to this people.
end quotes
The Brennan Center is counting on the fickle and ardent in America to be their proper tools for establishing despotic government here in America, which takes us back to the Federal Farmer one more time, as follows:
Our object has been all along, to reform our federal system and to strengthen our governments – to establish peace, order and justice in the community – but a new object now presents.
The plan of government now proposed is evidently calculated totally to change, in time, our condition as a people.
Instead of being thirteen republics, under a federal head, it is clearly designed to make us one consolidated government.
This consolidation of the states has been the object of several men in this country for some time past.
Whether such a change can ever be effected, in any manner; whether it can be effected without convulsions and civil wars; whether such a change will not totally destroy the liberties of this country – time only can determine.
end quotes
Amen to that, Federal Farmer, because that is what this is really all about – bringing us all under the control of the Democrats in the national government who will control every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave from the the seat of government in fortified government enclave in the Ten Miles Square where Cato in the Cato IV political essay on November 8, 1787 told us quite accurately that we would find ambition with idleness, baseness with pride. the thirst of riches without labour, aversion to truth, flattery, treason, perfidy, violation of engagements, contempt of civil duties, but above all, the perpetual ridicule of virtue.
So, people, how does whatever happened in the Capital on 6 January 2021 constitute an “attack on democracy?”
By what stretch of the imagination can that ridiculous statement be justified?
How was “democracy” attacked on 6 January 2021?
Given that there was nothing more than an empty ritualistic ceremony going on in the capital on 6 January 2021 that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with “democracy,” how was democracy attacked on 6 January 2021?
And the answer is that it wasn’t – the Brennan Center is simply making that up out of cobwebs, moonbeans, and fairy dust hoping we’re all too ****** stupid to know the difference.
And what is this “urgent demand for racial justice” that they are talking about?
And what exactly does that “urgent demand for racial justice” have to do with “democracy” in the United States of America?
What exactly is this “urgent demand for racial justice,” and who exactly is making the demand, or whom is the demand being made?
Which relevant and pertinent question brings us back to a Daily Caller article entitled “Hillary Tells Black Church White People Must End ‘Systemic Racism’” by Alex Pfeiffer, White House Correspondent, on April 20, 2016, where we had Hillary Clinton, one of Joe Biden’s “Electors” in the “Electoral College,” whose electoral vote for Joe Biden was being counted in the empty ritual in the Capital on 6 January 2021, long after Joe had been declared the president by Nancy Pelosi, being quoted as follows with respect to how Hillary, whose Electoral College vote put Joe Biden into the white house, views “racial justice,” to wit:
PHILADELPHIA — In a visit to a black church Wednesday, Hillary Clinton told the predominately African-American audience that it is the “responsibility of white people” to end systemic racism and incorrectly stated a popular hip-hop phrase in saying we will “ride and die.”
Clinton was visiting the St. Paul’s Baptist Church along with “The Mothers of the Movement” and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Mothers of the Movement consisted of mothers who had lost loved ones in police shootings.
The panel included the mother of Sandra Bland and the fiancee of Sean Bell.
The stated topics of the event were police brutality, mass incarceration, gun violence and racism.
“We have to be honest about systemic racism and particularly the responsibility of white people, not just people in public life but all of us,” Hillary said.
She later said at the event, “We all have implicit biases.”
“They are almost in the DNA going back probably millennia.”
“And what we need to do is be more honest about that and surface them.”
Clinton added, “I don’t have the answers, I’m not a behavioral psychologist or anything, but I think that needs to be done in every community kind of setting we can find that is open to doing it.”
end quotes
Think about it, people – what is this “racial justice, ” and if you happen to be white, how is that going to impact you when comes your time to enter into one of these government treatment ccnters where white people are medically deprogrammed with chemicals to rid them of the implicit bias, Hillary, one of Joe Biden’s Electors who is not a behavioral psychologist or anything other than a cheap, grasping, egotistical political hack, says are almost in the DNA going back probably millennia?
When the Brennan Center uses the nebulous term “racial justice” to support this naked power grab they are endorsing and advocating for, what do they mean by it?
Anybody have a clue?
