Last Saturday an overflow crowd of Fairfax County Democratic Committee People and Election Day volunteers took two hours of intensive training. The training included election day procedures, discussions about our new optical scanners (with a paper trail!), rules regarding poll watchers, and a very detailed presentation by legal staff regarding potential challenges and how to handle them.
But it was one question from the audience, and the reaction and response, which made it crystal clear to me (as if I didn't know already) the difference between Republicans and Democrats in general, and on voting rights in particular:
You see, after more than an hour of going over "what if" scenarious in terms of how to respond when "they" challenge our voters, someone asked "Well, do you want US to challenge any voters?" The attorney was taken aback for a second that the question, a good one, would even be asked. "Absolutely not. That is not what we are about. Our entire purpose is "Vote Promotion, pure and simple."
Well, there it is. Just imagine how a similarly constituted Republican training session is focused. Undoubtedly, they are going over all the myriad grounds on how to SUPPRESS the vote. You know them well. Here comes Joe Smith, lifelong Democratic voter, whose house has been foreclosed and who now lives with relatives. I CHALLENGE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE will the the intonation of the Republican poll watcher. We learned that Joe Smith does have the right to vote with his old residence as being valid, as long as he fill in, right on the spot, a new voter registration form with his current address. And on it goes. Caging, similarly, in which letters are returned from the addressee for a myriad of reasons....including, hey, they could in Iraq. CHALLENGE. Then you have registrars saying that college students will lose their school aid and their parents the right to claim them as dependents if they vote at their school address.
I have been revulsed by the Republican mantra forever, but his year especially, it has become crystal clear. Republicans are traitors to the true meaning of America, enhancing and encouraging and allowing We, The People to express our will through elections. No - suppression is their mantra, dissent is their enemy, free expression something to be feared. After this meeting I met someone - and I'll discuss this another time - who was fired from a government agency a la the U.S. Attorney scandals for only one reason....and he was told....that he contributed to the Democrati Party. This man was a highly regarded very highly technical type with many accomplishments. And he was one of many. Fired, for contributing, and told so overtly. But afraid to come out for fear of loss of future employment.
I'll say it again. The Republican Party, and those who support their tactics, are nothing less than traitors, looking at the historical context of that word.