Stop GOP Voter Obstruction Bill

Freedom Riders - 1961

Tax and Obstruct

Black people voting—the horror.

Students voting—worse.

The GOP is prepared to spend millions of Wisconsin tax dollars to make it more difficult to vote—targeting Democratically-voting citizens.

Among some, 2011 is occasion to celebrate the 1961 Freedom Riders who fought for justice against the white power structure that worked to preserve segregation, Voter Disenfranchisement, and generally keeping blacks in 'their place.'

Now-a-days, it's different: Much less "Nigger jokes" told out loud. No burning buses.

But blacks voting, and other non-GOP voting citizens are voting the wrong way.

In other words, many Wisconsin voters are getting right in the way of the Republican Party holding onto power. So Wisconsin voters must be obstructed to the extent possible.

That's where the GOP Voter Obstruction bill comes in.

No one really believes the obstruction bill is anything but an attempt to suppress the non-GOP vote, with racist appeals echoing the ugly past.

On the bright side, the "voter ID" bill will be litigated and likely prevented from taking effect. And at least some of its noxious provisions (again likely) will be ultimately struck down as unconstitutional under the Wisconsin Constitution. See Wisconsin Voter ID Legal Challenge Likely.

Turns out the Wisconsin Constitution and subsequent statutes place a high value on Wisconsin citizens marching to the polls, vested with this franchise of deciding what to do with our state.

Democracy does tend to get in the way of today's Republican Party lording over its would-be subjects. And that's the way things ought to be.

Look up Roth v. LaFarge School District Board of Canvassers in 2004. And a hat tip to Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi for her opinion in 2008—tossing out of Court the last major GOP attempt at voter suppression—for pointing the case out.