Paul Plante says
Here is a real good example of what we are up against with respect to this term “racial justice,” because we no longer have a language in common in this how highly divided nation at war with itself within, as we clearly see from this second sentence in the following:
Racial Equity Tools Glossary
Words and their multiple uses reflect the tremendous diversity that characterizes our society.
Indeed, universally agreed upon language on issues relating to racism is nonexistent.
We discovered that even the most frequently used words in any discussion on race can easily cause confusion, which leads to controversy and hostility.
It is essential to achieve some degree of shared understanding, particularly when using the most common terms.
In this way, the quality of dialogue and discourse on race can be enhanced.
Language can be used deliberately to engage and support community anti-racism coalitions and initiatives, or to inflame and divide them.
Discussing definitions can engage and support coalitions.
However, it is important for groups to decide the extent to which they must have consensus and where it is okay for people to disagree.
It is also helpful to keep in mind that the words people use to discuss power, privilege, racism and oppression hold different meanings for different people.
For instance, people at different stages of developing an analysis tend to attach different meanings to words like discrimination, privilege and institutional racism.
Furthermore, when people are talking about privilege or racism, the words they use often come with emotions and assumptions that are not spoken.
Many of the terms in this glossary have evolved over time.
For example, given the changing demographic trends in the United States, the word “minority” no longer accurately reflects the four primary racial/ethnic groups.
The terms “emerging majority” and “people of color” have become popular substitutes.
Also, the terms used to refer to members of each community of color have changed over time.
Whether to use the terms African American or Black, Hispanic American, Latinx or Latino, Native American or American Indian, and Pacific Islander or Asian American depends on a variety of conditions, including your intended audiences’ geographic location, age, generation, and, sometimes, political orientation.
The primary source for a definition is noted.
Some definitions are paraphrased or updated.
—
SOURCE: Project Change’s “The Power of Words.” Originally produced for Project Change Lessons Learned II, also included in A Community Builder’s Toolkit – both produced by Project Change and The Center for Assessment and Policy Development with some modification by RacialEquityTools.org.
GLOSSARY
Accountability
Ally
Anti-Black
Anti-Racism
Anti-Racist
Anti-Racist Ideas
Assimilationist
Bigotry
Black Lives Matter
Caucusing (Affinity Groups)
Collusion
Colonization
Critical Race Theory
Cultural Appropriation
Cultural Misappropriation
Cultural Racism
Culture
Decolonization
Diaspora
Discrimination
Diversity
Ethnicity
Implicit Bias
Inclusion
Indigeneity
Individual Racism
Institutional Racism
Internalized Racism
Interpersonal Racism
Intersectionality
Microaggression
Model Minority
Movement Building
Multicultural Competency
Oppression
People of Color
Power
Prejudice
Privilege
Race
Racial and Ethnic Identity
Racial Equity
Racial Healing
Racial Identity Development Theory
Racial Inequity
Racial Justice
Racial Reconciliation
Racialization
Racism
Racist
Racist Ideas
Racist Policies
Reparations
Restorative Justice
Settler Colonialism
Structural Racialization
Structural Racism
Targeted Universalism
White Fragility
White Privilege
White Supremacy
White Supremacy Culture
Whiteness
https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary
Paul Plante says
And as we continue to ponder this blatant attempt at a POWER GRAB by the congressional Democrats in the interests of “reforming” democracy, which itself is the kind of stupid concept the Democrats would put forth, not knowing any better, themselves, based on what nthe Democrats would have us believe is their “key insight,” that being that the best way to defend democracy is to strengthen democracy, which sounds even more stupid given the propensity for democracies to destroy themselves, not get stronger; in the light of these words from the Federal Farmer I political essay by the Federal Farmer on October 8, 1787 that the consolidation of the states, which is what underlies this so-called “For The People” Act, which really should be called “FOR THE DEMOCRATS” Act, because it is for them and no one else, has been the object of several men in this country for some time past, and whether such a change can ever be effected, in any manner; whether it can be effected without convulsions and civil wars, whether such a change will not totally destroy the liberties of this country, time only can determine, I personally am reminded of these following words from the history of the Weimar Republic in Germany, which republic no longer exists, to wit:
By the end of March, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had used the perceived state of emergency to grant Hitler as Chancellor broad power to act outside parliamentary control, which he used to thwart constitutional governance and civil liberties.
