Voter Disenfranchisement

-By Amanda Marcotte

February 20, 2013- Thanks to Donkeylicious for bringing this to my attention. Michael Walsh of National Review Online called for the termination of women’s right to vote last week:

Nevertheless, you’re on to something I’ve been advocating for years now. And that is the repeal of all four of the so-called “Progressive Era” amendments, including the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th, which were passed between 1911 and 1920.

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-By Bill Sizemore

February 13, 2013- A requirement that all Virginia voters present photo identification at the polls moved a step closer to passage today.

State Sen. Mark Obenshain’s bill (SB1256) was endorsed by a House subcommittee, 5-1, and now advances to the full Appropriations Committee.

The measure would invalidate several forms of ID currently accepted at the polls, including voter identification cards issued by the State Board of Elections, which contain no photo. The state spent $2 million last year mailing new cards to all registered voters and educating Virginians about changes the 2012 General Assembly made to voting requirements.

FULL STORY HERE:

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Hysteria, aggression and gerrymandering are a fading demographic's last hope to maintain political control

-By Michael Lind

February 5, 2013- In understanding the polarization and paralysis that afflict national politics in the United States, it is a mistake to think in terms of left and right. The appropriate directions are North and South. To be specific, the long, drawn-out, agonizing identity crisis of white Southerners is having effects that reverberate throughout our federal union. The transmission mechanism is the Republican Party, an originally Northern party that has now replaced the Southern wing of the Democratic Party as the vehicle for the dwindling white Southern tribe.

As someone whose white Southern ancestors go back to the 17th century in the Chesapeake Bay region, I have some insight into the psychology of the tribe. The salient fact to bear in mind is that the historical experience of the white South in many ways is the opposite of the experience of the rest of the country.

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