I was listening to Cornell William Brooks on with Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Situation Room. It was an excellent interview — Brooks was passionate, intelligent, and well-spoken. He spoke about voter suppression both four years ago and now.
And as I listened to him (remembering countless others, including myself, using that phrase), I thought: “That’s just bull$**t.”
- “Voter suppression” is one of those nice-fying words like “waste engineer.”
- Voter suppression is the immoral, fundamentally wrong, un-American practice of preventing people from exercising their Constitutional right to vote.
- Preventing someone from voting is a form of stealing. It brings to life “taxation without representation,” a key motivation behind the American Revolution.
- Preventing someone from voting is a form of civic murder.
- We should make stealing someone’s vote a felony criminal offence with severe punishment attached to the crime it is. Such actions should be grounds for the impeachment of legislators who propose such laws.
It’s not just down with “voter suppression.” It’s down with very phrase, which robs these despicable practices of the negative emotional charge they should carry.
So what other expression could we use? Poll below and add suggestions in comments, please!