end quotes
Hitler had his Reichstag Fire and as we see from the Brennan Center op-ed, the Democrats have theirs, too, to wit:
This historic legislation responds to twin crises facing our country: the ongoing attack on democracy — reflected in the assault on the Capitol on January 6.
end quotes
Same thing, just different names, and like in the case of Hitler and Germany, now, somebody has to be punished for “attacking” the precious “democracy” of the Democrats, which according to the op-ed, in his inaugural address, Joe Biden said democracy is precious, but democracy is also fragile.
Getting back to the history of the last days of the Weimar Republic, it continues thusly:
Hitler’s seizure of power (Machtergreifung) thus ended the republic.
end quotes
And just as Hitler ended the Weimar Republic and ushered in the rule of the National Socialists, so too will the Democrats effectively end our Republic here in the United States of America by invalidating the separate state Constitutions which presently govern elections in each state, and instead bringing all of that under the control of the congressional Democrats in Washington, which take3s us back to the end of the Weimar Republic once more, to wit:
Democracy collapsed, and the creation of a single-party state began the dictatorship of the Nazi era.
end quotes
Ah, yes, people, how about that -DEMOCRACY COLLAPSED!
And there is where the Democrats are taking us with this “FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY” Act of theirs – they are going to “strengthen” democracy by creating a one-party state and the dictatorship of the Democrat party, just as Germany ended up with a dictator and one-party rule as a result, which is the end of democracies throughout history.
At one time, this is the history that was taught to American schoolchildren as a warning to us to beware of our own politicians, and to not trust a word they said, and if they were Democrats, don’t let them get their hands near your wallet or your private parts.
Watch them like hawks, we were told as children, and hold them to account at all times.
Which of course is a pipe dream, since there really is no way we, the American people, can hold the Democrats to account, for anything, especially now that they are in control of the national government, which takes us back in time to the last day of the Weimar Republic and Adolf Hitler’s “Official Speech on the Enabling Act to the Reichstag” in Berlin, Germany on March 23, 1933, where we have as follows, to wit:
Ladies and Gentlemen of the German Reichstag!
By agreement with the Reich Government, today the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and the German National People’s Party have presented to you for resolution a notice of motion concerning a “Law for Removing the Distress of Volk and Reich.”
The reasons for this extraordinary measure are as follows: In November 1918, the Marxist organizations seized the executive power by means of a Revolution.
The monarchs were dethroned, the authorities of Reich and Länder removed from office, and thus a breach of the Constitution was committed.
The success of the revolution in a material sense protected these criminals from the grips of justice.
end quotes
The “revolution” Hitler is talking about was the German Revolution of 1918-19, a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliamentary republic that later became known as the Weimar Republic.
Getting back to that speech, Hitler went on as follows:
The “achievements of the Revolution” were, taken in their entirety, agreeable for only the smallest of fractions of our Volk, but for the overwhelming majority, at least insofar as these people were forced to earn their daily bread by honest work, they were infinitely sad.
It is understandable that the survival instinct of those parties and men guilty of this development invents a thousand euphemisms and excuses.
An objective comparison of the average outcome of the last fourteen years with the promises once proclaimed is a crushing indictment of the responsible architects of this crime unparalleled in German history.
In the course of the past fourteen years, our Volk has suffered deterioration in all sectors of life, which could inconceivably have been greater.
end quotes
So much for socialist “democracy.”
Getting back to Hitler:
The number of Germans who inwardly supported the Weimar Constitution in spite of the suggestive significance and ruthless exploitation of the executive power dwindled, in the end, to a mere fraction of the entire nation.
Another typical characteristic of these fourteen years was the fact that – apart from natural fluctuations – the curve of developments has shown a constant decline.
This depressing realization was one of the causes of the general state of despair.
It served to promote the insight into the necessity of thoroughly rejecting the ideas, organizations, and men in which one gradually and rightly began to recognize the underlying causes of our decay.
