Restore Faith in American Democracy by Doing Voter Suppression the Right Way

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By

Jeff Rasley

Polls show that many Americans, particularly Millennials, are losing faith in democracy. Attack ads funded by PACs, Russian bots inflaming polarization through social media, two of the last three Presidents lost at the polls but won in the Electoral College, collusion and foreign interference; no wonder we’re disillusioned with politics.

But those examples are trivial compared to how Republicans and Democrats have used nefarious methods to influence the outcome of elections for decades. Southern segregationist-Democrats used literacy tests and poll taxes to disenfranchise African-Americans during Jim Crow. The great tradition of gerrymandering by the party in power will finally be tested by the US Supreme Court. The Justices agreed to decide during the 2019 term whether Democrat legislators in Maryland and Republicans in North Carolina were too blatant in partisan gerrymandering.

Republicans have utilized more subtle strategies to suppress just enough black and brown votes to tip certain elections in favor of Republican candidates. Burdensome registration and ID requirements, throwing out votes by Republican Secretaries of State, and voter intimidation at polling places are techniques employed by Republicans in recent election cycles.

To right these wrongs and restore faith in the system, so that only truly qualified candidates will be elected, with tongue in cheek, I propose a voter intelligence test in the form of a three-part questionnaire.

1 – Did you vote for Richard Nixon again in 1972 after it was obvious he was a crook?

2 – When George W. Bush ran for a second term as President, did you fail to realize Dick Cheney was running the country for Halliburton and you voted for W any way?

3 – Did you vote for Donald Trump in 2016 because he appealed to you for any of the following reasons? a) He is a successful businessman and we need a business mind like his to run the country; b) He will drain the swamp; c) He will make America great again; d) No woman should ever be President; e) Trump-Pence will make the nation Christian again.

Anyone who answers affirmatively to the first questions would be at least 71 years old. Denying a large swath of elderly people the right to vote will guarantee that neither Trump nor Pence will be elected President in 2020.

Voting for W after four years reveals an inability to recognize incompetence and/or gross deceit. George promised “no nation building” and a balanced budget. As President he blew up the budget with two unfunded wars. Do we really want to continue to allow people to vote who didn’t recognize Bush was Cheney’s stooge?

Trump supporters voted for a businessman who filed bankruptcy numerous times, never read the Bible, is tainted with scandal, and is obviously a narcissist and serial liar. Maybe they were duped by Putin’s bots. But disqualifying these voters will remove from the polls those who naively vote for crooks, incompetents, and crooked-incompetents.

Although voter suppression has a foul and dirty history, consider a brighter future in which this voter-intelligence test will save the world from the disastrous consequences of electing the likes of the aforementioned Presidents to second terms. At the very least, by culling these voters from their ranks, the Republican Party might be goaded into nominating candidates worthy to be President, such as Lincoln, Eisenhower, and George H. W. Bush.

If the voter-intelligence test offends your democratic principles, consider that: 1. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it; and 2. Whether it is insanity or stupidity, making the same mistake repeatedly is a really bad thing to do.

Jeff Rasley

Jeff Rasley is the author of ten books; the most recent is Polarized! The Case for Civility in the Time of Trump, which was inspired by the experiment in civil discourse on Facebook.