The National Socialist Movement was thus able, in spite of the most horrible oppression, to convert increasing numbers of Germans in terms of spirit and will to defensive action.
Now, in association with the other national leagues, it has eliminated the powers which have been ruling since November 1918 within a few short weeks and, by means of a revolution, transferred public authority to the hands of the National Government.
On March 5, the German Volk gave its approval to this action.
The program for the reconstruction of the Volk and the Reich is determined by the magnitude of the distress crippling our political, moral and economic life.
Filled with the conviction that the causes of this collapse lie in internal damage to the body of our Volk, the Government of the National Revolution aims to eliminate the afflictions from our völkisch life which would, in future, continue to foil any real recovery.
The disintegration of the nation into irreconcilably opposite Weltanschauungen (a particular philosophy or view of life; the worldview of an individual or group) which was systematically brought about by the false doctrines of Marxism means the destruction of the basis for any possible community life.
The dissolution permeates all of the basic principles of social order.
The completely opposite approaches of the individuals to the concepts of state, society, religion, morality, family, and economy rips open differences which will lead to a war of all against all.
Starting with the liberalism of the past century, this development will end, as the laws of nature dictate, in Communist chaos.
end quotes
HMMMMMM.
Something to think about, anyway.
Paul Plante says
So, people, who is this Brennan Center, and why should WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, believe a word they say, or trust that their opinion is sound and valid?
Should we simply have blind faith that they are really “THE GOOD GUYS,” the ones in the white hats?
But are they, really?
They tell us they are a nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving systems of democracy and justice, with them supposedly being a “leading national voice” on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice reform, and constitutional law.
But are they really nonpartisan?
Or is that really a case of them blowing smoke up our *****?
Consider, for example, this essay or op-ed of theirs from March 18, 2009 entitled “Voter ID & The Divide” by a dude named Adam Skaggs, where we were fed the following partisan hype, to wit:
Countless pundits have suggested that the last two months have derailed President Obama’s plans to lead the country into a post-partisan era, but whether or not bipartisanship ever comes to Washington, D.C., one thing’s for certain: when it comes to the state legislatures, don’t hold your breath waiting for the demise of partisan politics — especially when it comes to election issues the parties think they can exploit to political advantage.
That lesson’s been proved again and again over the last few weeks as state legislators across the country have debated strict voter identification laws.
In an op-ed piece they contributed to the New York Times last year, Jimmy Carter and James Baker summed up the partisan divide over requiring voters to present photo ID before voting:
“Supporters of this policy argue that . . . election fraud will be reduced.”
“Opponents . . . fear it will disenfranchise voters, especially the poor, members of minority groups and the elderly . . . .”
“The debate is polarized because most of the proponents are Republicans and most of the opponents are Democrats.”
Across the country, the parties are following this script closely, with Republican lawmakers pulling out all the stops to enact strict voter ID rules, and Democrats digging in to prevent disenfranchisement of poor, elderly and minority voters.
end quotes
So is that really nonpartisan?
As to who Adam Skaggs is, according to his published bio, today he serves as Giffords Law Center’s chief counsel and policy director, and previously, he was senior counsel at Everytown for Gun Safety and at the Brennan Center for Justice, where he worked on election law issues, and he was also a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and a law clerk at the Eleventh Circuit and the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and his commentary has been published in Slate, Politico, the Atlantic, and the New York Times, among other publications, and he has been widely quoted by media ranging from the Wall Street Journal and Fox News to the New York Times and MSNBC.
So there is who WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are up against in this debate, and that is a lot of political horsepower that we are confronted with, us essentially having none at all, but for the Cape Charles Mirror.
And here I am reminded of these following words from as essay by “An Officer of the Late Continental Army” penned on November 6, 1787, as follows:
A government partaking of MONARCHY and aristocracy will be fully and firmly established, and liberty will be but a name to adorn the short historic page of the halcyon days of America.
These, my countrymen, are the objections that have been made to the new proposed system of government; and if you read the system itself with attention, you will find them all to be founded in truth.
But what have you been told in answer?
I pass over the sophistry of Mr. Wilson, in his equivocal speech at the State House.
His pretended arguments have been echoed and reechoed by every retailer of politics, and victoriously refuted by several patriotic pens.
Indeed if you read this famous speech in a cool dispassionate moment, you will find it to contain no more than a train of pitiful sophistry and evasions, unworthy of the man who spoke them.
end quotes
Yes, indeed, people, sophistry – the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.
I would say that that term characterizes quite well this op-ed from the Brennan Center we are studying in here, and all I can say is stay tuned, because more sophistry from the Brennan Center is yet to come!
Paul Plante says
So, yes, people – sophistry, which actually at one time in Rome in the time of Cicero, was considered an art form, involving the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving, and Cicero himself has been called a Sophist by academic scholars, and having read his works, translations, of course, I would agree with that label.
Sophistry is the deliberate use of a false argument with the intent to trick someone or a false or untrue argument.
Historically speaking, the Sophists were orators, public speakers, mouths for hire in an oral culture.
Which takes us to these Brennan Center lawyers, who are mouthpieces for the Democrats, or more specifically, Nancy Pelosi, who seized control of the executive branch of our national government on 12 January 2021 with her dictatorial demand of Vice President Mike Pence to immediately use his powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments in the Cabinet to declare what Nancy at least thought was obvious to what in her deluded mind was a “horrified Nation,” that being that in the judgment of Nancy Pelosi, Trump was unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office and that he transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives notice that he will be immediately assuming the powers and duties of the office as Acting President, in other words, she ordered him to stage a coup, and Charley “CHUCK” Schumer, a Democratic Socialist running dog, who was quoted in that Brennan Center article, to wit:
As the Rules Committee’s Chair, Senator Charles Schumer, put it, “In the 21st century people shouldn’t be denied their constitutional right to vote because of problems caused by an antiquated voter registration system that was set up in the 19th century by the Whig Party.”
end quotes
Which is BULL****, Charley “CHUCK!”
According to the Virginia Department of Elections website, we have as follows:
Where can I register to vote?
The Virginia Department of Elections has several options to choose from:
* You may register on http://www.elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal
* You may request a Virginia Voter Registration Application from your local general registrar.
* You can find your local registrar’s number and address by using our online tool: http://www.elections.virginia.gov/LocalGR
* You may register to vote at your local Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office.
* You may contact a candidate campaign, political party or other organization with voter outreach.
end quotes
Now, seriously, people, is there anyone out there who seriously believes that that is an example of “an antiquated voter registration system that was set up in the 19th century by the Whig Party,” given that the Whigs collapsed following the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, with most Northern Whigs eventually joining the anti-slavery Republican Party and most Southern Whigs joining the nativist American Party and later the Constitutional Union Party?
So what kind of ******* morons do these Brennan Center dudes think we are, that they can try to pull their Sophist’s trick to pass that BULL**** about Virginia’s voter registration system being an antiquated voter registration system that was set up in the 19th century by the Whig Party off on is as fact?
And speaking as someone over 70 who is disabled and poor as a result, how does any of that serve to disenfranchise the poor, elderly and minority voters?
And with that inane and very stupid and ignorant statement by Charley “CHUCK” Schumer, a professional hack politician, that the voter registration system in the Commonwealth of Virginia today was set up in the 19th century by the Whig party being repeated as FACT by the Brennan Center and Adam Skaggs, we see ourselves being confronted with the Sophister’s art of deception, so that we really have to ask ourselves this question:
IF the truth and facts were really on the side of the Brennan Center, then why would they need to resort to the Sophister’s arts of deception and lie to us about our voter registration systems being antiquated systems that were set up in the 19th century by the Whig Party, especially when there is no record in history of the Whig party, active in the period 1834–54, that was formally organized in 1834, bringing together a loose coalition of groups united in their opposition to what party members viewed as the executive tyranny of “King Andrew” Jackson, borrowing the name Whig from the British party opposed to royal prerogatives, a short-lived party that espoused a program of national development but foundered on the rising tide of sectional antagonism, setting op voter registration systems that we are still stuck with today according to the Brennan Center and Charley “CHUCK” Schumer, who sounds like an idiot making such a stupid claim?
Any ideas, anyone?
Paul Plante says
And by way of background as we consider this subject of sophistry in connection with American politics, let us for a moment go back to Jan. 6, 2021 to US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, delivering a statement before a reconvened session of Congress as lawmakers certified the 2020 election results, where we have as follows:
It is very, very difficult to put into words what has transpired today.
end quotes
Actually, it really isn’t, but Charley “CHUCK” is prone to hyperbole and just plain BULL****.
Getting back to Charley “CHUCK’S” hyperbole, it continues as follows:
I have never lived through or even imagined an experience like the one we have just witnessed in this Capitol.
end quotes
Then Charley “CHUCK” must have been living on some different planet all these years, because Washington, D.C. has been subject to mob violence several times during my own lifetime involving mobs of several thousand people where this one was relatively small, estimated at only 800 people, and no, I do not condone any kind of mob violence by any mob, including that one.
Getting back to Charley “CHUCK” and his hysteria, we have:
President Franklin Roosevelt set aside Dec. 7, 1941, as a day that will live in infamy.
Unfortunately, we can now add Jan. 6, 2021, to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.
end quotes
Another day of infamy, of course, was when the Democrats seceded from our union to form their own despotic country where they could continue to hold Black folks in bondage as slaves.
Getting back to Charley “CHUCK”:
This temple to democracy was desecrated, its windows smashed, our offices vandalized.
end quotes
Temple to democracy?
That’s ******* ridiculous!
How is the U.S. Capitol any kind of temple to democracy under the Democrats?
Is democracy a religion in America now?
And while we are on the subject of “democracy,” let us go further back in time to the so-called and supposed “cradle of democracy” which was Athens, Greece, and when we ask the question as to whether in Athens women and slaves had the right of suffrage, we find that Citizen women and children were not allowed to vote while slaves and foreigners living in Athens (known as metics) were banned from participating in government, period.
So much for the “temple of democracy.”
In fact, only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens and the percentage of the population that actually participated in the government was 10% to 20% of the total number of inhabitants.
So where then is this “sacred” right to vote coming from?
Getting back to Charley “CHUCK” on 6 January 2021, he continues as follows:
The world saw Americans’ elected officials hurriedly ushered out because they were in harm’s way.
The House and Senate floors were places of shelter until the evacuation was ordered, leaving rioters to stalk these hallowed halls.
Lawmakers and our staffs, Average citizens who love their country, serve it every day, feared for their lives.
I understand that one woman was shot and tragically lost her life.
We mourn her and feel for her friends and family.
These images were projected for the world.
Foreign embassies cabled their home capitals to report the harrowing scenes at the very heart of our democracy.
This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away – the final, terrible, indelible legacy of the 45th president of the United States, undoubtedly our worst.
I want to be very clear: Those who performed these reprehensible acts cannot be called protesters – no, these were rioters and insurrectionists, goons and thugs, domestic terrorists.
They do not represent America.
They were a few thousand violent extremists who tried to take over the Capitol building and attack our democracy.
They must and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law – hopefully by this administration, if not certainly by the next.
They should be provided no leniency.
I want to thank the many of the Capitol Hill police and Secret Service and local police who kept us safe today and worked to clear the Capitol and return it to its rightful owners and its rightful purpose.
I want to thank the leaders, Democrat and Republican, House and Senate.
It was Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy and myself who came together and decided that these thugs would not succeed, that we would finish the work that our Constitution requires us to complete in the very legislative chambers of the House and Senate that were desecrated but we know always belong to the people and do again tonight.
But make no mistake, make no mistake, my friends, today’s events did not happen spontaneously.
The president, who promoted conspiracy theories and motivated these thugs, the president who exhorted them to come to our nation’s capital, egged them on – he hardly ever discourages violence and more often encourages it – this president bears a great deal of the blame.
This mob was in good part President Trump’s doing, incited by his words, his lies.
This violence, in good part his responsibility, his ever-lasting shame.
Today’s events certainly — certainly — would not have happened without him.
Now, Jan. 6 will go down as one of the darkest days in recent American history.
A final warning to our nation about the consequences of a demagogic president, the president who enable him, the captive media that parrots his lies and the people who follow him as he attempts to push America to the brink of ruin.
As we reconvene tonight, let us remember, in the end all this mob has really accomplished is to delay our work by a few hours.
We will resume our responsibilities now, and we will finish our task tonight.
The House and Senate chambers will be restored good as new and ready for legislating in short order.
The counting of the electoral votes is our sacred duty.
Democracy’s roots in this nation are deep, they are strong.
They will not be undone ever by a group of thugs.
Democracy will triumph, as it has for centuries.
So, to my fellow Americans who are shocked and appalled by the images on their televisions today and who are worried about the future of this country, let me speak to you directly: The divisions in our country clearly run deep, but we are a resilient, forward-looking and optimistic people, and we will begin the hard work of repairing this nation tonight because here in America we do hard things.
In America, we always overcome our challenges.
end quotes
Stay tuned!
Paul Plante says
“The counting of the electoral votes is our sacred duty.”
“Democracy’s roots in this nation are deep, they are strong.”
“They will not be undone ever by a group of thugs.”
“Democracy will triumph, as it has for centuries.”
That, people, was Democratic Socialist “running dog” Charley “CHUCK” Schumer, the same “CHUCK” Schumer who is pushing this so-called “For The People” act, running his mouth and blowing hard and sounding like the fool he really is on Jan. 6, 2021 before a reconvened session of Congress as lawmakers certified the 2020 election results, talking to us and them as if we were all nothing more than a pack of mindless idiots with this bizarre statement of his that “(T)he counting of the electoral votes is our sacred duty.”
Where on earth is our Charley “CHUCK” coming up with that horse**** about a “sacred duty” from, where the word “sacred” means “connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration?”
Are we now living in some kind of weird theocracy (“a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god”) with democracy as our national religion and Charley “CHUCK” Schumer as our head priest?
And the fact of the matter is that these was nothing “sacred” at all about that political theater on 6 January 2021.
It was nothing more than an empty ritual, and if it did not happen, absolutely nothing would have changed, because the electoral college votes had already been counted long before 6 January 2021, as we clearly see from an NBC NEWS article entitled “After Electoral College cements win, Biden unleashes scathing attack on Trump’s refusal to concede – The president-elect castigated the president with a ferociousness not seen since Election Day” by Rebecca Shabad, a congressional reporter for NBC News, based in Washington; Dareh Gregorian, a politics reporter for NBC News, and Dartunorro Clark, also a politics reporter for NBC News, on Dec. 14, 2020, to wit:
Biden called the election, which Trump and his supporters have tried to overturn with scores of failed legal challenges, “honest, free and fair.”
And he called attacks on the election and election officials “simply unconscionable” and Trump’s attempts to overturn the election an “abuse of power.”
“In America, politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them,” he said.
“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago.”
“And we now know that nothing, not even a pandemic — or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame.
“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Biden added.
“We the people voted.”
“Faith in our institutions held.”
“The integrity of our elections remains intact.”
“And so, now it is time to turn the page.”
“To unite.”
“To heal.”
All 538 electors met Monday in their respective states to cast their votes for president based on the election results that were recently certified by all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Biden, however, was deemed president-elect on Nov. 7, four days after the election, once he surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
end quotes
That was Dec. 14, 2020, people, twenty-three (23) days BEFORE 6 January 2021, so what was there left to count on 6 January 2021, besides nothing?
Were they going to challenge Joe Biden’s earlier statement on 14 December 2020 that he had won the electoral college and tell him he was mistaken?
So what was “sacred” about the empty ritual on 6 January 2021, besides nothing?
And if our Charley “CHUCK” is lying to us about that, why would we be fool enough to believe anything he has to say in connection with this so-called “For The People” Act?
And if democracy’s roots in this nation are deep, they are strong, and they will not be undone ever by a group of thugs, and democracy will triumph, as it has for centuries, then why do we need this “For The People” Act?